4 things about Digital Transformation that I wish I knew 4 years ago
A few thoughts on lessons that would have been useful to know when I was starting out trying to implement organisational change through digital.
1. Compromise is not a dirty word
We are products of our industry.
We have been told for the last 10 years that we are at the forefront of a revolution which is going to change everything from booking a taxi to reading a magazine. Long standing dinosaur industries will crumble in our wake and we will deliver value for our users, our organisation and ourselves. Nothing is safe (and nor should it be) from our disruptive battle cry.
Sound familiar?
I talk about it with some expertise, as being honest it’s what I have thought for the best part of the last decade. I see now that we need to move beyond this if we are truly deliver lasting change, which makes the best of our organisation’s core capabilities whilst taking advantage of the amazing new technologies and channels at our disposal.
That’s not to say that we should be any less determined in our desire to change things, just that I think there are better ways of going about it than we have until now. The focus of my engagement work has always been in generating interest in digital as an abstract concept. From workshops to seminars to in house conferences, i’ve run them all with gay abandon. The result of this is to get a number of people excited about digital, but not actually give them the skills to move it forward themselves.
In order to do that, you need to take the next step and work together to understand what the problems are, what the opportunities might be and how you can realise them. By the nature of this engagement you will end up with things that you have different opinions on — especially how to go about creating solutions for the challenges you face. This is fine — by its nature, anything to do with organisational change is going to generate differing opinions, if it didn’t it wouldn’t be called change.
What isn’t ok, is for either party to believe that they are 100% correct and the other 100% wrong. This is never ever the case, especially when you’re dealing with people who are invariably good at their jobs. Even if they’re not good at their jobs, I haven’t met very many people who turn up to work in the morning thinking that they’ll do a bad job.
If we can work with people with different opinions and views, in a respectful and constructive way, compromising so that both parties feel they’ve achieved something, then we’re only going to be seen as more valuable to the organisation by the individuals within it. Then we’ll be more likely to achieve that change we’re looking for.
2. Digital skills do not mean Digital transformation skills
I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the most digitally savvy people in the world. It seems as if they are able to see the future and know how they want to get there. They can instantly see what’s wrong with a product,c come up with a technical solution and more often than not implement it themselves. They’re probably the types of people that in other circumstances would be running around Silicon Valley tearing down VC funding rounds and becoming media darlings all at the same time.
The problem is, these aren’t the only skills you need to drive change in your established, multi layered, complicated organisation.
Once you’ve done the important job of exciting people towards change (often senior people) then you actually need to get on with making it happen, whilst bringing other people along with you. A tiny list of a few skills that I didn’t have when I started doing that are:
- Compromise
- Stakeholder mapping
- Project planning
- Budgeting
- Influencing
- Negotiation
…but this list in reality could be a whole post in itself. These are skills that I did not pick up whilst creating digital products and campaigns. Some of them are in fact actively discouraged whilst conducting that activity, but they’re essential if we’re going to move forward into digital maturity.
3. Different people need different things from you when you’re presenting
To a greater or lesser extent, the digital industry models itself on our great heroes when on a stage. Whether it’s Mr Jobs, Chingy or even Steve ‘the psycho’ Ballmer the majority are not what you would call shrinking violets. It’s a natural tendency if you’re not that confident in presenting — you over-compensate and end up being a highly energised persona on stage.
This has its place — especially as a great way to generate excitement in your ideas or view of the world for some people.
However, there are many people for whom this approach doesn’t generate excitement — it actually puts them off what you are saying and makes them less likely to follow you. Some people need the details, need the evidence to back up the points, need the plan for what’s happening next, in order to get excited about things.
There are many different personality types, preferences and needs and the really great presenters make sure that they cover off as many as possible when communicating to people. That animated cat gif still has its place — but make sure you also include the details and logic behind it.
Whatever you do, don’t just tailor your presentation to what you would want to hear. Think about your audience, what their needs are (maybe even ask them!) and how you can go about meeting them.
This shouldn’t be too tricky — it’s essentially the UX design process that we all know and love.
For a shortcut, have a look at the excellent https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types — they’ve got lots of insights about what people with different personalities need and want.
4. Working with different cultures is not a problem
Culture is an impossibly big and difficult topic. So big that I wrote a dissertation about what it is and what leaders can do to help their teams create a productive one. You can read more about that soon.
As part of that work though, I came to realise that many people assume teams with different cultural preferences can’t work together. That one must always cede to the other. I no longer believe this to be true and think that with the right facilitation and understanding, teams with different cultures are more than able to work together — and often can produce the best results, bringing in multiple view points and ‘norms’.
Some would define culture as ‘what it’s ok to assume’. This can range from the more prosaic working times and habits to the more fundamental assumptions about what your team thinks good looks like. Some teams hold evidence based decisions as their measure of quality and others value speed to market above all else. Both of these teams are ‘right’ — but exactly the same action taken in both would be seen totally differently.
This is not a problem unless it is not recognised and spoken about, if these teams are working together. Again, if anyone believes that their way of seeing the world is the only way and anyone else is wrong, that’s also when the wheels start to come off. Key to avoiding this pitfall of fundamentalism, is as ever empathy. You have to build an understanding with other people in your organisation. How do they want to work? What are their definitions of good? How would they describe their culture in 5 words?
I’m sure there are loads more lessons that I’ve learned and others have too — what are yours? let me know on the Twits or in the comments…
