Unlocking Culture for Digital Transformation
6 Min. Read
Digital transformation is not simply about technology, automation, or AI. To be a truly digital organisation you need the right supportive culture to underpin it. When we talk about digital transformation, therefore, we really mean cultural transformation.
In this blog we will look at the corporate culture needed to transform digitally, the challenges many organisations face, and the strategy and roadmap needed to manage it effectively.
What is digital transformation?
Digital transformation is business transformation. It’s the changing of business activities, processes, products, and models to fully leverage the opportunities of digital technologies.
Core culture attributes for digital transformation
The exact nature of your digital transformation will depend on your business strategy. However, in our research there are eight core cultural attributes, and associated mindsets and behaviours, for a successful digital transformation.
1. Purpose
Creating and sharing a meaningful and seamless customer experience that employees feel committed to. Based on the mindsets of empathy and customer centricity, associated behaviours would include explaining why you do what you do, and inspiring people behind that message.
2. Collective thinking
Connecting all parts of the organisation, including humans with machines and technology. Drawing on a mindset of generosity, behaviours would cover leveraging other’s strengths and adopt other people’s good ideas.
3. Courage
Acting on your fears. Being authentic and value-based, behaviours would incorporate speaking up and stepping outside your comfort zone.
4. Curiosity
Searching for what doesn’t exist yet. Based on the mindsets of problem solving and personal responsibility, dominant behaviours include focusing on solutions rather
than simply talking about issues, and asking questions to understand.
5. Transparency
Being open and sharing thinking, approach, purpose, and challenges across the organisation. On foundations of trust and courage, there would be clear behaviours of freely discussing what one is working on, and speaking unfiltered about your strengths and weaknesses.
6. Learning
Ongoing development of your organisational skills so you can continuously adapt. Based on a growth mindset, organisational behaviours would include admitting failures and seeing mistakes as opportunities to learn.
7. Empowerment
Relinquishing control, giving employees the resources, time, and skills they need, and trusting them to achieve agreed outcomes. Mindsets of trust and accountability are critical here, and behaviours would show up as setting objectives and letting the employee figure out the how, and encouraging others to make decisions.
8. Caring
Continuing to place the human at the centre. Having empathy and putting people first are central mindsets for any digital transformation, and associated behaviours would be listening and being flexible to change your views.
What we see a lot in our work is that while these characteristics are already well understood by businesses, they are rarely all present – and healthy – in the same organisation.
Why do companies struggle with digital?
While many organisations have digitised and automated some or all their processes, their culture transformation is incomplete. There are recurring reasons that we see for this:
1. Too much emphasis on technology
They have focused on upgrading their technology, but not their mindsets, behaviours, systems, and symbols. As such, their transformation is superficial, and they are not maximising the benefits of being a digital business.
2. Rigid structures
Many organisations continue to operate in traditional, rigid hierarchical structures. This need that leaders and managers still have for control is at odds with the empowerment required to thrive in digital.
3. Siloed working
There also remains a heavy reliance on siloed working, which runs counter to the collaboration and collective thinking needed in a digital transformation.
4. A loss of purpose
We regularly see companies who have lost sight of their purpose for digital transformation. True transformation only happens when you’re clear about what you’re trying to achieve as a business, so you can connect all activity back to that. Unfortunately, very often that North Star and narrative are missing, and in such cases digital activity feels fragmented and disconnected.
What has made organisations successful in the past is precisely what’s hampering their digital adaptability and progress now. To transform, they need to be thinking and acting in a completely different way – and in some cases, the opposite of how they have been behaving previously.
How can leaders effectively manage a digital transformation at work?
Digital Transformation Strategy
When attempting to change organisational culture, it’s essential to understand the extent of the shifts that need to take place. This is because the strategies that will need to be implemented will vary according to the nature of the gap, i.e. how well (or not) your culture is already adapted and supportive of digital. Understanding this will help people managers lead any culture change or transformation as effectively as possible.
Our extensive research has highlighted the three main cultural shifts that need to occur, to some degree or other. They are:
- Outcomes – from fragmented and siloed to seamless and simple.
- Behaviours – from individualism and control to collective thinking and empowerment.
- Mindsets – from fixed and fear, to growth and trust.
Digital Transformation Roadmap
Whether your digital transformation has stalled, outcomes have not been achieved, or you’re wondering where to start, Walking the Talk has developed a simple approach to tackling these common problems, based on our 30 plus years of experience of working on culture change with our clients. Our recommended roadmap looks like this:
1. Digital Readiness Assessment
The deeper your understanding of your culture’s strengths and potential blockers for digital change, the more effective your culture plan will be, and the quicker the changes.
This assessment will identify the presence and strength of each of the eight cultural attributes shared above.
It will also reveal the shared belief system that drives current behaviours, and the systems and symbols that need to be realigned. For example, if people are not collaborating, it’s critical you change the systems and processes that enable and encourage that (performance management is a key one). Behaviour change can’t embed by shifting mindset alone, the systems also need altering to support and accelerate the desired action.
2. Identify Focus
The key to making culture change fast and delivering impact lies in focusing on those elements that really matter, the ones that will most support your digital transformation and strategic goals. Digital is the context, but it’s the business outcomes you need to keep a laser focus on.
3. Develop Your Culture Plan
Your Culture Plan summarises the initiatives that will take place across your business in the next 18 months to support the shifting of those cultural elements in the focus towards more effective digital adoption. The plan comprises:
- Behaviours.
- Symbols.
- Systems.
4. Implement culture Plan
Reshape your systems and symbols with the focus areas in mind, to encourage people to behave differently (implement the Culture Plan).
5. Learning Modules
Provide training/capability building for employees on the key cultural attributes of digital you are focused on, to accelerate adoption and behavioural change.
What is an example of digital transformation?
One example we are working on is with clients in the telecommunications sector who want to become technology companies. Moving from telco to tech is a digital transformation. A typical telco business is about providing telecommunication services and calls. Whereas a tech company is a truly digital organisation where data is at the centre of everything it does, and it (typically) provides a broader array of services. As such, a tech company’s culture must be agile, fast, and data-driven, with courage, experimentation, and learning as intrinsic behaviours. That’s a very different world from the current telco industry.
Before looking at the digital elements of your business, it’s critical you align on your organisational outcomes and determine the culture you will need. What has got you here will not serve you in the future. With the growing prevalence of AI and other innovative technologies, it’s imperative that you build the right supportive culture to enable your digital transformation and capture the business benefits.
Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered. Wecan help you empower your employees to achieve your business goals. Click here to learn how we can unlock your culture transformation, or get in touch to get started!
