You must address the human side of digital transformation

Leaders who implement digital transformation through a top-down approach, consultant-led approach, or IT-led approach often ignore the conditions that prompted the need for digital transformation in the first place. They decide how to solve the problem without considering the organizational dynamics, behavioral habits, and culture that created the problem. In a rush to make a significant change, leaders decide to postpone dealing with human issues until after critical decisions are made and the transformation is underway. This approach spells failure. 

Readying the people who will be emotionally impacted by a digital transformation and catching the resistance to such an initiative early in the process is much less costly than addressing it later, and it's more likely to lead to project success.

One CIO told me that his organization was implementing a "simple" change. This change was so simple that no programming would be required. In fact, they were only going to change one field in one data base. No big deal! Turns out, the one field they were changing was "number of weeks per paycheck", and the number was going up from one to two. This meant that thousands of employees who planned their personal budgets around weekly paychecks were now going to get bi-weekly paychecks. This affected everyone in the company. From a programming standpoint, this was a minor change. From an organizational change standpoint, this was a major change!

Sheila Cox

Senior Consultant

Who Needs Change Management?

Every organization could benefit from change management training. To engage the larger group so that it is prepared and accepts your business transformation change, you need group buy-in early in the process. In her workshop for leaders, Cutter Senior Consultant Sheila Q. Cox equips leaders with the insight, perspective, and tools to help users deal with the human risks of digital transformation.

What Does this Workshop Look Like?

This workshop can be customized to be from one- to three-days, though two or three days are recommended to allow time for participants to practice on their own projects.

Sample Curriculum

Day Three

• Motivation
  • By role, by level, by personality
  • Effective communication
• Culture
  • Organizational Culture Assessment
  • Level of Consistency between Current Culture and Desired Business Transformation Change
  • Subcultures by Constituency
• Resistance to Change
  • Positive Response
  • Negative Response
• How to Manage Resistance
  • Motivation/Communication
  • Sponsors/Agents/Champions/Saboteurs
• Frame of Reference
• Communication
  • Change Communication by Style
  • Communication Matrix
• Reinforcing Change