How to Increase Involvement During the Digital Transformation

In our consultancy practice we sometimes see innovations that are embarked on due to pressure from outside or from within the organization, such as customer expectations, suppliers asking for digital collaboration platforms or employees asking for investments in new technologies to work more efficiently or more enjoyable. If, however, a board initiates such an innovation but is not fully on board, the first setback or distraction (such as an urgent issue that requires attention) threatens to cause such an innovation to die a silent death.

1. Choose good change agents
   Involved sponsorship is not only important at the top, but also in the teams where the change must take place. Involve those who will be affected; do not engulf them with it. We therefore like to work with change agents: role models within teams who are not afraid to stimulate change and who can remove barriers. These are not necessarily the team leaders, but rather actively involved employees to whom colleagues listen. Sometimes it is smart to even choose the most critical people. After all: if you can convince them, they in turn will get the rest of the team on board. The change agents that we select based on conversations with managers and management must understand something about digitalization and have an affinity for it but need not necessarily be the most digitally skilled. In fact, those who comfortably navigate the digital change may not be able to fully understand why others find it challenging. Those who do not themselves experience barriers, cannot know what it takes to remove the barriers others experience. More important than being digitally savvy is that a change agent is open to change and able to stimulate and motivate others. Finally, change agents play another important role. They are the ears and eyes of sentiment in the workplace. They know what needs there are among colleagues and what concerns they have and can quickly feedback on these signals and respond to them to reduce resistance.
   
   
2. Commit to cultural change
   For digital transformation to be successful, it is important to create a culture that is open to change, innovation and continuous improvement. Cultural change is by definition a difficult process. Yet there are aspects that you can relatively easily zoom in on and stimulate. Actively encourage employees to develop new ideas and take risks. Make it clear that failure when implementing new ideas is not a problem and use that failure as a learning opportunity for the employees involved and the organization. Set up innovation hubs to create an environment where people can develop and test new ideas independently of existing business processes. Free employees from their daily work for periods to develop, test or further develop an innovative idea. Collaboration with startups can also help change a culture, because it gives you access to new technologies and innovative power.
   
   
3. Pay attention to communication
   Communication often gets neglected during a transformation. Explain why the use of new technologies is important and always make the link to the organization's strategy. Keep employees informed of objectives, benefits and progress. This helps to reduce resistance and increase involvement. In our experience, a series of vlogs, in which, for example, the board or change agents keep people informed of interim milestones, is an effective and transparent way to inform employees. This should be done consistently, i.e. at fixed intervals and at fixed times. Make smart use of existing communication channels to convey and safeguard important messages.
   Do not forget about communication with customers and suppliers, because they often need to deal with the effects of the digital changes within your organization. In fact, asking for input and feedback from customers and suppliers can provide valuable insights to make a transformation smoother for them. An example: an insurance company where customers report damage to the car via an agent or via forms, wants to switch to notifications via WhatsApp as part of digitalization. Customers only need to send a photo of the damage and will then rapidly receive an estimate of the costs and compensation. This sounds like a wonderful idea, but what if customers really do not want this or if only ten percent of your customers can competently follow the procedure? Such an innovation then makes little sense. It is better to have a random customer group complete a questionnaire before introducing an innovation: what is their favorite way of interacting with the company? How and when would this innovation have added value for them? This not only provides valuable insights about the innovation itself, but also, for example, about the most suitable time for the launch and the best way to communicate about it. What is important here, but what is sometimes forgotten, is the feedback on the feedback given: the so-called close the loop. Communicating what you do with the feedback in proceeding with the implementation is crucial, specifically too if the decision is not to do anything with that feedback.
   
   
4. Strengthen digital skills
   The success of a digital transformation is strongly related to continuously keeping the knowledge and skills of employees up to date. This can be done quite methodically. Start with an inventory of skills needs: where are the employees now, where do they need to go, and how do you minimize the gap between these? Then set up a training program that is aimed at developing those digital skills and that fits in with the organization's working methods. A program must be much broader than learning to use new technologies and related topics such as data analysis and cybersecurity. It should also include soft skills such as problem-solving ability or how to improve collaboration through technological solutions. It can be very effective to train these new skills digitally, using e-learning platforms, virtual reality or avatars that provide feedback on participants’ input.
   Furthermore, link digital transformation to career development. If personal development plans provide employees insight into the logical steps they can take to grow from their current (perhaps non-digital) position to a position within a digitally developed company, this not only benefits their motivation and involvement but also prevents them from thinking that there will no longer be a place for them once the digital transformation is complete, and therefore leaving prematurely. This is not unimportant for companies that want to retain their employees with their wealth of knowledge and expertise in this tight labor market.
   
   
5. Measure milestones
   With every transformation, it is important to work towards (interim) end points. The digital transformation roadmap must therefore clearly identify which milestones must be achieved to be able to speak of a successful implementation. When strengthening digital skills, these include, for example, identifying the skills needed in the new organization (milestone 1), carrying out a skills need (milestone 2), setting up a training program (milestone 3) and monitoring and completion by all employees (milestone 4).
   Technology continues to change so rapidly that once you achieve something, there is always something new to move towards, which necessitates a culture of continuous change and openness to change. At the same time, it is difficult to hit a moving target. Hence those interim milestones. They mark end points for the current journey, no final destination. And do not forget to celebrate successes, thereby creating a positive atmosphere around new developments.