What steps are you taking to navigate your organization through one of the biggest business shifts ever? What are the company’s Digital Transformation goals and how will the transformation is successful? Are you considering the “humanscape” of the organization as changes are being integrated into the business?
Skills need to be upfitted to adapt to these new technologies. 53% of executives themselves lack the skills needed to bring about a digital transformation in the company. To improve the success of your transformation plan place your people front and center. This will improve the chances of success as well as improve your employee’s company engagement. The speed at which change is occurring is unsettling to many people. There’s little said for comfort when things are moving so fast. Actions speak louder than words; showing the company’s focus on readying the individuals and teams will ease fears of uncertainty and help productivity to stay high.
Digital Transformation is not a project it’s a new way of life and work. Here are a few strategies to consider:
“Build a Humanscape”: Draw the plan in landscape fashion. Where are the knowledge centers, what needs more sun and fertilizing, what talents foster the growth of others? If this feels crazy to you do it your way but build a plan for your people. Integrating people into your digital transformation process is imperative to the overall success. Include in your plan customers, staff, executive leaders, freelancers, even your community (web and geographic communities).
- What processes improve the dissemination of information?
- How can you make user experiences more seamless? Consider goals of users of new technologies internally. What can you do to make the employees experience enjoyable?
Discover Team and Individual Skills Gaps: For your staff and leadership team discovering skills and knowledge gaps is imperative. The new frontier is filled with big data, sensors, robotics, analytics and disruptive technologies we cannot see yet. An individual and team development plan will help improve adoption rates of new tools and speed up the success of your transformation shift. Digital technologies will enable everyone to work smarter and make better decisions.
Place customers front and center to your plan: Many companies have done a good job of focusing on customers and segmenting customers customizing content to those segments. And meeting them when they are ready to buy. Now we have the ability to focus on individual buyers by using new technologies and AI to help us identify preferences down to the spices I want on my chicken. Focusing on individual buyers can help the buyer have the best possible experience with your company. How will your digital transformation affect your customers?
- Human Centered Design- designing the experience Digital Transformation prioritizes and values user experiences as much as it adds and introduces new functions and capabilities. Focus on these experiences less on requirements.
- Focus on Goals – what experiences do we want our customers to have? How might we engage them in a compelling way and make their experience of doing business with us seamless?
Include Vendors and Partners in your plan. Inventory your current relationships. How do they map in your humanscape and digital transformation plan? What gaps are partners and vendors filling for your company? How do their business processes and ease of doing business benefit you and your customers? How easy are they to work with? Are your partner ’s adapting to a new digital transformative world? These are important questions. In the digital universe so many compliances, security and privacy policy changes are in motion and it’s disrupting how many companies operate. Take note:
- Are your partners and vendors making this shift and incorporating new procedures to be compliant with; for example, GDPR compliance? (CSOonline.com states: GDPR is a regulation that requires businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens for transactions that occur within EU member states. And non-compliance could cost companies dearly. If your company does business in Europe here are a few things you need to know about GDPR. Click here)
- Aligning company cultures will be increasingly important. If vendors and partners respond slowly when you are working to move more quickly maybe it’s time to find new partners. More value to your effort will be partners that collaborate and provide insights to help your mutual missions. Seek these out and all others, well, it may be time to jettison some relationships. This could be not only a benefit to you but a strong message of needed change to the partner.
Digital transformation is enabling organizations to open up new sales channels, develop new markets and grow opportunities. Those that have made this transformation have proven increased revenues, and improved efficiencies. But to fully embrace digital transformation, enterprises must start with capturing, integrating, and utilize quality data. That will be my next article focus!
