Digital Literacy is an important subject in every global organization and it has different interpretations depending upon the target audience …!! An extension of this point leads us to some of the experiences with Technology Solutions that have been implemented in different organizations
We have case studies of :
- Some of the organizations having brilliant successes with technology and continue investing heavily in emerging technologies
- While others have had , a very limited ?success hence sporadic investments
- Then , there is a third Group , which has experienced disasters with Technology
Why are there such varied experiences , when the subject is the same ? How do we ensure that technology consistently gives us “ Optimal “ results ?
While a comprehensive response could be voluminous, I will attempt to respond to the above scenarios ?very briefly and point the readers towards a landscape which would give a good appreciation of critical success factors for different situations . Beginning from the CEO to all the employees of an organization , everyone can make a positive contribution towards Optimization results from Technology
Before I get into responding to the above three points , I have assumed that technology enabled solutions are there to stay with us and throwing more hands at work ( manual centric methods ) is not an option for us and any of the organisations . Keeping this in context , I will examine , why do we hear varied experiences on the subject of , Technology?.
Why do Organizations Have Mega Success with Technology and Continue Investing in It ?
Everything begins with Leadership and the Vision of the Management layer with regards to the Digital Strategy . Additionally , if the Digital Literacy Index is high within the organization , it would also mean that the work on the Eco System , to make it an enabler for Digital Enablement would be fairly intense hence probability of huge success with all the technology projects becomes very high .
There are some key points which enables sustainable success on technology projects and they include :
- Clarity of Thinking in terms of what Technology, needs to deliver at different stages ?
- A Willingness, across all levels in hierarchy to accept change and contribute positively to take it to a logical conclusion
- “ Competent Organization “ ( High Quality Capabilities ) , ?to define Digital Road Map , Excellence in Execution and Effective Management of Capital expenses and Operational expenses?
- The Collaborating Partners , wherever relevant , have the right competencies and skills sets thereby adding great value to the relationship and also energizing the execution capability
- Consistent Executive Sponsorship of the Digital Strategy , in terms of ; Investments , Enabling the Eco System and Exception Management
- A Clear Enterprise wide ( Inclusive Approach ) understanding , that a journey on the path Technology can be successful only if we keep moving forward for years ( decades ) despite failures / issues / challenges
- An Understanding all Technology Solution , operates on a “ Life Cycle “ Model ?
- Relentless focus on Process Engineering and Value Streams to facilitate next generation technologies
- A well laid out Communications Strategy within the enterprise and outside , to give full visibility to all the key stake holders
- Rewards for Futuristic Thinking and Recognition for Executing key actions in a consistent manner ??
So what would be Top Two Factors for Mega Success in Technology Implementation?
- Clarity of Thinking on what you want Technology to Deliver and
- Executive Sponsorship for the Growth and Development of Technology Culture …?
Why do some Organizations Have Very Limited Success with Technology??
The answer is very simple … They do some things right and certain things wrong .. !! Most importantly they do the strategic and highly critical things , completely wrong ! Overall thinking amongst many of the Leaders , is largely around attempts to find a problem for every solution and create multiple road blocks to slow down progress?. Since these organization still have few tick marks in some of the boxes , they have a taste of moderate success , which means that there is still hope for them for a turn around to script a major success story with Technology and related projects?
So what are the boxes , they have ticked ( not completely?, partially ) ? ?
- These organization have only a partial understanding of what they want to achieve through Technology . On most occasions , they are still searching for answers
- There is Executive Sponsorship but it is partial / sporadic ?because the Leadership layer is not completely convinced that technology can be a great catalyst for organization growth
- Organization to manage and drive Technology projects does exist but they comprise of not competent people but of those , who no other work to do .. Almost , from the pool of slack resources from different functions . Additionally , there is no continuity of resources hence quality of deliveries and timeliness of deliveries , always become a problem and is mediocre in quality
- The Investment Strategy , across all key dimension does exists however , it is not significant to drive Transformation l !! This would mean , that the box is ticked but the quantum is limited and sporadic in nature hence becomes a bottleneck in allowing Technology to deliver , outstanding results
- Communications Strategy not having the capability to take the entire organization forward , on a common vision . The impact of such an inadequate Communications Strategy being?that , only a part of the organization are active participants and are completely aware of what is going on . While the rest of the organization is largely clueless on why certain work is happening in the areas of Process Engineering and Technology implementations and the impact of it on them and on Business Operations .
- Change Management , a very important subject to be addressed when a organization has embarked on a journey of Digital Transformation . It is only partially addressed and that too in the areas which are convenient with low complexity whilst strategically important areas , are left out hence the overall value of change management becomes?limited ..
- If there was something like a Change Management Index , it will being shown movement after couple of years of work on the subject and that would be the right time to judge the success or failure of Change Management . So moderately success organizations in Technology , would have failed in addressing Change Management requirements
The above pointers would have given you good insights on , why most of the organizations experience only moderate ( very limited ) success with their Technology Strategy …
So what would be Top Two Factors for Very Limited?Success in Technology Implementation
- Inconsistent Executive Sponsorship , wherein , there is a huge delta between willingness to drive Digital Road Map and execution , at the ground level?
- Failure in the area of , Change Management . Design and Implementation , well below threshold levels for success?…
Why do Organizations Experience Disasters with Technology and Related Projects ?
?If you have read the first part of the article on , why organizations are hugely successful with Technology , then getting answers of why Technology and related projects are a disaster for some of the others , is straight forward …
There are organizations who do everything , wrong !! Not sure whether it is because of “ Digital Illiteracy “ or is it because of an attempt to look for short cuts ?! Fast , Excellent and Cheap !!
The key here is to understand, ?very clearly :
- It is not Technology which fails , it is Human Resources and the Eco system , which has not allowed Technology to succeed !! .. Technology was set up to fail and that came to pass
- Technology linked solutions has a “ Life Cycle “ . This point needs to be well understood , respected and strategy needs to be built around this dimension
- Technology enables “ Optimization “ , across several dimensions over time hence beginning with concept of “ Cost Savings “ or “ Low Head Counts “ or “ other Compromises in Technologies “ is a completely flawed approach
- The focus on Business Process Improvements , to arrive at a “ Core Model , is largely non existent . Large part of the organization , is in their comfort zone hence contented to work on outdated process and this approach gets complete support of the Leadership layer , as well
- The Human Dimension ( Leadership and Skills ) , Process Dimension ( Best Practices going towards Best in Class ) and Technology dimension ( Pyramid – beginning with Hygiene Layer to Smart Technologies and Data Sciences layer ) , first needs to be well understood and become a part of the Organization DNA . A pre condition before , everything else follows
It is very apparent from the above that “ blaming technology “ for non performance or failure comes very naturally to most , in every organization . However , the root cause behind all the problems are human resources , with different levels in hierarchy contributing in different ways towards the collapse of technology . The failure of the Leadership layer also gets accentuated in such a situation .
So long as we clearly understand , why Technology fails and have a clear strategy of avoiding these pitfalls , the probability of huge successes with technology , will always be very high
Now that we have examined different outcomes on Technology projects , let us step back and reflect on our current strategies and execution plans .. Do we need a course correction or can we continue with the current Road Map ?
If we collaborate positively with Technology , we can , Make It Happen …
Wishing you and families a very happy and fulfilling 2022 … !!