Don’t let fear stop your digital transformation journey

The unknown is always scary. When it comes to business, the unknown can also be incredibly risky. How do you weigh the benefits of doing things the way you’ve always done them versus going forth to entirely new territory? This is a scary question for any business leader to face. When it comes to digital transformation, these are exactly the questions business leaders need to ask themselves.

However, research shows that most business leaders are choosing the status quo over digital transformation implementation. This decision was acceptable a few years ago, but now digital transformation is essential to staying competitive in your field

So why aren’t more business leaders eager to adopt a trend that has proven to be successful? At this week’s #IDGTECHtalk, we examined that question. Here’s what we found out:

Fear is the biggest factor in digital transformation hesitation

Organizations do not want to jump on a bright, shiny, new trend and have it blow up in their faces. Digital transformation is a huge undertaking for any organization to take on. It requires operational and cultural changes that take a long time to fully implement and even longer for employees to fully adopt. For many organization, the risk of failure outweighs perceived rewards.

Digital transformation won’t happen in a day. Start small.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the idea of digital transformation, but it doesn’t have to happen overnight. In fact, to get buy-in from senior management, it shouldn’t happen overnight. Our experts recommend starting small with small teams and pilot projects. That way you can track your successes as you go and make optimizations where needed.

Let operations be your guide

Too often, IT feels like they need to enact change alone. But operations can be a huge help in adopting digital transformation. Operations can help make the change more disciplined and also help to weave digital transformation into the fabric of the organization.

Don’t think of setbacks as failures. Think of them as experiments.

Businesses are too hard on themselves when they try something new and it doesn’t work out exactly as planned. Instead of thinking of those moments as failures, think of them as experiments. Any digital transformation journey will have a multitude of experiments along the way. It is important to learn from these moments, and to not let them stop your digital transformation journey.

Do you want to be a part of the next #IDGTECHtalk? Then join us every Thursday at 12pm ET for a fun and insightful conversation!