What the Heck is Transformation Governance?

Or, why can't we manage change and transformation like we manage operations?

Companies are still stuck in transactional change and trying to apply these techniques to enterprise-wide digital transformations.

What's the difference?

Transactional: You are applying new technology, a process, or organizational change but are not changing the nature of the business, how people work, or behaviors associated with the change. Basically, everyone goes on with their work-day, as usual, using a new toolset, new forms, or reporting to a new person. Transactional change identifies a change manager who is responsible for 'managing' a change at the project level.

Transformational: You are changing the very nature of the business, how people interact and work together or developing new products for new customer segments, in other words 'transforming' the business. Transformational change is a much bigger scope, requires the change specialist to better understand the organization at its core, and reports to the Executive, providing approach guidelines and a roadmap for the transformation. This person is part of a team, one that includes corporate communications, marketing, training, IT, and HR. They are NOT a single person whose job it is to simply 'inform, or make it nice for the people' without foresight into the deep planning and preparation needed for transformation.

The cool thing about digital transformation is the amazing tools that are being leveraged to help companies transform, such as AI, Machine Learning, Enterprise Software and Cloud Technologies, to name a few. The scary thing about many organizations is that they struggle to see the difference between how to support a transactional change and how to support a transformational change.

Enter stage right - Governance!

The items necessary to truly build a transformation team are foundational. They start by recognizing that two foundational pieces are needed:

• Organizational Assessments: (culture, transformation maturity, sponsorship, readiness, impact) These support the understanding of where the company is and how far they need to go.
• Transformation Governance: (roadmaps, approach, change leadership structure, cross-functional decision rights, the organizational network required for the transformation, change relationships, roles and responsibilities, and the capabilities required.)

In transactional change, this level of planning and detail is rarely considered. Yet, the new technologies that are being developed for your Enterprise Service Management and Enterprise Business Suite are being implemented with transactional change efforts.

There is a shift needed in the C-Suite, working with their executive, to recognize the missing components that involve the organizational assessments and transformation governance through their transformation efforts.

When applied well, the company is better apt to be able to serve the hundreds and thousands of people who work for them to not only gain buy-in but are willing to shift the organization and align behavior and action with the leadership's vision.

The Challenge

Asking VPs, Directors, and Middle Managers to help champion the change from the side of their desks, using transactional change approaches without foundational pieces in place will increase the level of failure for enterprise-level transformational change. They are simply not budgeted or equipped to prepare people well, address behavior change or increase adoption and, yes, 'utilization' or actions supporting a new way of doing business. Managing transformation the same way incremental changes are managed transactionally, presents loads of roadblocks when an organization attempts to lead as they do with operations. Here are only a few:

• Competing KPIs
• Competing budgets
• Hierarchical silos and barriers
• Competitive (or finger-pointing) teams
• Lack of leadership and decision making specific to the transformation
• Failure to build coalitions to support the transformation

Leaders who manage transformational change well understand that in order to truly transform, the company must manage the effort differently than they do the current operations, they need to assess the current state to identify the gaps between what the business does now and what they will do in the future. Moreover, they need to think about the kind of change they are making at all levels, including (and especially) the leadership level.

Putting together the foundational governance needed for the transformation's success will enable the company to maintain momentum, find success in action, and achieve their desired shift.

What would you add to the Governance discussion??

_________________________________________________

Patti Blackstaffe is the CEO of GlobalSway.com a leading change - coaching, consulting, and training firm headquartered in Canada.

@globalsway on Twitter | Find us on Facebook | HumanityCode on Instagram