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Elizabeth ONeill - Sick And Tired Of “Digital Transformation”?

Elizabeth ONeill - Sick And Tired Of “Digital Transformation”?

Tina.Freed / 19 Feb 2020

About E2W coaching partner Elizabeth ONeill

After nearly 20 years of building and leading technical teams and organisational change, I know that people are the key to success. I've helped people gain a greater understanding of what they want from their career, what's holding them back and how to make positive change, so they move forward.

I know from experience that the one size fits all approach to leadership training and development no longer works. And that coaching provides the best lasting results when it comes to helping people reach their goals and delivering real return on investment.

If you would like to arrange an introductory call with me to discuss how I can support you with my coaching services, please contact katie.dix@e2w.co

Sick And Tired Of “Digital Transformation”?

This may have something to do with the fact that only 34% of transformational initiatives are considered a successes, 16% are deemed partial successes, and 50% failures. In other words 66% of transformation initiatives do not delivery the impact or change that was meant to.

These stats have a massive impact on the credibility of transformational initiatives and the willingness of any company to invest in undertaking transformational projects. Most companies are suffering for change fatigue where they are just tired of hearing the words “digital transformation”

However, one of the mission-critical priorities of any IT leader in today's digital world is to be a change agent. This means not just leading a change project, but ensuring that continual change is a positive experience and brings about future success.

All IT leaders have a responsibility to help organisations overcome this “change fatigue”. The question is how do you be a successfully change agent in a company that is sick and tired of change?

Here are my 3 key areas to focus on to help ensure that your transformational projects are one of the 34% and people don’t groan as soon as you mention the words “digital“, “transformation” or “change”

Know what you want to fix and the impact it will have

Everyone needs to believe that the change is worth doing and that the final result is worth having. If the change is not perceived favourably by the team, they will think the change wasn’t worth the effort. In other words, credibility regarding the change will collapse.

Be aware of everlasting transformational projects in particularly digital operational improvement ones. It’s quite easy for any savings on these types of projects not to materialise as headcount is swallowed up doing other things. This is one of the quickest ways to create change fatigue.

3 Things to Think About

  • Ensure you take the time to explain the “why” to people and take them on the journey.
  • Deliver small incremental changes so people can see the impact early
  • Ensure that you can measure the impact of the change - thing about what the project needs to deliver to make measurement possible and easy

Get people involved in the change

When venturing into new territories it is important that everyone feels involved especial if it effects their job or something they care about. Be collaborative when deciding on the program of change rather than delivering a top-down this is what is going to happen message.

Ensure that any transformational initiatives doesn’t just give the team greater workload. Instead allows them to determine what will have the biggest positive impact for them.

Remember people will always experience different emotions when it comes to change (fear, grief, enthusiasm, anger, loneliness, sadness) your role is not to stop this it is to help them through this by providing the right information. People have to understand “what’s in it for me” as change is not something that the majority of people are comfortable with.

3 Things to Think About

  • By creating a framework that gives people a method of regularly feeding into the transformation program. This will enable them to feel more involved, feel more in control of the change and understand it better.
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate and when you think you have done enough do more. Ensure that this is done in a mixture of ways to hit as many preferences as possible. Groups, 1-2-1, visual, written, formal, informal etc
  • Be open you changing approach and taking on feedback. Sometimes we all get it wrong and having the courage to stop, change direction or re-plan is what makes a great leader.

Priorities and planning

In many cases a lack of prioritisation or appropriate planning can be blamed for change fatigue. Too many changes at the same time can cause negative emotional impact because multi-changing environments create confusion about what is important which in turn can make people feel overwhelmed.

Remember an organisation or team needs to believe there is tangible benefits from any change to avoid change fatigue. Prioritisation not only identifies the order things should be done in, but also controls the pace of the changes.

3 Things to Thing About

  • Of all the changes you have to address, first choose some quick wins. If looking for buy in to a program of digital improvements try to pick and mix of automation and product improvement projects.
  • Bear in mind that the more results people see, the more encouraged they will be to carry on. In other words, the more positive emotional charge they will receive. How you prioritize is key to success, prioritise the ones that give you the biggest impact.
  • Don't forget to integrate the result of any digital program into companywide change initiatives so that they get the appropriate level of senior management buy-in.

Build positive emotional connection

Every change initiative has ups and downs. They key is to help peoples during this time to build a positive memory not only from the ups but also from the downs. The objective is to create a track record of as much positives emotions as possible. It can be difficult to extract something positive from a negative situation if you only look at it from a rational perspective.

Neuroscience states that our brain is wired to remember only those experiences that cause an emotional impact on us. A positive emotional impact will build a positive long-lasting memory in our brain, whereas a negative emotional impact will build a negative long-lasting memory that will weigh us down in the future

3 Things to Think About

  • Celebrate progress, not just the final result. This will be ensure you giving the message that whatever the outcome is, useful lessons learned along the way. Celebrating progress in advance also helps to keep people motivated on the journey.
  • Share good experiences and news widely in your company. This will increase the motivation across of the organization, making up for the future low points that might occur.
  • Fragile new behaviours and skills need to be nurtured and encouraged. People need time to let go of old habits and behaviours. This "habituation" requires building time and resources into the plan to identify and encourage the right actions to build positive emotions.

 


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