Are you implementing digital transformation programmes with pre-digital tools?

While companies have been focusing on how to use digital solutions to improve their customer-facing businesses, the application of digital tools to promote and accelerate internal change has received far less attention. However, applying new digital tools can make change more meaningful and durable, both for the individuals who are experiencing it and for those who are implementing it. 

Nowadays organizations must simultaneously deliver rapid results and sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive environment: leaders have to make decisions quickly, managers have to react rapidly to opportunities and threats, and employees on the front line have to be flexible and collaborative.  

In this dynamic and fast-paced environment, competitive advantage will occur to companies with the ability to set new priorities and implement them quicker than their competitors. While traditional practices such as workshops and training courses have their place, they are not effective at scale and are slow-moving. 

B2C companies have unlocked powerful digital tools to enhance the customer journey and shift consumer behaviour. Some of these digital tools and techniques can be applied effectively to change-management techniques within an organization. Digital dashboards and personalized messages, for example, can build faster, more effective support for new behaviours or processes in environments where management capacity to engage deeply and frequently with every employee is constrained by time and geography. 

Below are a few examples of areas that can be digitized, making internal change efforts more effective and enduring. 

1. Personalisation – Personalising the experience is about filtering information in a way that is relevant to the user and showing everyone’s role and contribution to a greater group goal. A simple digital solution can be an effective motivator and stimulate positive peer competition. 

2. Connection – Creating direct connections among people across the organization allows them to shorten the time it takes to get things done. It also allows employees to share important information, find answers quickly, and get help and advice from people they trust. 

3. Community – In multi-geography organizations, communities involved in change efforts are often physically distant from one another. Providing a channel for colleagues to share and see all the information related to a task, including progress updates and informal commentary, can create an important sense of belonging. 

4. Feedback – The best feedback processes are designed to offer the right information when the recipient can act on it. Digital tools can help provide just-in-time feedback giving recipients the opportunity to adjust their behaviour and witness the effects of these adjustments on performance. 

5. Monitoring – Digital change tools help organizations to communicate progress across all territories and organizational layers so that people can see what is happening in real-time. More sophisticated tools can also show individual contributions toward the common goal.   Digital tools and platforms offer a powerful way to accelerate and amplify the ability of an organization to change. However, the tool should not drive the solution. Companies should have a clear view of the new behaviours they want to reinforce and find digital solutions to support them.