A cultural change plan needs to focus on:
- Why change is needed (Vision)
- Who will change (Resources)
- How things change (Processes)
- What will change (Values)
To drive the needed behavioural changes required to realise the expected benefits of digital transformation.
The very DNA of the company will have to change:
- New values learnt to enable new instinctual business behaviour
- New ways of working will have to be adopted to use digital
- The purpose of each function & team will be redefined
The cultural norms & behaviours will have to change to achieve positive results.
Culture predominately affects the values of an organisation and the resources within the organisation. Change management should be at the forefront of your digital transformation programme to ensure that the most important aspects of digital transformation, the people, are able to embrace it. Then they can deliver the benefits and expectations of digital transformation.
When focus is on the tangible technology first and not culture then:
- Insufficient effort is made to demonstrate the changed values within the organisation
- Ways of working are given too little importance, often relegated to ’just another process, or tool’
- Progress stalls as decisions are not made, and frustration increased within programme
- The benefits of transformation are not realised.
Where cultural change is not given the attention it deserves then “antibodies” will appear within the organisation becoming pockets of resistance.
Culture? Not My Club
In research undertaken by Boston Consulting Group found that:
- Companies that focus on culture change are 5x more likely to deliver the expected financial benefits of digital transformation
- nearly 80% of the companies that focused on culture sustained strong or breakthrough performance in their digital transformation