Ever tried to kick a habit? Lose weight? It’s tough, right?
Now, think of all the times you or someone you know tried to change someone else’s habits. There’s a veritable mass graveyard of failed romantic relationships where one person tried to change the other and failed.
Similarly, digital transformation in business is easier said than done. Don’t get me wrong, the benefits FAR outweigh the costs. But it’s nevertheless a tough road to travel.
Frankly, that’s why business transformation strategists like me have developed a career in this space.
McKinsey Group did an outstanding job outlining the most common causes why digital transformations fall flat — along with how to overcome them. In a nutshell, the challenges boil down to employee buy-in and changing their entrenched habits.
If you think changing a your own behavior to maintain a healthy weight or develop better sleep habits was difficult, consider what it’s like to change tens, hundreds, or even thousands of employees’ work habits when introducing new digital technology into their workflows.
At this point, your head might be spinning. Don’t let the challenge discourage you. Many businesses do successfully achieve their transformation goals and you can too — if it’s approached correctly.
So, where do you start?
According to McKinsey, the path to successful digital transformations requires a succinct 21 steps. Luckily, those 21 steps fall into 5 more manageable buckets:
- Having the right, digital-savvy leaders in place
- Building capabilities for the workforce of the future
- Empowering people to work in new ways
- Giving day-to-day tools a digital upgrade
- Communicating frequently via traditional and digital methods
One of the key takeaways here is that even if digital transformation’s intention is to decrease the labor costs of doing business (e.g., increase productivity and output, or decrease siloing or time to completion), the immediate beneficiaries of your company’s digital transformation are your employees. Consequently, successful implementation requires their buy-in — which is, as I mentioned, easier said than done.
Creating team buy-in can also mean modifying the team. If your workforce doesn’t have a clear leader in place to wave the digital transformation flag, you’re better off hiring someone to own the process. There’s no worse way to derail needed business and operational improvements than to delegate ownership to leaders who themselves don’t believe in the changes.
Whether you’re approaching your company’s digital transformation with 21 steps or 5 steps in mind, make sure to start with a roadmap to success. The path to successful digital transformation will likely have its unanticipated twists and turns, but having a strategy in place will provide a clear framework to help the team get back on track. And, if you’re not entirely sure where to start, talk to a digital transformation strategist. We possess a wealth of knowledge from years of study and past successes. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with a conversation.
So, before launching a potentially complex, habit-breaking transformation into your workforce’s orbit, be mindful of what a successful implementation looks like and focus on the horizon. Take it one day at a time. If there is anything we can glean from those who’ve adopted new behaviors or learned new skills, the digital transformation process takes extreme discipline and willingness, but it’s 100% doable and 100% worthwhile.
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