8 ways leadership can plan for success
A transformation, by definition, is a complete change in the appearance or character of something or someone - so for organizations, this means that the future state will no longer resemble any aspect of its original or former state. The leadership team or what I call the ‘Mastermind team’ are the senior leaders of the organization or the C-Suite. At the outset it is critical that this group of people agree on the definition of ‘transformation’ and what that means for the organization. So, is the dilemma one of evolution vs revolution?
Many Mastermind Teams, don’t agree on the extent of change or what the final destination should be. Some have the ‘why fix what isn’t broken’ approach and this is to some extent understandable. Many of these individuals have led the organization and their teams to successful and profitable business outcomes so it is only natural that they would defend the approaches that got them there. The key thing to remember though is that if you do what you’ve always done, you get what you always got so how far do you need to push the boat out? Will the company survive with evolution or is revolution necessary. Agreement on the future state of the organization and business is critical. This will be based on the nature of the industry, shifts in consumer needs, obvious and non-obvious competition, state of the economy, politics, legal etc. but most importantly the factors that are disrupting or have the most potential to disrupt and threaten the survival, growth, longevity of the business. It is important that leaders have a keen awareness of these environmental changes and have a future focus.
The tragic demise of Nokia phones was a classic case of a frontrunner in the mobile phone category valued at $300Billion and owning 40% of the total global market share, that became complacent and non-adaptive. They did not heed the warning shots fired by the disruptive iphone and other brands that were innovating faster, did not upgrade systems in time, were plagued by poor management decision making and dysfunctional structures. All these were symptoms of a bigger problem - The lack of leadership alignment and an agreed vision. The Darwinian principle still holds true. It’s not the strongest of species that survive but the ones most adaptable to change.
We all know that transformations can be stressful even for the leadership team so removing as much friction when it comes to decision making is really important for transformations to succeed.
Having witnessed a few that have succeeded and others that have failed, here are my top 8 tips:
Leadership alignment
Have a clearly defined Vision Architecture
Build an inclusive culture
Commit to wellbeing
Stop the scaremongering around technology
Invest in enterprise capability
Budget accurately
Own the end-to-end process
Stay invested and leave a legacy
Tip #1 - Have a clearly defined Vision Architecture
It's often been said that a vision is a dream with a deadline. And while that’s true, the thing about today's business transformations is that they are never really done. The end is a new beginning. If the final destination is in clear sight, it’s probably not far out enough. If it’s too nebulous you will not get traction within the organization. It’s what Simon Sinek calls the ‘Infinite Game’. Transformations are games that do not have a defined set of rules, the number of players can change at any time, the goal posts are continuously moving and there is no winner or loser, there’s only ahead or behind according to Sinek. For most people not knowing what the future holds is daunting to say the least.
A vision architecture lays out the purpose, the mission and goals, the values, the critical success factors and the new business model. It paints a slightly out-of-focus’ but inspirational picture of the new state. It helps make critical decisions, communicate the short-term game plan, deal with unexpected curve balls and inspire action. It helps unite the leadership on the overall game plan. Start with purpose and why the organization exists. In the current business climate, brands with a clear sense of purpose will win. Purpose-driven companies witness higher market share gains and grow three times faster on average than their competitors, all while achieving higher workforce and customer satisfaction according to a recent report by Delloit.
Tip #2 - Build an inclusive culture
Many large organizations employ people from diverse cultural backgrounds, functional expertise and spanning 5 generations. Orchestrating and implementing a transformation requires collaboration, agility and extreme clarity on the mission. A good understanding of the dependencies and engagement with all the right stakeholders across the organization ensure that they are all on the same page and are clear on the objectives and key results. Leading change is a complex business and the leadership set the tone, style and pace. Collaboration is of critical, so an aligned leadership team will ensure an aligned culture and mindset required to effect this change. In a separate post I will get into the detail of culture and why cultural transformation is critical to the success of any big organizational change program and how inspirational leadership can drive this effectively for overall successful outcomes.
In the last decade, organizational change programs have been referred to as ‘digital transformations’ and while they most certainly are, often the cultural change that is necessary to sustain the process is overlooked and the focus is on tech platform upgrade and enterprise architecture. Leadership should adopt a holistic approach to transformation placing just as much emphasis on human assets as on technology. According to a recent post from Forbes Technology Council, while anecdotally, attracting and retaining are top of mind with CIOs, the top five topics identified by the survey were cybersecurity, driving change in an organization, creating the culture you want and need, digital transformation, and AI and predictive analytics.
Tip #3 - Commit to personal and employee wellbeing
The leadership will have to carry the transformation and this can be hugely stressful. You have to be mentally, physically and emotionally fit to do it and not feel like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards every day, or worse still burnt out and ill by the end of it. The cognitive load is super heavy and needs to be managed. A meditation app won’t quite do the job. You’ll need to manage everything from sleep, exercise, nutrition, rest, meditation and create a daily routine for yourself that ensures you are functioning optimally. The same goes for employees at all levels of the organization.
It is scientifically proven that the human brain cannot focus on any one task for more than 15 to 20 minutes and a maximum of 45 minutes at a stretch before it starts to lose concentration. The ability to focus and avoid distractions has been further exacerbated by remote work and elongated working hours which only adds to the overwhelm and disconnection. So don’t just leave everyone to manage their own stress and fend for themselves. This will just cause erosion and drag. Build daily wellbeing protocols into all processes. Harness the stress for productivity and progress. The science behind health and wellness is being democratized and there is a wealth of knowledge and information available. And you might want to include a Chief Wellbeing Officer in your mastermind team.
Tip #4 - Stop the scaremongering around Technology
Technology will shape the next decade in new and exciting ways. Position this in a positive light and get people excited about the new world of possibility. Digital transformation is now an act of survival. There’s no stopping it and there’s a lot of scaremongering around how this is going to affect the future of work. According to a post pandemic study by McKinsey, with retail and consumer purchasing habits shifting dramatically, digital adoption took a quantum leap during the pandemic with a speedup in the creation of digital and digitally enhanced offerings. Across global markets and regions, the results suggested a 7X increase, on average, in the rate at which companies were developing these products and services.
The Forbes Technology Council predicted that:
AI and machine learning will disrupt industries such as logistics, transportation, cyber security, information security, healthcare, e-commerce, research, manufacturing, advertising and any industry with automatable tasks.
With IoT, an ever-increasing number of smart devices and objects will be connected to the internet through 5G and will shape intelligent and smart spaces.
Quantum computing will make our current state-of-the-art technology look like something out of the Stone Age. Cloud edge computing will improve data storage and processing.
Digitally extended virtual, augmented, mixed realities and digital twins will enable more immersive experiences and testing environments for real world solutions. Natural language processing, voice interfaces and facial recognition will change the way humans interact with machines.
Robots and cobots will work alongside humans to perform tasks without human intervention and free up humans to focus on more complex value-adding work. Autonomous vehicles like cars taxis, trucks and even ships will become commercially viable. Drones will improve military operations and law enforcement as well as transportation.
3D and 4D printing will have far-reaching and transformative applications in manufacturing while nanotechnology will create exciting new materials and products. Space exploration will continue in the race to conquer Mars.
These are all exciting and positive developments. The early signs of all of this are already manifesting in our reality. One such example is ChatGPT. Technology can never replace human ingenuity and creativity. I may use ChatGPT in the future to save time and effort but it will not be able to replace my personal point of view or experience or intelligence. Yes, a lot of lazy people will get lazier and use technology insidiously. But it’s important to understand how technology can improve our lives. The trick is to learn how to use it for productivity and convenience and regard it as an evolution of work rather than replacement and redundancy of the human.
Tip #5 - Invest in enterprise capability
So, it’s safe to say that no business today can run without software and a robust Enterprise Architecture is a necessity not a nice-to-have. While in the past it was used as an IT asset management function it is now the bridge between business and technology and provides an organization with the information it needs to be agile, adaptive. It helps leadership make decisions in real time to stay abreast if not ahead of the pace of change. It is now a business model strategy and is used to manage the value chain within the organization enabling omnichannel marketing, seamless CRM and real time analytics.
The challenge is to ensure that you have the right architecture for your business. Given that new technologies can be both enablers and disrupters here are some questions that need to be answered and addressed, that are bigger than “What EA do we need?”. These questions are more strategic in nature. Do we adapt our core business or change completely? Are we able to continuously assess the relevance, usefulness and value of our product or service? Are we able to continually innovate the product or service in real time? What capabilities are needed across the organization and to what extent do they exist?
Event more importantly, what is the skillset gap and how will we fill it? Do we have a continuously learning culture and are we providing the right tools and support to enable the critical knowledge upgrade? Do we have the right policies, processes and performance measurement in place to empower and enable rapid and continuous change? Mere upskilling is not learning. Information turns into knowledge when it becomes relevant and contextualized. Knowledge turns into learning when it is applied. Giving your employees a bunch of online courses to cram and then spitting out a certificate at the end of it is not necessarily creating a learning environment.
Tip #6 - Budget accurately
In my experience many organizations do not budget accurately for these change programs, and this can become a major stumbling block bringing teams to a grinding halt and disrupting the momentum and pace of progress. They often end up cutting corners or massively overspending in some or many areas. The full extent of the task including culture, communication, engagement, L&D and wellbeing aspects need to be audited and assessed, a central budget set aside and appropriate finance structures, investment justification and rationalization put in place in the planning phase. Cost centre holders should be empowered to deploy funds without too much red tape with regular reviews held so that funds can be re-deployed or re-prioritized at short notice to facilitate progress. Broad timeframes and milestones also should be agreed at the planning stage.
Tip #7 - Own the end-to-end process
Do not outsource any aspects of the process. Bring experts in if needed to facilitate the process and advise you and your teams. Every aspect of the transformation should be designed to enable and empower the organization's teams to do the work themselves. It must be driven from within the organization. Bringing in an external CTO who may be an industry expert but has no understanding of the company culture is a risk. Positioning the transformation as parallel effort that will result in a new company being born and the old organization becoming redundant like the shedding of old skin is also a risk. The transition and transmutation need to be orchestrated in tandem. All employees need to be involved at every level and stage in the process so they feel a part of it. There will be natural attrition as some may not want to go along for the ride or decide they cannot make the leap. At any rate they should be given the opportunity to learn new skills or the choice to leave. Failing to do this will result in loss of the most motivated and productive players giving rise to confusion and uncertainty about the future.
Tip #8 - Stay invested and leave a legacy
With senior leaders in the organization getting set to retire in a few years, there is also sometimes a lack of interest, commitment, incentive and drive to take on the task. Transformations are not for the faint hearted and can be extremely stressful both for the leadership as well as the employees of the organization. Many of these individuals are not digital natives and may struggle to understand the ever-evolving, complex landscape. Committed leaders want to leave a legacy and ensure that the organization is in good shape to grow and thrive beyond their tenures. They ensure that there is a succession plan in place and the next set of fresh legs are ready, willing and able to run the next lap. The transition is managed efficiently and the employees at all levels of the organization are engaged and pulling in the same direction. The experience and skillsets of the current leaders is invaluable in navigating the transition as the organization still has to run successfully in its current state and structure. It’s the seamless almost invisible handover of the baton that makes a successful transformation.
The best way to predict the future is to imagine it
Versions of this statement have been attributed to many great minds - Abraham Lincoln, Alan Kay, Peter Drucker. It's safe to say thought that predicting the future in an ever changing world can be challenging, especially amidst all the dystopian theories and negative news headlines. It requires an innately curious mindset and the desire for continuous improvement. Everything that has ever been invented was once imagined and started with a thought. While there is no evidence to confirm the the human is the only species that is capable of imagination, altruism and communication, it is certainly the most sophisticated at all three. Curiosity and a positive, forward leaning approach, is in my opinion, the best way to look at the future.
If you found this post useful please leave your questions and comments, share insights from your own experience, or even contrarian views. I’d love to have your feedback. Also let me know if you are interested in more in-depth content regarding any of the topics discussed here. if you like to receive these blog posts direct to your inbox every time I post please join the community and share with your network - knowledge shared is power multiplied . You can unsubscribe at any time by sending me an email to remove your contact.
If you need help with mastermind alignment and developing a vision architecture DM me, visit brandcrib.com or email me on georgette.kolkman@brandcrib.com. I’d be happy to help. Wishing you a productive and transformative week full of positive change.
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