The road to digital transformation is far from easy. But the obstacles are not just technical or financial. There is also resistance to change, starting with many company managers. A thorough review of working methods is an essential preamble to deploying new digital tools.
A change of technology and culture can quickly become an obstacle course. After this period of confinement, many companies are trying to get back on track after weeks in "degraded mode". Various measures need to be put in place to strengthen business resilience and improve performance.
1 - Be open to digital transformation
The period of confinement undermined some of our achievements, and in particular our working methods. The increasing integration of teleworking means that new methods need to be put in place.
Yet most organizations do not prioritize an "open" workplace culture and share common traits:
- A predominantly top-down decision-making chain, which makes implementation processes cumbersome and, in part, runs counter to the desire for widespread participative management.
- The cumbersome nature of hierarchical layers, still too often favoring status over competence, thwarts many projects that require agility and fluidity.
- A silo-based approach that limits efforts to develop cross-functionality and cooperation.
It's becoming increasingly important to solicit feedback from your team members, and to be open and willing to accept it. It's essential to encourage collaborative innovation, and to bring skills together for the benefit of a common, ephemeral goal.
This new attitude will be appreciated when starting or accelerating your digital transformation.
2 - Pay attention
It's important to constantly think about the goals you're trying to achieve, evaluate your progress towards them, and change course if necessary. Transparent decision-making also boosts morale and communication throughout the organization.
It also encourages teams to give their opinions.
3 - Be inclusive
A diverse workforce is a more efficient workforce. According to a McKinsey report, diversity improves financial performance. Diversity fosters inclusive thinking and ideas, which are essential today.
To attract and retain talent, it's important to encourage diversity and inclusive thinking by promoting positive actions on the part of employees and even suppliers. "The art of success is knowing how to surround yourself with the best," as John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said.
4 - Accept failure
Failure is still frowned upon in France. In other countries, such as the USA, it's a sign of... progress. It shows that you've tried to improve, which leads to positive learning as an organization. "Success consists in going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm", insisted Winston Churchill!
Insisting that "failure is not an option" will only lead to excessive resource expenditure and missed deadlines, as your teams get bogged down in a cycle of major effort with little change.
5 - Celebrate success
Employees who feel that their efforts and achievements are not recognized - or worse, that they are only recognized when something goes wrong - are more likely to underperform.
So it's important to celebrate employee successes at individual, team, organizational and corporate levels. This will help encourage everyone to improve.
These five points show that a transformation project must not rely solely on new tools. The human factor remains the key to success. Without team support, no digital solution (no matter how effective) will improve performance.
Managing a team in the digital age, and even more so in the confined world, no longer covers the same ground.
