The Human Side of Digital Transformation: Leadership’s Role in Driving Adoption
The term “Digital Transformation” is being increasingly used to categorize organizational changes but what does it mean?
“Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It’s also a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment and get comfortable with failure.”¹
Leading a successful transformation is hard, leading a successful digital transformation is harder.
You can spend millions on implementing a new technology but if people don’t use it or don’t adapt to the new processes that are required to enable it, you will have expensive technology, frustrated or disengaged employees and unrealized business results.
We know that programs which invest in excellent change management are seven-times more likely to meet or exceed their intended objectives (@2023 Prosci). It is wise to place your bets with quality change management support when implementing your digital agenda. With that in mind, here are some change management tips that can help you win in your next transformation.
Keep the employee experience in mind throughout the transformation. Leveraging personas is a great way to do this. By creating personas for your end users, you can better dive into what their unique needs are, how different stakeholder groups might interact with the new digital tools and processes, how they want to hear from you and what really matters to them. By understanding the personas of those impacted by your transformation, you will be well positioned to craft adoption strategies that are meaningful to your audiences.
Be intentional about knowing and communicating what you expect. So often organizations will embark upon a transformational journey with a lofty and noble vision, but no measurable milestones to tell them if they are on track. It is important that you not only articulate what “good looks like” as relates to behavioral adoption but also have a measurement plan in place with metrics and targeted expectations. These measurable goals will be the guideposts for all communications, training and engagement efforts. It is best practice to define metrics in advance of launch and measure at various increments following go-live, so you have a north star for your change and communications efforts.
Two-way communication is more important than ever. Lack of employee awareness of the need for change is one of the most common reasons employees resist change, resulting in not meeting your adoption goals and not achieving the ROI on your investment. But just hearing about how employees will leverage the new technology is not enough. Employees want a forum to express their feedback. They are often closest to the work, so understanding the end user experience is critical. Consider leveraging an intranet site or group instant messaging channel for the sharing of feedback and questions. Start with a small group of trusted change agents to give honest feedback in the early stages and expand to larger groups as the technology is closer to completion. When managed properly with well communicated expectations, these forums are great for sharing best practices and acknowledging wins or small victories so there can be grass-roots advocates in the organization that will build excitement as you launch.
Revisit traditional training methods. Today’s users expect more than instructor-led training and prefer more current, relevant methods of education and reinforcement to achieve adoption targets. Introducing learning forums such as gaming with reinforcement mechanisms such as digital badging are great ways to get the attention of target users. It allows them to be interactive with the future-state solution and gives them visible recognition for completing levels of education or proficiency.
Never underestimate the value of a well-orchestrated UAT. With proper planning and well selected SMEs and Change Champions, UAT can be a powerful adoption tool that not only provides users early access to the new ways of working, it also provides a forum for capturing valuable end user feedback that can be leveraged to enhance the solution.
Meet your employees where they are. In organizations that are more disconnected or with employees that are not digitally savvy, provide a digital playground and more time for them to “play.” This play time will demystify the digital experience and help them become comfortable and grounded in the new ways of working. It is also recommended to have this population represented in your change network to understand what is important to this audience and what challenges they may encounter or what will make their roles easier.
No two organizations are the same and there is no one-size-fits-all for change management strategy. Applying these tips to fit your organization’s culture and needs will help you gain support and accelerate adoption on your digital transformation journey.
(1) “What is digital transformation” The Enterprisers Project
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