When I was developing and selling technology, software or hardware, I was always telling a digital transformation story in a way. In my last role, I joined a huge industrial corporation as a Digital Transformation leader, with the goal to advocate and be a change-agent for an organizational digital transformation.
Sitting at the two sides of the table, both as a tech vendor and as a large customer, I gained valuable insight about digital transformation journeys and how I think they should be traveled.
Every organization and operation is built around People, Process, and Technology. The core of Digital Transformation journeys revolves around them too. Legacy environments tend to rely more on people and the idea behind digital transformation is to shift some of the weight, in areas that make sense, towards the tech element, while smartly adjusting the processes. It is the shift from Tribal Wisdom into Systematic Knowledge.
Digital Transformations are marathons, not sprints, and although these are two type of running, they are completely different from each other. They require different training, physique and mostly, state of mind.
Because you are starting a marathon, a lot will happen along the way. Start small. start with a tiger team that is "lean and mean", learn from your mistakes (and there will be plenty of those) and grow in the places you add value and experience success.
Prioritize and cascade the projects. Not only because you can't do everything at once, you also want the team to be able to focus and you want to cascade your failures and successes. Too many of each at the same time can have a bad effect, or not enough effect on the mission.
Celebrate and leverage small wins even if the big mission is the important one. You have to have energy and motivation for a long journey and this is how you make sure you rally the team and fire up the organization towards that mission.
Digital Transformation is about change. Identifying challenges and addressing them through technology. You would think that the problem will be with finding solutions to the problems. However, in many cases, the challenge starts with simply identifying the problems. Many times people don't recognize certain processes and actions as problems. In other cases, they can't articulate their actions clearly. This makes unveiling issues very challenging and the beginning of the DT journey should be in thinking how to effectively do that.
Although DT is about shifting the weight from people to tech, I can't say enough about how DT is first and foremost a human journey. In order to succeed you have to win the heart and minds of your business counterparts. For that you are first a salesperson, an advocate, a thought leader, a companion.
While numbers are important, the story is no less essential. Your DT journey has to tell a captivating story so sharpen your pencil and find your muse. Data will "speak" to the mind and a story will "speak" to the heart and you have to win them both.
Having said that, there are two ways you can build your DT persona. You can be more of an influencer or enforcer. Does the DT journey happens because you "said so" or because you were able to "sell" it? Either way, it is important that you know where the DT is coming from, what's your identity, and operating model.
No matter what your identity is, you can't do DT yourself. It is a team effort and you need everyone to be onboard.
"It's a complicated process" or "In our case it is different" is not an excuse! If one person is doing this job for 8 hours a day, it is NOT that complicated! Unless that person is Leonardo DeVinci, someone or something else can do that job too. That's the state of mind you need to change.
Meet people where they are. Meet them in their ways of work, ways of thinking, and in their current technology. Meet them there and pull them towards the place you want them to be. You can't expect they will come to you just because you ask them nicely.
Democratize Digital Transformation - Talk about it, initiate programs, give awards, develop the skill set in people. You need to have change-agents at the field do the work and preaching your gospel.
Digital Transformation is a cross organization effort and as such it has to involve the top. The changes that can be driven from the field are limited. Top management has not only be involved, but to lead and push the way.
You got to have a business case to pursue. A digital transformation journey that doesn't have a clear, real, and substantial business goal, won't start, won't succeed or won't stick. DT without a business case is BS.
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