Why won't my people Transform?

Transformations know many challenges during their execution and many business leaders will often feel frustrated by IT, their SI or even the Software partners themselves. Yet the biggest challenge in realising a transformations objectives always lies within an organization. When we talk about a digital transformation, we like to break it down in our heads as … well Digital is tech right? … tech is led by IT in our organization … therefore Digital transformation must be an IT project. This couldn’t be further from the truth, speaking as someone who has led both business and tech functions, a Digital transformation is more about the business, hence perhaps we should be talking about a Business transformation that is looking to realise Digital enabling outcomes … okay that’s too long so let's just call it a Business Transformation.

As such we talk about the Business transformation being across People, process and technology. Now we can transform our technology, we can even transform processes, however, the transformation of people is really difficult, yet its something we assume will simply happen in line with the other aspects of a transformation, I mean ... how hard can it be?

I want to share a scenario with you, you are being asked to move house today, I have told you where you are going, but not what to expect, I have told you what it looks like, but not what features will exist in your house. I have told you that while there are other people in this neighbourhood you may not know whether you will like them, or they will like you. Now, how excited are you going to be about this move, remember you don’t have a choice. There will be a few special people who will reply to this question with “yeah whatever let's give it a go”, to those people I say, now consider you can’t move back, you will be stuck where you are. I would challenge anyone to feel comfortable with this scenario, now imagine you are moving with your entire organization into that new house, getting a little uncomfortable yet? Good … Transformations are possibly some of the most complex programs any business will ever run and being uncomfortable about how it will be executed is a great starting point.

So why in the world do we think people would be excited about being transformed? Change the way they work? Change the nature of their job, see colleagues from many years be asked to leave? All of this can seem quite daunting and for this reason, I consider that while tech and process transform we need to consider that as people we are better at “transition”. The outcome may be a transformed organization from where it started, however, it's more about the journey to get there when it comes to guiding people through change. For this reason, I would highlight that Change management is one of the most critical aspects of a Transformation and tends to be the one area that is considered after a transformation has started. Why would this happen you ask? (He says leading the reader), well, we tend to assume that the excitement that executives or tech teams feel about the introduction of new digital capability is something that all employees will embrace. We forget though that people have memories and the last technology change was likely painful for them with a need to “muddle” through or just use the "manual" workarounds, hence why would the employee get excited about another change, why would they think this is going to be better than the previous one?

Change Management helps to ensure that business teams feel part of the planning and that representatives from different functions get to see what’s coming in each phase, what it means for their teams, what is exciting, what will require an “unlearn and relearn” approach and where interim workarounds may be required while having confidence in future releases this will improve. Ideally, business champions who will be the voice of sceptics, eager adopters or just worried colleagues are crucial for a transformation. Empowering business champions to be engaged in the selection of the technology being onboarded from a usability perspective or helping to prioritise the types of capability that users will have to support the targeted digital outcomes. I know some folks will say you mean Product Owners, which it definitely could be but doesn’t need to be in the early stage of a transformation. When your employees, the teams they are part of and the functions they represent can embrace the transition that is headed their way, the understanding, support and acceptance of challenges along the way will be something that is much more easily managed than a situation where we assume that employees understand or share our excitement about the transformation you are embarking on.

There are a lot of different approaches and toolsets to support Change Management, however for all of them it is about inclusion of all impacted teams and including these activities in your broader strategic planning when embarking on a transformation will give your teams confidence that you are embracing the importance of the people change as much as the excitement in achieving your Digital goals. Humankind has evolved not transformed, so why would we think organisations can achieve something which thousands of years have not? Organisations therefore need to adopt a transition approach such that technology and people can be integrated to serve those who matter most … the customer.

I would love to hear the views of others who have read this article and if you would like to talk about your transformation journey or are simply looking for some advice do please let me know and I would be more than happy to share war stories, discuss strategies or see how else I might be able to help.