How to manage change by running away from processes

If we assume that the mindset shift is a necessary stage in any digital transformation exercise, then the challenge of pivoting from one business model to another is the work of the change managers. And like it or not, that exercise arises from collaboration and from the dynamics between change managers, and not from the planned exercise of defining, implementing and improving processes. First the talent, the change of mentality, and then the dynamics. In this new era, processes emerge.

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[See the original POST on blog @b_crespo QUANTUM MARKETHINK]

Mahatma Gandhi said that the culture of a nation resides in the hearts and in the souls of its people. That most of the organisations that have taken on digital transformation processes are talking about a mindset shift or about cultural transformation is no coincidence. Technology and data do not win people's souls. And even less so with processes as the starting point. Change managers work on the basis of dynamics.

1. Mindset Shift: (1/3)

All the corporations that have led digital transformation processes come naturally to the conclusion that the "mindset" shift is the most important challenge in any transformation process. And it is that collective mindset shift that creates, on the basis of iterations, the culture of companies. It is the force of habit that generates a Culture.

The good news is that it is people who enable and accelerate companies' digital transformation processes, in an environment where at times it seems as if technology, algorithms, robotics and artificial intelligence had relegated human beings to a secondary role in this change.

It is paradoxical and at the same time comical that the same ultra-tracked and manipulable users we have become should be —in our role as people inside organisations— the ones capable of transforming companies. We never stop talking about a world in which technology and the use of data have altered, in less than three decades, the rules of competition in any vertical. And yet we all love Google's “20% time” practice. The big technology companies have believed in talent from the start. And we, the followers, put technology and data ahead of people.

We have focused on adapting corporations to new technological trends and on emulating “big tech” (GAFA) in the possibilities of data, and yet we leave the mindset shift and the cultural transformation for the second phase of a company's digital transformation. Are we perhaps overlooking what matters? Or do we leave for last the challenge we least feel like taking on? After all, human beings tend to wait until the last day of a deadline to deliver their order. The shapes change; the routines endure.

2. Change managers: (2/3)

Starting a digital transformation exercise requires thinking about the change managers at the same time as we think about the strategy. If we take digital transformation as an exercise in redefining processes on the basis of data and technologies, we run the risk of redrawing the future on the basis of our explanatory world -a static view of the possibilities of data and technology. And we already know that such an exercise always ends in efficiency.

It is not possible to disrupt a vertical without believing beyond what is possible. The story goes that when Columbus discovered America, the only one able to recognise the caravels on the horizon was the tribe's shaman. Our perception is limited by our explanatory world. We have learned to redesign ways of doing things in digital thinking that they only fit within the possibilities of our own vertical, which is why we fall into the trap of digitising the distribution model or making the supply chain more efficient. [1]

Those companies that embrace agile methodologies trust that people will be capable of producing deliverables on the basis of iterations. The processes will come later and in an emergent way. I am afraid this is not good news for lovers of control and order. Industrialising flexibility only has a place in an environment where the context does not change. Flexibility has more to do with dynamics than with processes, and an unchanging environment, I am afraid, is no longer the tune we're dancing to.

When I am asked why I do not like including processes as part of the digital transformation equation, the answer is quite simple: ”It is people who work the miracle of metamorphosis. It is people who lead the dynamics”. Processes are designed when the attainable outcome is certain and static. And that world has ceased to exist. It is the commitment of the people in a team that ends up redesigning the outcome. If we try to standardise the actions that lead me to a desired outcome, we lose the ability to adapt to a changing context. Might this be the reason for the rise of agile methodologies?

3.Connecting the dots: A reflection on Processes and Collaboration Dynamics (3/3)

Starting with a process means tacitly admitting that I already know how to create value for any of the stakeholders in a context that has been altered or disrupted. The process is a means when a clear vision has already been defined and has been accepted across the board by a group. Starting with processes is old thinking. The process is a logical consequence of executing a clear strategy, and it may be that in this new environment the process is an after-the-fact observation of the iterations already created.

In a process people do not create, they execute. Processes are born of distrust in people and of suspicion about their capacity to create. If you set out to define your company's transformation on the basis of processes, you may find yourself caught in George Westerman's caterpillar paradox: From caterpillar to butterfly versus speeding up the caterpillar's pace.

"When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.” - G. Westerman.

When we talk about processes we are assuming that people are clear about their role, that the decision-makers have agreed on a desirable future situation and that everyone shares a single, immovable vision. The desired future rarely resembles the scenario that is reached. Just as all of the above conditions are rarely met (clear roles, consensus among decision-makers and a static vision). Just as most startups pivot before failing or succeeding, the new target scenario of any company's digital transformation exercise starts from people's change of mentality and from flexible management in the face of changing environments.

“Creative, or self-authoring, mind-sets are an inside-out way of experiencing the world based on creating our reality and way forward through tapping into and expressing our authentic selves, our core passion and purpose.” - McKinsey [2]

If years ago I had been told that the quote above was signed by McKinsey, I would have lost the bet. And so it is. A consultancy like McKinsey talking about personal transformation as a lever for collaboration in agile processes.

It's on us to be creative, to trust our passion and our purpose as a way of creating new outcomes, does it make sense to talk about processes or about collaboration dynamics?

If we live in an uncertain environment and in a changing context, does it make sense to talk about processes or about collaboration dynamics?

Teams spend almost 40% of their time reporting what they do to supervisors and client units does it make sense to talk about processes or about collaboration dynamics?

In the three cases above it was a rhetorical question.

The co-creator of the scrum methodology said that it is impossible to improve, and even less to learn, when the focus is on managing what is already known:

“Embrace the unknown! That’s where learning lies! If you’re too afraid to learn, you will never get any better.” - Jeff Sutherland

Dedicated to the students of the V edición del programa Dirección de Transformación Digital (5th edition of the Digital Transformation Management programme) at IE Business School: Eva Baonza, Catalina Caicedo, Miguel Ángel Calero, Elena Calpe, Miguel Charneco, Javier De la Cruz, Fidel De la Gala, Belén Delgado, Marcos Esqueda, Javier Esteban, Javier Fernández Figueredo, Alfredo Fernandez, Luis García, Josefina González, Antonio Hostalet, Sergio López, Albertina Montejo, Eugenio Moya, Beatriz Salvador, Pablo Solis, Jorge Tarrago, Pilar Trujillo, Nacho Verges.

And my special thanks to Susana Rodríguez Urgel as co-director of the programa Dirección de Transformación Digital at IE Business School.

Sources:

1. Bernardo Crespo: “El ruido de la Transformación Digital” (The noise of Digital Transformation) October 2018 https://www.bernardocrespo.com/el-ruido-de-la-transformacion-digital/
2. McKinsey: Leading agile transformation: The new capabilities leaders need to build 21st century organizations” October 2018 https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/organization/our%20insights/leading%20agile%20transformation%20the%20new%20capabilities%20leaders%20need%20to%20build/leading-agile-transformation-the-new-capabilities-leaders-need-to-build-21st-century-organizations.ashx

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[See the original POST on blog @b_crespo QUANTUM MARKETHINK]

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