Are your staff reluctant when you try to move forward in the digital space? Is every tech project a battle within your team?
If so, you’re not alone.
In 2021, Forbes identified a list of reasons why companies don’t succeed with digital transformation. Out of 13 items, 8 related to people and included such prosaic items as over-estimating benefits and under-estimating costs; lack of commitment; fear of failure; miscommunication and lack of coordination.
The essential truth of Digital Transformation is in the phrase itself: Transformation = Change, and the one thing we know about people is that for most of us, change is not something we embrace easily.
As I’ve said before preparing your people for the change is crucial. More and more companies are learning that digital transformation is as much about the people as it is about the tech.
That shouldn’t be too surprising. There is no single, classic definition of what information technology is, but the classic definition of an information system comes from the UK Academy for Information Systems:
Information systems are the means by which organizations and people, utilizing information technologies, gather, process, store, and use and disseminate information.
The technology side of things has been where the majority of effort has been focused for a long time, with the result that just about anything is possible, available and cost-effective. Just recently a crowd-sourced project has identified nearly 10,000 products in the marketing tech space alone.
So here’s a few of the things we’ve learned helping companies to engage people on a transformational journey:
Listen
Sounds simple, right? When I’m looking for digital solutions every supplier I speak to has some kind of hammer and they see everything as a beautiful nail. They’re not usually good at listening to the actual requirements articulated by potential users.
When you’re introduced as the IT consultant, most people feel a little challenged to explain how much they know about digital. After all, who wants to be seen as old-school when it comes to this stuff?
So the first thing I ask people to do is to forget about the technology and tell me what it is they’re trying to achieve. If you listen respectfully, you will find that at least some of the challenges they’re facing really exist for no good reason.
We sometimes find that a simple policy change or updated training can make all the difference. These are the “low-hanging fruit” of any strategy, and they help to clear the ground and allow focus on the really tough challenges.
Five why’s
A ten-year-old in our family has learned to mischievously use the word “why” a lot to get what he wants. He’s learned that no matter what the answer to any question is, asking why as the next question will take him further to his goal:
Mr. 10: Can I have an ice cream?
Me: No
Mr. 10: Why?
Me: Because ice cream is full of sugar.
Mr. 10: Why?
Me: Because dairy companies know people like sweet things.
Mr. 10: Why?
Me: Because they do a lot of research on what makes food taste good.
Mr. 10: Why?
Me: So they can learn how to sell more and make more money.
Mr. 10: Why?
Me: So they can employ people and grow the economy.
Mr. 10: But doesn’t that mean if we don’t have ice cream some people might lose their jobs?!
Me: ...
Now, I’m not suggesting we should be as irritating as a Mr. 10, but respectfully using the word “Why”, (and its honest mates “What, When, How, Where and Who"*) can produce robust analysis fairly quickly.
* Used with no implied approval of the imperialistic gender chauvinism of past centuries
Lead with honesty
Imagine if Winston Churchill’s “we shall never surrender” speech following Dunkirk went like a project review:
OK team, let’s face it - that deployment wasn’t our best effort, but no worries we’re doing a quick win-learn-change review and with any luck the Yanks will be popping over shortly to help us out. There’ll be some weekend work and a few all-nighters, but if we all knuckle down, we should be back in France in a couple of years and soon after that we’ll be supping German beer in Berlin!
Not exactly inaccurate, but hardly preparing people for what was to come.
Our relentless search for positivity can lead us to unintentionally deceive our people (and ourselves) as to how difficult change can be. Most people with any business experience know this instinctively and have a high sensitivity for BS. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that a false positivity is more damaging than telling it like it is.
It may be a unique characteristic of the Kiwi character that we can deal with unwelcome news positively, as long as the facts are clear.
Test sacred cows
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been told something like “you don’t need to look at that because it’s fine, the problem is over here …”.
That almost always makes me want to take a closer look at the thing I’ve been told to not look at, because it might be a sacred cow: something that is never questioned, but, in fact, is the root cause of a problem.
Unquestioned and unquestionable ways of doing things often amount to “holding horses” - from the (possibly apocryphal) story of how the rate of fire of British artillery was systematically slowed down by the practice of stepping back – historically to calm the horses that pulled the gun carriage, a practice that continued long after the horses had been replaced by motor vehicles.
Conclusion
Change is scary for people working in over-burdened roles. Promises of systematic improvements need to be backed up with concrete plans and actions to deliver on the promise. Many of your people will have experienced failed attempts in the past, hardening attitudes to change.
Digital transformation is about people: tech is people. People are tech. You can't have one without the other. They are the essential piece that needs to be considered from the beginning of your strategy.
Give some of these tactics a try before your next project and see how they affect morale. They don't have to be applied solely to digital projects.
Ray Delany is the Founder of CIO Studio and has been doing this for a while. Why not ask for a no-obligation discussion to help plan your change?
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