OVER the past four weeks we focused on the strategy and vision aspect of the digital transformation journey. That section of the trip had three main stops: digital strategy, digital focus, and investments. Starting today, and for the next two weeks, we turn to people and culture, which arguably is the most crucial section of this digital transformation journey but which does not get enough attention. Upcoming stops include leadership, digital skills and culture.

Leadership

A great deal is written on leadership, what it is and what it is not. We rather like a simple definition attributed to the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D “Ike” Eisenhower. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Outstanding leadership is critical for the success of any digital transformation project. Without solid digital governance and leadership what’s left is a lot of new technology, but no transformation.

Setting clear direction

The leadership of the organisation must create a crystal-clear vision of the new look after the transformation. This vision needs to be communicated, in the best definition of the word, to the entire organisation. All the key players must be on board with the vision and outcome.

Provide and support momentum

Once the vision of the digital future is communicated the leadership team needs to ensure that focused priority is given to the projects and initiatives supporting the new way forward. There must be an adequate budget and a fast path to implementation. Leadership also needs to prepare the team for a few failures which might occur on the journey and stress that the entire organisation needs to learn from these failures. In essence, leadership needs to foster a deliberate shift towards a high-performance culture complete with the necessary tools, training, and resources required for everyone involved to stay the course. In addition to leadership, every effort must be made to ensure that you have the right people on project teams, because they hold the keys to success.

People

Everyone supports the proposed changes, as long as the change does not affect them. We are learning that digital transformation is less about technology and a lot more about people and their mindset. If you speak to any leader of a successful change or transformation process you will hear these very leaders credit the success to all the “good people” on their team, but what does that mean? Ask these leaders for a definition of “good people” and you are bound to get different perspectives. Simply put, it’s about getting the right people in the right seats. As Jim Collins described in his book Good to Great, the right people are those employees who share your company’s core values and help to support a culture based on those values. The right seat means that an employee is operating within their area of greatest skill and passion within an organisation. Things get very interesting when you are considering changing things around and “transforming” the processes that many in the organisation know and love. Leadership needs to understand if the organisation has the necessary digital skills to help effect the change and, equally important, maximise the use of new capabilities as they are enabled.

Next week we look at digital skills.

Trevor Forrest is founder and CEO of 876 Technology Solutions. Christopher Reckord is CEO of managed IT services provider tTech Limited. Collectively they have approximately 80 years of experience in helping organisations of varying sizes procure and implement information technology solutions and transform digitally.