Don’t get caught out by digital transformation that’s destined to fail. Read this first.

By Liam Cahill

Digital transformation is everywhere at the moment. It’s the business buzzword and everyone is discussing how to make their organisations more digital, largely in preparation for an uncertain future and in response to the increasing urgency of public commentary. Consultancies know this and they’re looking for lovely ripe cherries to pick. Beware.

If I’m totally honest with myself I run a business that delivers digital transformation. But if you look at the Sector Three site you’ll see I don’t use the term digital transformation anywhere. Why? Am I habitually obsessed with ignoring the marketing principles of responding to popular trends? Am I allergic to building a successful business? The answer could very well be yes, but the main reason is that digital transformation as a concept has already been malformed into something that isn’t going to genuinely help organisations survive and thrive.

Looking to the future I can almost see the cold call in ten years from some AI phone bot:

“Hello sir or madam. We have reason to believe you were recently mis-sold the vision of a digital future but actually given an expensive IT system that you didn’t know how to use and eventually binned.”

This obviously isn’t going to happen, but I’d argue that you are at risk of being promised something transformative that will put you ahead in the battle against tech dystopia, and instead given: Yep! New IT that doesn’t fit.

So isn’t digital transformation about tech

Of course! The whole future is about digital + tech + intelligent machines + robots (probably). But we need to face some cold hard facts here. Everything has already changed, is continuing to change, and accelerating at a rate that we’re barely able to keep up with. A new CRM system won’t make much of a difference, in the same way that sandbags won’t help with 9ft flood waters.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t get new digital systems, you almost definitely should, but first we need to accept that new structures will sink on unstable foundations.

Or within this context — digital change will only succeed if you put them in a digital environment. You need to make your organisation a petri-dish for digital to grow.

That will probably suffice on the analogy front for now!

So why am I saying anything different to everyone else?, and is this not what other consultancies and advisory organisations are already offering under the umbrella of digital transformation?

I don’t believe so. As you go down to the bottom of the triangle the work gets increasingly complex, messy and political. Leaders will resist and likely feel threatened by their organisational structure and roles looking a bit different, staff will resist change and attempts to re-skill, and cultural change is something that requires commitment over a long term period.

So what kind of consultancy in their right mind would suggest taking on all of that messy stuff, when they can emphasise more SMART projects. Consultancies don’t usually want to go down the rabbit hole with you, they want high impact, short term projects where they can get a system in place, train some champions and then head on to deliver the next project. And so the consultancy market focuses on the tech and IT infrastructure bit.

Digital transformation reimagined: problem <-> solution

Let’s turn this proverbial frown upside down, and get the bones of a plan into place. I will now try and outline what you need to think about when you think about digital transformation, and what you should be asking when you seek external help for achieving your own digital future nirvana:

Your organisation 2.0 — respond!

The world is changing so dramatically that the top-down, hierarchical industrial model of work is no longer fit for purpose. A great video by Manuel Lima speaking to the RSA succinctly explains that we as a society are moving from the age of the tree structure to the age of the network (or rhizome), which will require elements of structural and cultural shift in organisations and wider society.

I am going to write a more in-depth article on this as I’m really passionate about this part of the change, but I believe that the Responsive Org offers an important framework (and imperative) for organisations to succeed in the new networked and less predictable world. A big focus on this is, and needs to be, the changing role of leadership to help the organisation shift:

• From Profit to Purpose
• From Hierarchies to Networks
• From Control to Empowerment
• From Planning to Experimentation
• From Privacy to Transparency

I could write many more words evangelising on this topic, and hope to provide detail soon, but for the sake of brevity the above represents re-structuring to a foundation fit for people+tech.

People [em]-power

Until AI and robots deem us to be entirely irrelevant, we’re going to require some humans. We need to hire them, to ensure they have the right skills for the current and future of your organisation, and then to find a way to keep them. Getting the right team together or upgrading your current team (through training etc.) is absolutely critical to making this work.

In this layer we need to look at the individuals that you employ and what your requirements or desirables for them should be. A book on this topic that I’d highly recommend is ‘the future of work’ by Jacob Morgan, which provides some great ideas on what the most desirable qualities in staff will become. From my experience of staff development I’ll highlight the ones I think are key:

• Learners. In a shifting world where your organisation needs to embrace change, you need people who are comfortable learners, and can adapt to new settings. These will be the people who find ways to make the new tech you’re introducing a success.
• Sharers. In this age where we are able to participate online, and in so many different ways, staff who comfortably share stories and learnings are going to help your digital culture (below) gel and evolve.
• Generalists. People who have mixed and general skills will be valuable, as specialist knowledge is increasingly owned by tech, and people need to be more versatile and adaptive.
• Intrapreneurs. People who have an entrepreneurial mindset will find opportunities and take advantage of them, and find problems and solve them. These are often people who are considered creative.
• Tech & logic. Perhaps an obvious point but people who can use computers, online systems, and maybe code a bit, are pretty handy in a world of tech. I always used to get my new staff to learn the basics of two simple coding languages to help them hone their logical skills.

Digital culture: the jam in the people+tech sandwich

I could have plopped the tech right on top of your people, but in every human system there is another more fluid and intangible element that defines how people and tools (i.e. tech) interact: culture. In this instance we need to connect these humans to the tech we want or have in place, and then define, build and maintain that relationship. Usually within organisations this comes in the form of vision and values, hopefully shared by all. So let’s frame it this way.

Increasingly organisations are supplementing their longer term strategy with an extra digital stream. In a previous article on how executives can prepare for the 4th Industrial Revolution, I advocated exactly this, in spite of the fact that I’m skeptical of long term planning cycles as a principle. Whilst it should absolutely weave with everything else you’re planning, it makes sense to have a presence that can be defined as digital, or as I prefer people+tech, which I think is friendlier and more human-centric.

Vision. Ideally this would be a collective recognition that your organisation will need to transform itself to survive and thrive, especially as AI comes into play. This should recognise that job roles may shift and that technology will play a greater role in performing functions that are currently done by people. In effect this aims to build collective buy-in that there is no option but to embrace change, and to re-imagine your collective future as a successful tech company. Ideally this should strike a balance between opportunity and risk.

“build collective buy-in that there is no option but to embrace change”

Values and themes. This is partly interlinked with the first point on Organisation 2.0, or becoming an organisation that is structured to be responsive and embrace change. Each organisation is, of course, different and therefore there are some shifts that may be more applicable. A couple of values that support how activities are designed could be:

• to empower and train support-staff to build workflows (or what I call a robot army) that can do routine tasks for them, and also help them build the skills they’ll need to be employable in a digital age.
• to help people experiment with technology and openly (or transparently) share ideas and learning to support each other.
• to find opportunities to connect information systems (network) together to create new intelligence and learning within the organisation.

I believe that the above activities represent the emergence of a new digital culture, where you can start a journey to increasingly recognise the inevitably growing role of tech in what you do. If you don’t do this, then you’re at risk of paying for tech that doesn’t get used.

Your tech 2.0. Connect.

Finally, we look at upgrading your tech infrastructure and deployments. This may come in many forms depending on what your organisation does, how large you are and how widely you reach out to the world around you. Therefore I won’t dwell on the individual systems or software, but instead the principles or features that they’ll need to have the right balance of the below:

Connectable. This is the new must have, as interconnectivity is around the corner and your datasets will need to be weaved. I recently wrote an article on how this could work for back office systems, so check it out.

Scalable. Tech that meets your current needs but won’t support you when you grow isn’t going to be very helpful. The software-as-a-service model usually offers scalable price points, where you can increase or decrease capacity or users if you need. The same applies for any infrastructure such as server space.

Customisable. If the future is to change then you need systems that can adapt and be customised. A tech investment that can’t adapt to your shifting requirements is not the soundest of investments.

Usable. I mean really usable, and inviting. I just moved from one online accounting system to another, and hated it. It was more scalable, had slightly better customisation and was cheaper, but I hated using it because it was ugly and didn’t always follow logical flow. On paper it was a better investment, but if people need to have more meaningful relationships with technology, then technology has to in turn be attractive and likeable. Don’t be afraid to factor this in to your requirements!

Accessible. Anywhere; any time. We live in a mobile world, with super fast internet; even on our phones (unless you live in the outskirts of London!). You need something that can fit with your agenda, your device patterns and your travel habits.

There are of course many other considerations with tech, but what you need is something that is fit for the world of the future, where you’ll likely be looking to subscribe to a handful of systems or services that thread together to help you achieve your objectives and do what you do.

“you’ll likely be looking to subscribe to a handful of systems or services that thread together to help you achieve your objectives and do what you do”

The tech is absolutely key, I can’t emphasise that enough, but it needs structure, people and culture to really make it happen. If you’re looking to best position your organisation in a very different digital future, I would strongly suggest that you make sure all of these are considered as one.

Not all of the above needs to be done by external agencies. External agencies can of course implement IT projects if you have a clear plan for responding to your digital future, but if you haven’t then I’d recommend some serious consideration and discussion about whether you have the right foundation before you embark upon costly tech projects.

What we need to ask when we’re getting help with digital transformation

Anyone who has been reading my other posts will see that as a theme I like to criticise the status quo role of consultancy, in particular the big ones. Why? Because investment in support from consultancies is a big one, in particular in the non-profit social sector who I predominantly work with. Consultancies have a responsibility to acknowledge the risk that companies take on when they invest, and should in turn offer value and expertise that fits the organisation they are working with. You deserve nothing less.

However, sifting the wheat from the chaff is a necessary activity, and I’ve put together some considerations for you, or as questions for any agency that you may wish to engage with:

1. How are you going to address the suitability of the solutions you recommend within our ways of working? If they’re experts they should have an answer.
2. What do you need to know about us, how we‘re structured, and how we work? What elements of our structure or setup would make you turn the project down? They should be looking at how your organisation works and outlining what they’ll do to ascertain suitability. Lots of questions. Good consultants that live by value would walk away from a project where the conditions aren’t right, or request a strategic discovery before committing to anything more tangible.
3. What kind of staff skills will we need to have in place for this to be successful after implementation? Does your support include helping people with these skills? They either need pre-requisites or to provide a clear plan for how this is going to work?
4. To what degree will we need you to support any changes over the long term, or will the project be entirely in our hands? Will we be taught how to do this? If not then what will the cost for any additional work be? Watch out for situations where companies sell you something where you become dependent on them. Websites are a classic example where you get quoted a low fee but have to pay through the nose for any minor change.
5. How will you address any staff resistance or what will you require us to have in place to avoid this happening? Hopefully there will be a proactive plan but at the very least there should be an idea on how to respond to, or engage with, staff resistance.
6. Will the new technologies be future proof? What kind of qualities or features will it have to ensure that it’s relevant in 5 years? See my points above but they should have similar expectations of systems they bring in. My five points were outlining common sense for digital professionals.
7. What are your thoughts on how we could make more use of the system (s) as technology evolves over the next 5 years. Will you provide any form of roadmap? They should understand the future trends so even if it’s not part of the picture they should have some insight they can provide.

People+Tech take the leap but with eyes open

In this article I have provided my views on the pitfalls, and the much larger task at hand in you responding to your digital future. I wish I could say that it’s a simple and quick task but it’s not. It will involve structural change, new conditions, re-skilling staff, dealing with cultural change and trying to get people to build working relationships with new systems.

So why do it? Because unfortunately you need to if you want to give your organisation the best possible chance in the future. If you have the resource then I’d definitely recommend that you try and employ great people who can drive change from the inside. If you don’t have that luxury, or need to supplement with external expertise, make sure that you bring in people to recognise the wider and harder task of making that change happen, rather than making a quick buck.

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