Empower Change Management with Digital Transformation

Dispel Common Myths and Unlock Organizational Agility Through Innovation

Change management and creating new growth architecture within an organization can be daunting for leadership teams – but it doesn’t have to be.

I recently sat down with Van Hohe and Steven Luther of Behind the Curtain to discuss the keys to successful digital transformation and organizational change management.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify, on YouTube, or keep reading to learn more.

Common Myths About Digital Transformation

A few myths must be dispelled to have a successful digital transformation before everyone can agree on the basics and start on solid ground.

Myth #1: Division of Labor Leads to Efficiency

Traditional industrial management systems tout the benefits of specialization, breaking organizations down into dedicated teams and task forces to increase overall output.

However, this siloed approach in modern organizations often leads to misalignment and inefficiencies.

A 360-degree view of the situation is needed to empower a team to create a successful transformation. This requires the creation of interdependent collaborative teams aligned around shared outcomes. It also requires the coordination of four elements: people, processes, technology, and data.

For example, if only the sales team leads the change, the likelihood of failure increases. Instead, you want everyone involved. Get everyone aligned to lead the change and decide how to work together.

Myth #2: Technology is the Solution

When new technology comes about, it is very exciting. There is often a push to rush into the next big thing so you don’t get left behind — often rightfully so.

However, teams often approach technology as the solution first and then work backward to map change around it. This can lead to misguided plans, lack of adoption or proper use, and inefficient change.

Instead, organizations should decide how they want to work and then find the technology to achieve and enable that change.

Myth #3: Digital Transformation is About Technology

Along the same lines, this leads us to Myth #3, perhaps the most significant myth of all.

Digital transformation is not about technology; it is about reimaging how people work.

It is about creating new realities and possibilities in the way we work. Keep this in mind as we discuss digital transformation further.

What Does Successful Digital Transformation Look Like?

As with any new phenomenon, the term “Digital Transformation” feels overused right now. Think back to 2004, when new phrases like “social media” and “blogging” emerged. People would accidentally call Twitter “Tweeter” and so forth. These terms were everywhere and often misused because they were new.

Digital is like that now.

But generally, digital transformation’s purpose is to ask the question: How can we be more efficient and effective at what we do?

The level of effort an organization inputs and the rate of completed outputs should be balanced, and adding technology can help drive the velocity of output. In other words, digital helps us reimagine how things can be done better.

In its simplest form, going digital helped people do things better by transitioning to going paperless and going remote, enabling access to information from anywhere. Now, it can take organizations even further.

What Are the Benefits of Digital Transformation and Change Management?

Digital can give insights and feedback about friction and flow in processes that were unseen before, providing a holistic perspective of everyone’s experience. It can give managers a superpower, allowing them to eliminate ambiguity and friction and enabling them to respond effectively as teams work through change.

It is helpful to think of change management like driving. Just because the speed limit is 40 mph doesn’t mean you can zip along at 40 the entire time. Maybe someone is going 30 mph in front of you, or maybe you encounter a sharp corner or a yield sign. You must constantly correct course, adjust to the environment, and learn new information.

Digital transformation enables this course correction, helping people to succeed with the least friction. They become better equipped to make judgment calls and critical decisions that make dramatic differences in the organization’s bottom line, success, and growth.

Digital transformation also allows people to see relevant real-time data as they move through the change, which gives confidence in the change and progress.

How Does Change Management Differ for Different Organizational Structures?

At Velocity, we work with organizations of all sizes and consider ourselves industry-agnostic. We can do this because all organizations, regardless of structure or industry, are trying to build growth architecture, even if it looks different at different stages. The biggest key to successful change management is not the type of organization, but that the organization exercises elasticity and agility.

A common challenge arises when an organization is decentralized, such as financial or professional services. This includes organizations such as law firms, accounting firms, real estate firms, or other types of firms. These organizations provide resistance because their members tend to be results-oriented individuals who will maintain their current pace and speed until they are convinced that a new idea will benefit them.

In this situation, we invite the leadership team to explore opportunities to reduce friction and increase flow, realize they’ll win more with change, and show them how it can happen.

How Can Leaders Drive and Sustain Digital Transformation?

One of the most impactful things a leader can do to succeed in digital transformation is to create a culture of learning and adaptability in their organization.

For a long time, leaders have come from the Jack Welch generation, where office structure and policy reign supreme. Today, there is a broad mix of leaders, as younger generations have transitioned into the era of self-directed learning and remote work. They are still participating in the corporate environment and believe it is the type of environment that will help them thrive, but they want more meaning and significance in their work. They are highly collaborative and able to learn anything on YouTube.

Leaders need to realize that people are getting information and personal development differently now, and that should impact how they make decisions and organize power structures. We are currently experiencing this dramatic change in real time.

So, leaders must be curious about the world and how it changes, or they will be left behind as a relic of another era.

In addition to being curious, leaders must be flexible. With digital technology, change is now rapid instead of incremental. World events like the pandemic help illustrate how leadership is not impervious to obstacles and must be able to adapt.

We can no longer trust trend lines from pre-COVID because those assumptions and realities are no longer accurate. What has made people successful in the past won't necessarily make people successful in the future. Attitudes like “back in my day” won't cut it anymore, and leaders who take that approach will start to drift from employees, and their change will fail.

How Can Organizations Prepare for Generative AI and Future Tech?

Developments like Generative AI are bringing a quick wave of change,  so leaders need to be flexible and adaptable to the times — or else they may fail.

At Velocity, we believe the next five years should be dedicated to preparing for AI and a dramatic shift. Despite being in its infancy, Generative AI technology such as Grammarly and ChatGPT are already becoming strong strategic partners for many organizations. Simply using these applications doesn’t make an organization an “AI company.” We have yet to understand and leverage the possibilities of large language models.

For example, imagine creating a large language model for your organization using all the reports and strategy efforts ever done. This allows the organization to test a report against years of institutional knowledge colored by one’s own language and branding. It would take one individual many lifetimes to accumulate that volume of experience, but suddenly, everyone has access to a model with the entire wealth of information.

Organizations are doing that right now.

To leverage the benefits of AI, organizations need to simplify system architecture now to have a predictable and reasonable data flow. They also need to manage storage and collection now to be ready to take advantage of consumer-friendly, low-code, or no-code environments and empower employees with strategic data.

AI technology is more than just a tool to increase efficiency and scale. Instead, it will become something that can participate in and co-create with us in an ever-evolving future, providing a tremendous competitive advantage for those who get into it.

Learn More About Digital Transformation and Change Management

For more insights on change management, listen to the full, in-depth conversation at Behind the Curtain on YouTube or Spotify.

You can also listen to more podcast interviews like this one with this playlist.

Get Velocity Today

For decades, I’ve observed leaders try to make drastic organizational changes but fall short without a righthand person who can roll up their sleeves, lead the implementation, and serve as an extension of the leadership group to internal and external stakeholders.

That’s where Velocity Strategy Solutions comes in.

We help clients like you work through the hard parts of change management systematically so you can achieve your new reality. Learn more about how you can get Velocity for your organization.