[Digital] Transformation vs culture…

What 1973 RAF Critical Examination cards confirm.

My dad, Squadron Leader Peter Slawson, was in the Royal Air Force from 1963 to 1983. His career culminated as a Senior Engineering Officer managing one hundred and ninety technicians and over £150m worth of assets — the second Chinook Helicopter Squadron.

While talking about my job one day, he said something that made me do a double-take: ‘I used to do that or something very similar’.

<Insert blank face>

‘I did! Early in my career, but we called it “Critical Examination”. The terminology is different but the stages are basically the same. The amount of times I heard “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it”. Making real change comes down to the people, Son. Did then, does now’.

The term I had used to describe what I do was ‘Digital Transformation’. It requires explanation. It’s not simply re-platforming to Windows 10. ‘Digital’ is everywhere. Using the best tools for the job is a possible part of the process of transforming but it’s not what the term ‘Digital Transformation’ is getting at.

The best explanation I’ve heard for Digital Transformation is ‘Preparing companies to cope and grow in the digital era’.

It could be said, Dad was ‘Preparing his squadron to cope and grow in a telephone/fax era’.

Long and short, the world was changing — it always is. And he’s right, if you want real transformation it eventually comes down to people and culture. Get that sorted and, within reason, the rest takes care of itself.

The trouble with undergoing a ‘transformation’ is transformation means change. People don’t like change. The aftermath of change is often good but going through it can be uncomfortable.

SHOUTING the T-word is unnecessary. It spreads like a vicious rumour but reverberates through an organisation with a force measurable on the Richter scale. Barriers go up as people predict REDUNDANCIES and that affects culture, big time.

Take the example of making friends. If someone walked up to you for the first time and said, ‘I’m going to be your friend’, good intentions aside, saying it upfront puts one on edge. Friendship is built on trust, so it needs a show-me-don’t-tell-me approach.

As part of our Fluxx for Good programme, a team at Fluxx mentors at the British Library as part of their Innovating for Growth programme. We help businesses grow in confidence and prepare to ‘scale-up’. I use the analogy of a tree, the trunk growing in rings, to explain why we are there and how we will help. A tree transforms by starting small then, over time, incrementally grows and becomes stronger.

For a business (or person for that matter) to do that, experimentation helps. Using creative thinking, failing fast, learning and pivoting. No right or wrong — only validated lessons.

[Digital] Transformation is about planting seeds people can trust.

For example, we started work with Atkins in 2015 and set the ‘One Atkins 2020’ vision. Rather than creating a big upfront transformation plan to get buy-in, we interviewed members of staff and produced a short animation that depicted an employee’s retirement speech. They reminisced on their career saying, ‘I can’t believe how much has changed. I remember when we [insert thing that needed to change]’. From there a backlog of change enablers, in the form of a user-friendly poster, was created. We started small, with minimal investment. That was the start of the Atkins Digital Incubator. We’re still working with them and have worked with many of their clients including Thames Water, Heathrow, Cambridge MaaS, focussing always on showing, not telling. This continues to help increase client engagement and the overall ‘bottom up’ cultural transformation of Atkins.

In the NewsUK | Lab we’re working alongside their team incubating startups. Transformation of NewsUK’s culture is front and centre in the objectives of the project (as well as how we’re helping the startups, of course). However, the team on the ground haven’t been told they will be transformed — they’re enjoying ‘learning by doing’ and being transformed.

Growth comes by doing — in a friendship, you stick your neck out and are there for someone. You gauge the audience, extend the olive branch and test whether they need or want it. If they do you make a connection. Enough of those and all of a sudden you’ve evolved from strangers to BFF.

Same goes for changing an organisation, RAF or otherwise. Start small. Give teams the autonomy to evaluate how things are currently done, experiment with new products/services and try new ways of working. Over time each result (success or ‘failure’) will build a connection and trust. Those two things shape very strong cultures, like solid friendships, ones of confidence (on all levels).

If you’d like to see ways we’ve helped companies and could help yours, take a look at our site: Fluxx.uk.com, subscribe to our newsletter and/or read the free download of our new book The Plan Sucks.

Adam Slawson is Lead consultant at Fluxx, a company that uses experiments to understand customers, helping clients to build better products. We work with organisations such as Atkins, National Grid, the Parliamentary Digital Service and the Royal Society of Arts. Email me if you’d like to know more.

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