The Verdict is in: Digital Transformations Aren’t Going Away

1. The Verdict is in: Digital Transformations Aren’t Going Away Digital technology’s ever-widening and deepening impact on the way we live is flowing on to the way we work, and the way customers want companies to meet their wants and needs. Competitive pressures mount as rival companies use digital technology’s reach and capabilities to continually chip away at the layers of cost, inconvenience and time that stand between them and their customers. Each innovation rewrites the rules of doing business and becomes the standard for everyone else. When the old rules can no longer enable the enterprise to compete effectively or efficiently; when even the most change-resistant manager has a hard time denying the need to adapt to the digitally-connected world, it is time to face the digital transformation. And so the digital transformation project is conceived, then planned, developed and implemented: smart people making the smart decision to reinvent the organisation in order to survive and thrive. A digital transformation is an extensive, and expensive, undertaking. There is the cost of maintaining business as usual. Add to that the cost of applying technology to develop a new way of doing business. Then add the costs of ensuring customers buy into the change. As expensive as such a project will be, there is a greater cost. The leakage that can occur as part of the digital transformation can overshadow all other budgeted costs: lost customers or sales; lost organisational knowledge through employee turnover; loss of productivity through worker uncertainty, frustration or skill gaps; lost organisational capacity from disrupted social and operational networks, confused systems, loss of business momentum.

2. These costs don’t even contemplate whether your digital transformation needs were correctly identified; there is nothing good about the effective implementation of the wrong strategy. Digital transformation is complex, and so are the factors that lead to success and the causes for their failures. It would be naive (and repeat, expensive) to think otherwise. According to IBM, 84% of digital transformation projects fail, while other experts estimate that 7 out of 8 digital transformation projects go wrong. There is, however, a way to considerably improve your chances for a successful digital transformation project. Conversations By ‘conversation’, I mean engaged exchanges between parties that are personally vested in the quality and/or outcome of the interaction. I mean the words used how they are said, and are received. Body stance and placement, gestures, attentiveness, expression and tone of voice are as central to conversation as the words themselves. I also mean direction, timing and who the conversations include or excludes. You know that not being spoken to at the right time by the appropriate person can often carry more meaning than anything that is actually said. Think how instantly your entire understanding of a relationship can be undermined or enhanced by a single conversation. A disparaging, belittling, unsympathetic, self-serving conversation can tear apart feelings of trust and respect. On the other hand, a heartfelt, empathetic, interested dialogue can elevate a relationship to new levels. Why conversations? They form the bedrock of all relationships and how people act and react within those relationships. Without conversation, there can be no relationship-building. What else are digital transformations but customer, supplier, partner and employer relationships reconfigured for the digital era?

3. Thinking of digital transformation as a technology project misses the main point of the transformation project: the relationship. As in all relationships, when you want to change the nature of your understanding and interaction, you need to talk. Have a listen to the conversations taking place. If the core of them is about software, configurations, programming, data, or otherwise technological rather than people-oriented, you could be slipping dangerously close to being one of the failures. Read More…