Launching Your Digital Transformation
Welcome back. This is part 3 of our 5-part series on taking a People-First Approach to drive your digital transformation. In part 1 we reviewed the competitive advantages of digital transformation.
As discussed in part 2 of this series, an essential element of achieving your strategic goals is (1) having a clear vision and (2) aligning it with your workplace transformation plan deliverables. Today, we are unpacking a three-step process on how to take a people-first approach to get buy-in from the team members who need to execute it.
As we’ve said, workplace transformation is challenging. People like change, they just don’t like to be changed. Meaning, people don’t want to feel like they’re being forced to do something new without understanding the importance of their role.
Promoting Your Vision For Change
So before launching a workplace (aka digital) transformation initiative, begin with promoting your vision for change. Consider forming a cross-departmental transformation team. Together, you can develop awareness campaigns that inspire.
Whether it’s unveiling banners or inviting staff to a launch party, this is about celebrating a vision for the future. It also ensures all employees are aware that change is coming and that their transformation project deliverables are essential to the long-term success of the company.
Establishing Goals and Metrics
An essential component of workplace transformation is measuring how things are going and comparing this data to goals established in advance. This is where your workforce transformation team plays a key role. Because they understand the vision and strategic goals, they can align the metrics for their own departments.
Metrics help execute your digital transformation strategy while keeping everyone accountable for their actions. It is the role of the transformation team leaders to ensure their employees understand how these metrics are measured and their impact on achieving long-term goals. We’ve had success helping team leaders track their progress by developing report cards for their departments.
Measuring Success Over Time
Just remember, workplace transformation happens over time. Employees need time to adjust to new processes and workflows. You need time to work with your transformation team to identify measurements of success. Maybe you want to survey how much your teams have learned and develop best practices. Or observe increased levels of team building and how this initiative has brought multiple departments together. You may also choose to recognize those who’ve stepped outside their comfort zone to try a new approach. Lastly, you can work with HR to incorporate workplace transformation metrics into individual performance reviews.
Stay tuned for the final two posts in this series where we explore how to keep workers engaged in your digital transformation. If you wish to continue the discussion, please connect with one of our marine business consultants here.
