HOW TO LEAD IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL DISRUPTION | 1EXPERT360.COM
How To Lead In The Age Of Digital DisruptionPart 4: How do you lead a digital change program?Written by Malcolm Alder
HOW TO LEAD IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL DISRUPTION | 1
Have a clear, accessible project framework
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Deliver, measure and report in short cycles
HOW TO LEAD IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL DISRUPTION | 3
Put yourself in your staff’s shoes
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So far, this series has looked at why and how you start a digital journey and
provided some tips on how to select the right business partners to support
you. This fourth part goes to the heart of how to lead a digital program or
project that involves internal change ie. all of them. It doesn’t delve in to
technology issues, nor does it prescribe particular methodologies such as
Agile, LEAN, Six Sigma or Prince 2 for project management; there are more
than enough sources of advice on these already.
The focus here is on two things. Firstly, common leadership attributes of
successful digital projects. Secondly, a deeper look at some aspects of
change management that leaders should be mindful of in a digital context.
Download part 3 here.
“The best way to build momentum is to demonstrate positive improvement.”
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Common attributes of successful projects
Many of the aspects below are relevant to any major business project.
However, because “digital” may be unfamiliar territory for some staff who are
involved or impacted, it is particularly important that they be addressed to
minimise the chances of misunderstanding or concern. From our experience,
the following key areas should be included:
• Set the baseline – the best way to build momentum is to demonstrate
positive improvement and to do that, you need an unarguable reference
point of where you started from
• A well articulated rationale for change – you can’t force cynics to agree
but you must at least give them recognisable trends, data points and
other evidence that justify the program
• A Future State vision and the benefits it will deliver – whilst set
primarily from the perspective of the company and its customers,
if there’s any significant change resistance, articulate a vision from the
staff perspective e.g. “this is how it will be better for you” (see more on
this below)
• A robust project Charter – this should include all relevant elements
eg. scope & objectives, governance, leadership, project plan, resources,
timeline, KPIs etc. and should be readily accessible for any interested
stakeholders
• Customer journey & experience mapping – aside from being good
practice and demanding a focus on your customers, this activity and
output also provides a powerful lever for change; when the benefit to
a customer is clear it’s very hard for anyone to argue against it
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• Short delivery & measurement cycles – whether the program is
delivering a technology-centric outcome eg. a new e-commerce
platform, or a digital education program, modern practice is to manage
on short cycles to demonstrate progress and minimise the chances of
going off the rails
• Draft deliverables early & iterate – whether it’s a working prototype,
wire-frames or a report structure, generate a draft of final output as early
as possible and then iterate continually. Many people can only really
comprehend something when they can see a representation of it
• Demonstrable senior leadership – tone comes from the top; be positive,
don’t scrimp on time commitments to the program and err on the side of
over-communication
• Regular project communication with all parties – this is particularly
important if your staff generally have relatively low levels of starting
digital understanding (see more on this below)
• Diligently identify, track & address risks arising – self-evident; don’t let
things linger unaddressed
“Many people can only really comprehend something when they can see a representation of it.”
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Change management in digital programs
If your organisation isn’t a digital leader, it is quite likely there will be a proportion
of your staff who are unsettled by significant change (whether real or perceived).
Workforces with one or more attributes such as; relatively low technology skills,
high average age, high average tenure and limited demonstrable industry
disruption to date, will have the furthest distance to travel on a digital journey
and may be most personally confronted by it.
In such circumstances, in addition to being particularly diligent in executing
the best practices of program management (many of which are listed above),
pro-active change management is extremely important. If any more than a
minimum number of affected staff react negatively to the changes they perceive,
at best, widespread anxiety may divert attention and hence productivity dips or
at worst, there will be outright opposition and attempts to white-ant the process.
To minimise the likelihood of negative staff reactions, there are two more
specific change management practices we recommend.
• Enjoin key influencers – every organisation has certain individuals who
are particularly influential through informal, social networks (that have
no direct relationship with formal organisation structures or seniority).
Identify who those people are and whether they are initially pro or anti
the plans, use whatever is most effective with them personally to enjoin
them to the process ideally to be an advocate, but if not, at least to
minimise the likelihood that they will be an active opponent
• Put yourself in your staff’s shoes – the key things to bear in mind are
that senior leaders inevitably have a higher level strategic understanding
and perspective than most staff and secondly, that the leadership group’s
thinking, planning and personal rationalisation of impending changes
inevitably runs well ahead of the rest of the staff as indicated by the
graphic below
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Startingstate
Futurestate
Createthe
motivation
Sharethe vision
Providethe process
Managetransition
Sustainmomentum
Leadership change journey
Staff change journey
A
Aver
age
perc
eptio
n re
lativ
e to
Sta
rtin
g St
ate
Time
+ve
-ve
Figure 1. Typical change journey of leaders and staff
Any digital change program moves from a Starting state to a Future state
typically going through five stages as indicated above. When such change occurs,
every impacted individual goes on their own personal, emotional journey.
Some people will be instantly positive, “thank goodness, I thought we would
never do this”, whilst others will be profoundly concerned, “this will wipe out
my job!”
In a digitally immature organisation, it would be prudent to anticipate that
the average staff reaction may be negative in the first instant as shown by the
broken black line above.
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This contrasts with the experience of the senior leadership group who
understand the strategic benefits to be realised so should have a positive view
of the change from first to last. The second point to recognise is that program
leaders, in addition to seeing the big picture very clearly, will be running well
ahead of the majority of staff in their personal interpretation of the program’s
impact. As an example, point A on the graphic is the moment in time where
there is the maximum gap between the perception of the change impact
between leaders and staff. The leadership team may be running 2-3 months’
ahead of their staff on this journey.
The key message here is that, when communicating, senior leadership must
both cast their mind back, several months if necessary, to that stage in their
own process of understanding the change and also demonstrate empathy
for reasonable concerns all through the program but particularly during early
announcements.
Even with good program, change management and communication disciplines
in place, any project of scale is likely to encounter challenges along the way,
some of which will be controllable and others not. The next part in this series will
identify some of the more common pitfalls that arise in digital projects together
with mitigation strategies you can draw on to stay on track.
About the Author: Malcolm AlderView profile on Expert360
Malcolm is a Partner in Orchestrate, a strategy consulting business with a primary
focus on helping organisations set and navigate their course through the rapidly
maturing digital economy. He was formerly Partner for Digital Economy at KPMG
for many years. Past clients include; Telstra, Macquarie, Woolworths, Optus, Crown,
Federal Government, NBN, Australia Post, Alcatel-Lucent, State Governments of NSW,
Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania. Malcolm has more than 30 years’ experience
and has been a strategy consultant since the early 1990s. He is a qualified Chartered
Accountant.
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