Key factors to increase chances of success in Transformations
“The sinkhole of change is communication and motivation. It’s where change projects go to die.”
— Nancy Rothbard (Chairperson Mgmt Dept. Wharton)
In my previous article here on Medium, I had talked about what challenges will plague Digital Transformation in the post COVID world and possible strategies to overcome them. These include
- Objectives & Key Metrics
- Organisation Culture
While the above two are crucial for success of any Digital Transformation, there are couple of additional factors when not considered, do not yield the desired result / meet the transformation’s objective:
- Communication
- Employee Enablement
In my experience I have seen successful transformation programmes ensure these aspects go into a full “overdrive”
Communication
Communication is one of the essential cogs in the gears that drive transformation across organisations. As per a survey done by McKinsey, success rates of transformation increased:
8 times when the senior management communicated openly about the transformation progress and success
4.4 times when the senior management communicated openly about the implication of this transformation on day to day business
Communication during a large scale transformation program should typically be a bi-directional one
- Top-down allows for the leadership and senior management communicate the transformation objectives, the implications and how transformation will drive the future organisation
- Bottom-up helps the leadership to understand the pulse of the organisation in terms of how they are receiving and adopting to the change. This can also help the leadership to revisit or tweak the transformation strategy based on the feedback
In my experience I have seen that typically organisations that have had embarked on a successful transformation, the leadership which was driving the transformation would “over-communicate” about the transformation. A few things to bear in mind while communicating top down:
- Ensure you focus on why the transformation is important for the organisation from a larger business context
- Convey the major milestones that are planned our approach to meet them
- Identify change champions within a function, who can influence and communicate within their group and keep the communication channel for bottom-up open
- All successes and failures to be communicated — Success to be celebrated whereas learning from the failures to be communicated
These aspects will help make your transformation a huge success from a communication standpoint
Employee Enablement
While transforming the organisation, the new roles are often created and most of the time organisations look at existing employees to fill out those roles. Without the enablement of these employees as well as the other employees of the organisation who will be part of the new organisation, the full benefit of the transformation will not be seen.
Key aspects of employee enablement:
- Training needs of the employee to improve their competency and skills with regards to a product or a process that would be put in place as part of the transformation. Encouraging the employees to get themselves certified by industry bodies will further enhance their capabilities
- Counselling sessions for employees who may go through anxiety because of the change. This could cover aspects of career progression, adaptability etc.
- Opportunity for the employees to pick up new roles and providing them necessary tools and wherewithal to pursue them
These are the key factors I believe can not only help in ensuring success of a particular transformation but also in accelerating the transformation itself
