A new framework for Digital Transformation
Companies around the world are seeking to digitally reinvent their organizations. They are reimagining how they innovate, operate and engage with customers, employees and ecosystem partners using emerging technologies to deliver new business value. But new approaches are needed to deliver these changes at speed and scale. The paradigm of transformation is changing; the proverbial platform is burning — a 2016 Forbes report showed some 84% of Digital Transformations fail.
In the crowded field of change and transformation methodologies, IBM has found clear successes with Enterprise Design Thinking. Applied in the strategy and transformation space this new way of working brings a focus to the end user, emphasizes the impact of diverse empowered teams and a willingness to restlessly reinvent. While Design Thinking has worked for startups for many years, it often breaks down when applied in large organizations. IBM has enhanced the classic framework with a set of clear management practices and rituals (the Keys) that drive alignment and decision making across global and cross-functional teams.
Digital Transformation powered by Enterprise Design Thinking delivers consistent outcomes: higher levels of engagement and buy-in early on from end users and key stakeholders, greater innovation and new ideas across the board, a better understanding of risks and stakeholder biases, and a much clearer path to deliver a scalable pilot at speed.
Use Enterprise Design Thinking to overcome common blockers for Digital Transformation
IBM has worked with hundreds of teams internally and externally and identified some of the most common blockers to speed and scale in transformation initiatives. Enterprise Design Thinking provides a path to overcoming these:
- Misalignment between the executive vision and the user need
Digital Transformation initiatives are often kicked off with a pre-ordained solution in mind. Someone — seated floors above — knows exactly what they want to see from the team. Design Thinkers in these engagements are often asked: “Isn’t the real persona the sponsoring Executive?” It feels like the fix is in. You can protect a transformation initiative from solution myopia by working with the sponsoring executive to turn their proposal into a Problem Statement. Iterate on the Problem Statement with key subject matter experts and users before bringing it back to the Sponsor. Do this early and share the drafts often and widely. A good Problem Statement will emphasize the ‘why’ and the ‘who’ of your work over the ‘what’ and align stakeholders on a common, user-centered design prompt to guide the project throughout. Worst case: leadership is stuck on the solution and you can commit to raising it to the team during idea generation and prioritization (if it is the best idea, it will be covered in voting dots before long!).
- Siloed priorities vs. enterprise transformation
Most platform, AI and cloud transformations engage wide ranging stakeholders across multiple functions. This can undermine delivery with competing priorities and duplicate efforts across siloes. Use Playbacks as the linchpin for your Digital Transformation, connecting varied teams to a single source of truth: your users. Collaborators will likely disagree at times on process, roles and accountability. Playbacks help align everyone on the end users’ needs and remind teams of the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ for this transformation. From there delivery planning flows far more easily.
- Leadership that talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk
In interviews conducted with enterprise transformation leaders across IBM, “partial buy-in” to new ways of working was a highly common barrier to effective change. In these instances, the ask for Enterprise Design Thinking may just be a reference to the opening workshop — a passing nod from leadership on their way to a traditional rollout. It may be that the leader simply needs enablement but it may also be indicative of a deeper cultural blocker to change. In instances of the latter, you can be an advocate for the strength of diverse empowered teams and a loud voice for the value of restless reinvention. Suggest this new initiative be a pilot for new ways of working and show them the quantifiable outcomes of design thinking teams in recent studies like Forrester’s 2018 Total Economic Impact analysis.
If you have fought for the value of co-creation with your leadership and lost, pivot instead to develop the top-down solution with regular and documented feedback from Sponsor Users. And continue to fight for the meritocracy of ideas on every front. Fortunately, Digital Transformation is a journey. This won’t be the last engagement for Enterprise Design Thinking to find its footing. If all you can do is keep the user at the center of your work, you will add undeniable value.
Companies that use frameworks like Enterprise Design Thinking for Digital Transformation will define the transformation leaders of the future. This new leadership may collaborate in the trenches, building Hills and attending Playbacks (perhaps sharpie and post-its in hand!), or they may simply understand the power of democratic thinking and be willing to ‘disagree and commit’ with their empowered team. These leaders will deliver transformations for their business that count and organizational change that sticks; they will bring the speed and innovation of start-ups to the scale of enterprise and ultimately make life better for real people with every project.
If you brainstorm with your team tomorrow: draft a simple Problem Statement for your initiative, schedule a milestone Playback with your extended stakeholders, and ask the team where you can step-in to advocate for user-centered design.
The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.
