Digital Transformation is not a 9-5 Job

It's the last week of summer, so maybe take some time to reflect on your team's performance over the last several months. Has your team come up for air after adjusting to COVID, remote working, and realigning digital transformation priorities? 

Because before diving into the end of year budgeting, planning, and moving transformation programs forward, I want to share and important realization. Your staff knows this all too well, but leaders often forget this fact:

Digital transformation is not a 9-5 job.

It may sound odd saying this now that many businesses have adjusted to more flexible work schedules. So maybe, I need to reword this as:

Digital transformation doesn't happen easily within a 40-hour workweek.

Refocus Your Team on Realistic Priorities

Just think about it for a second. Everyone had a day job before you asked them to take on a role in the transformation. Sales were selling, marketers were running campaigns, and operations were servicing different aspects of customer needs. Before the transformation program, technologists were supporting applications, upgrading infrastructure, and responding to service requests. 

Even employees who spend the majority of their time on projects, agile development teams, innovation programs, research, data science experiments, and other business initiatives are often asked to take on greater responsibilities and increase their velocity during digital transformations.

Reflect, Listen, and then React

So take a break this week (I am!), and before you come back, listen to your staff before piling on a new set of marching orders or driving new urgencies on transformation initiatives.

If you don't know where to start, consider some of my suggestions from previous posts:

• Do you have too many transformation priorities? Most organizations sign up for too much and then underdeliver.
• Consider low-code platforms and governed citizen development programs to simplify the development of new workflows or modernizing legacy applications.
• Are you looking to Shift or pivot the digital transformation program? Consider these seven steps to validating and then communicating the change.
• Are stakeholders asking for too many priorities and wish list capabilities? Review my recommendations on getting stakeholders aligned with agile programs.
• If you wait till the end and then organize a change management program, then you're probably too late. Review my recommendations on how digital transformation requires a transformational change program.

Enjoy the end of summer. The new normal means that we don't really know exactly what to prepare for next, so keep plans strategically simple. Turn on the empathy before hitting the gas pedal.