TECH4GOOD
The pandemic has forced organizations to go digital to sustain their operations, be able to reach out to their customers, become more efficient and effective, or improve their bottom line. But for many, it is the only way to survive the crisis. A recent McKinsey study shows, however, a whopping 70 percent of all digital transformation initiatives fail, meaning they have not achieved the desired outcomes or are just moderately effective. So if your organization is struggling with digital transformation, you are certainly not alone.And if you think digital transformation is all about technology, then I say, the chances of you getting excellent results are not promising at all.
In the last couple of years, I had the opportunity to handhold several organizations in their digital transformation journey. I always start my engagement by doing interviews with the leadership team, middle managers, the technology people, and the rank and file staff. For most of them, digital transformation simply means the application of technology tools and social media platforms. For most of their senior executives, anything about technology should just be delegated to their IT people and let them plan and drive their transformation program. And I actually do not blame them because, in this current crisis, they need to prioritize their efforts and resources on sustaining their businesses.
Digital transformation typically has much more to do with the right leadership mindset and managing the people during the journey. Technology will be the platform that will allow the creation and delivery of values and innovations.Technology by itself will not create transformation. So, having the right leadership mindset is what makes leaders good at being able to transform their organization versus others that simply adopt some technological changes but are not able to achieve real transformation.
The second important element is planning. How do you plan out your transformation? How do you bring your organizational strategies into play or how does your transformation become your strategy? What are the communication levels that are required and who is going to be in charge? I recently came across a digital transformation roadmap development framework called the Davidic Growth Paradigm. It is a Filipino-developed (www.boogieboydon.com) digital transformation and exponential growth framework designed to help organizations cope with the rapid pace of change caused by the accelerated adoption of technology.It harnesses the potential of digital transformation to create exponential growth by helping the organization have a deep and meaningful understanding of where it is currently at, identifying where it wants to bring itself to, and creating a transformative roadmap to make it happen.
Digital transformation has to be anchored on the institution's goals and objectives. It is supposed to be the change that organizations need to create in order to help achieve their goals and objectives.It should be able to answer the usual question by people below who are supposed to do the heavy work, what is it that you want me to do? And organizations should veer away from the usual thinking that improving their IT will lead to digital transformation. The telltale sign for this is when the plan is developed by the technologists. If we start to see a lot of the usual tech logos, most probably, it is a technology plan and not anything that is transformational. Don’t get me wrong, these are tools that can help us in our transformation journey. It may result in operational efficiency but, as it is, it does not create transformation. In very clear terms, it should answer the question, what is it that we are trying to solve?
There are other elements that you need to understand before you get on the transformation journey. What kind of experience do you want your customers to have when they transact with your institution? You need to consider the kind of organizational culture needed to transform and insights on how to transform your people. Remember, changing culture means changing mindsets. In a digitally-transformed workplace, new roles will be required to drive change - potentially, requiring training. Your people have to be empowered with new processes and skills to support this initiative. And finally, technologies that you can use to achieve your objectives. Of course, you should also ensure that an appropriate budget is allocated for the duration of the exercise and set up a system that would allow you to measure success.
Having a digital mindset is very important in today's VUCA world made even worse by the pandemic. But it does not come so easily for most of us, especially our leaders. Digital transformation is not like another project that we can layer on top of the current processes. You need to have a plan, the right leadership drive, and a digital mindset to stand a fair chance of making your transformation journey a painless one.