Transformation 4.0-How do you transform in the 4th industrial revolution?

The 4th industrial revolution means the pace, volume and complexity of change is even greater than ever before

We live in interesting times. We are in the early phase of the 4th industrial revolution. This is defined by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, as ‘beingcharacterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human’. Organisations must adapt to this change and transform or risk extinction. The 4th industrial revolution means:

• Pace of change is accelerating much faster than ever before
• Sheer volume of change is much greater than before ‘its continuous’
• Complexity of change is significantly greater than ever before

The speed and breadth of the revolution will require everyone to develop skills and capabilities that they have never or rarely used before. What leaders will need to succeed in the Fourth Industrial Revolution world looks very different from what has been needed to succeed in the past.

Traditional approaches to transformation don’t work

Data shows that most large-scale change efforts still fail. The figure often quoted is a 70% failure rate. Despite this organisations still create change programmes based on linear business models and functional silos. The management practices of the past are simply not effective anymore. Current transformation efforts still deploy a “one size fits all” PMO process, “death by PowerPoint” and Gantt charts which get adjusted as milestones change. Simply put they not fit for purpose and often fail to embed the critical but often overlooked, human element of change. Humans that make up organisations are indeed very complex and if you want to affect change on a deeper level it will need a fundamental rethink.

Transformation 4.0 will need to look and feel very different

At the heart of it will be putting the human psychology element of transformation front and centre by adopting 10 principles:

1. Create a sense of purpose to inspire and engage. Purpose creates meaning. Only if people connect to the purpose will they change their individual behaviour to serve that purpose.

2. Ensure the community collaborates to shape the final end destination. That way they will feel part of the change and own it together.

3. Deliver authentic and empathic communications. Communications on change programmes are too often very anodyne and generic. Authentic communication will cut through this and create the foundation for great relationships. It demonstrates care for and interested in the people you want to affect.

4. One size does not fit all — it’s about personalisation. It’s important to think about the experience of change you are delivering for different groups and then personalizing the message to them. Change must be meaningful to key groups at each level of the organisation.

5. Provide forums and platforms to support different and diverse types of interactions and contributions based on how people prefer to engage. This means greater contribution in a way that works for everyone. Diagnosing preferences at the start of a programme ensures you can do this tailoring.

6. Raise expectations for change and clearly communicate how the change is part of everyone’s day to day work so it’s not seen as an ‘add on’.

7. Embed agile approaches and iterative ways of working, shorter change cycles and sprints with a ‘fail fast’ mentality built around a culture of trust and security.

8. Identify ‘tribes’ in the organisation and who is influential to those tribes. Behaviour is affected by the social norms of tribes that people identify with. Influencers must be confirmed by the groups that surround them if it is to have a permanent or deep influence. Influencers then need to be set up and supported to role model the new ways of working.

9. Understand what new skills people will need for the change and build this into the programme so people feel confident that they know what is expected and can deliver it.

10. Introduce metrics and indicators that measure the changed behaviour needed. Align reward to these metrics and indicators for continuous reinforcement.

Perhaps the biggest change is moving away from seeing transformation as a process with a fixed start and end date and seeing transformation on a continuum as a continuous evolution of the organisation.

Karen Thomas-Bland