Business sucks at transformation

Rainmaker Solutions MD, Ross Moody.

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Transformation. You'll find it in almost every walk of life, sports, education, business. But when we talk transformation, we are really talking about change, says Rainmaker Solutions MD, Ross Moody.

Managed well, it supercharges the way your organisation works and performs. Done badly, it destroys value. And let's face it, most transformation programmes fail. As humans, we really suck at change! And if our inability to change is so ingrained in our DNA, how do we make change stick? How do we make transformation successful?

Think back to when you last visited a bookstore. How many self-help books promising to change your life for the better did you see? They dominate the shelves! That there are so many and that they keep on coming, tells us that humans are hardwired to follow the path of least resistance. If we're going to do 'change', we want it packaged in a neat way that promises to be quick, painless and with guaranteed results!

And this is the approach to change that we bring into the workplace. Seeking the quick fix, the silver bullet, the 'deploy and be done' solution. And for many organisations, that is how they are approaching digital transformation, probably the most critical change programme on the agenda today.

I'm losing count of the number of companies telling me they are 'doing digital'. But when I quiz them about their digital plans, phrases like AI, automation, bots and big data are thrown back at me. And that's it, cue the sounds of crickets chirping! They use the same words when asked by the board, investors and stakeholders and are met with nodding heads and a collective sigh of relief that they are not being left behind.

And therein lies the challenge. The latest 'trends' do not a strategy make. Well, actually, if your strategy is called "me too', then go for it! But if putting digital at the core of how your business operates, and using it to stay ahead of your competition by delivering better products and services at lower cost, is part of your vision and strategy, then you need to think differently. You need to consider your ability to iterate, to be responsive, and to be adaptive. You need to encourage a culture which sees digital as a business imperative, NOT an IT one!

Change is hard, sometimes messy, and always embarked on without knowing the actual end result. The danger of adopting the 'we are doing digital' mind-set is that it implies a search for the quick fix. It is often accompanied by a mind-set which is thinking "thank God that's over, can we get back to business now that we have some bots in the back office and some data analysts in the operations teams!"

From my conversations with senior managers, understanding how as a business you decide where you want to go, how you are going to get there and how you will inspire your teams to get behind you, is what many find daunting and overwhelming. Setting a vision is not a marketing exercise with the end goal to get a catchy phrase to paste in reception. And it's probably the single most crucial piece of work that you need to get done to deliver successful change.

Your organisational vision is the aspirational destination that everyone is heading toward as well as why you're doing it. Without it, ambiguities are more likely to arise on the transformation journey, leading to expensive changes of direction and increasing the time it takes to deliver.

As a good example, I recently spoke with a mining company who said that they didn't want to be seen as a mining company that does technology, but rather as a technology company that does mining. Now compare that to a company saying that they want to deploy bots in their back office processing area. That's not a vision! The mining company, on the other hand, understands well that while the gold is still in the ground, and it still requires people and machines to find it and extract it, technology can help them be the safest, the greenest, the most productive and the lowest cost producer in their sector.

Change is not easy, but it is possible. Like our mining company, start with doing a great job of defining your vision and understanding why. Make it inspirational. Invest in expert external support to challenge you along the way. And take the time to map your organisation showing how business processes, user requirements and technology components can best connect to meet your needs. To deliver the organisational vision.

Get this right, and your teams will be with you, eager to see what lies ahead. Get it right and you will significantly increase your odds for delivering successful change.