Where responsibility for transformation really sits.

We all know change is hard but does it need to be painful?

When I first started helping my clients with their digital transformation journeys more than a decade ago, it pained me to see leaders struggle with transformation. I saw (and still do see) businesses attempt to copy-paste the DNA of Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, etc. by merely implementing exponential technologies such as AI and blockchain, and then forcing their employees to use these enabling platforms, in the name of business transformation.

Sounds familiar?

I very instinctively knew (thanks to my roots in UX design and development) that digital transformation is more about shifting “mindset” than technology. But as you know, instinct can be difficult to explain in words. So I started digging deeper into psychology and neuroscience to understand what is mindset, how does one shift mindset.

While a lot of my doctoral research and my book covers this topic in depth, I thought it would be helpful to share a summary for your immediate consumption and action.

Why mindset

Let’s first understand that digital transformation is a responsibility for all levels and functions of management, not just that of the CTO/CIO alone.

To develop a “digital mindset”, leaders need to find ways to change the way people think, feel and behave in the organization. Why? Because...

Your mindset impacts how you make sense of the world and how you make sense of yourself operating in that world.

Therefore if mindset shift is about influencing our team’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors, then 3 questions arise here –

• Who should be feeding into these thoughts, feelings and behaviors (level of management)?
• What do we want to feed (WHY, WHAT, HOW)?
• Which part of the brain do we feed (reptilian brain, neocortex, limbic system)?

The visual below attempts to answer these questions along with a following write-up.

Each management level of every function going through the transformation must be aware of their role, that is to help their teams understand the WHY (senior management’s responsibility), WHAT (middle management’s responsibility) and HOW (lower management’s responsibility) of transformation.

When people in the organization get clear answers to these burning questions (WHY, WHAT, HOW), then you have empowered them to shift their mindset.

One important ingredient in this mix is the need for a psychological safe environment conducive to change.

When people are allowed to express themselves without judgement and get rewarded for the learnings from their failures, then they own the change!

In the best case scenario, an upward spiral of motivation, creativity and growth is created and this can even result in the acceleration of the transformation effort.

Have you ever led a transformation effort with a brain-based approach? Would love to hear your thoughts.

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More about this in my book. All royalties go towards our social impact initiative - Dream On India. Happy reading!

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