Leading Digital Organisations through conversations

Leading Digital Organisations through conversations

Two weeks ago, I attended a fantastic event which started at 12:00 – 13:00 with ‘Networking and Lunch.’ Only one part of that appealed, and the other (for clarity, the Networking) created a knot in my stomach.

I love finding out about other people and their stories, what path led them to where they are today, what fires them up, and what worries them.    It’s answering the question, ‘So what do you do, Karen’ that triggers the inner voice.    ‘What was it about the elevator pitch,’ ‘do I mention immersive digital learning, or is it simulation training.’ As quickly as I can, I flip the conversation back, ‘so what challenges are you facing around people and skills.’

Over time I have developed what I think is a great strategy.    I arrive on time and sit in my car, sitting in the car park at a networking event!    I then wait and head into the conference room with just enough time to get a cup of tea and have two great conversations before the presentations start.    Genius!

Last week was different, though.    Just before I set off, I messaged a good friend telling her how I was feeling, and her reply hit home ‘You’re great at building rapport.    Get to that meeting’. 

How complicated had I made having a conversation?    Instead of listening to the busy voice in my head, I relaxed into rapport and being present.    This helped me notice more as my listening improved, and I asked better questions.    The quality of insights and connections with new people I met was incredible, and my experience of the event changed; I actually really enjoyed it.

So, where else is this true?    How complicated have our conversations in the workplace and our personal lives become?

What if performance reviews could be engaging and inspiring instead of being a dread?    There might be boxes to tick and steps to follow, but that does not override the significant space between those steps, which is all manager and team member time.

This is for more than just the formally arranged meetings, though.    Impromptu conversations in the corridor, waiting for the Teams call to start, or when we’re late for a Senior Leadership Team meeting and walking through the shop floor.    What happens when one of our front-line team stops us to ask us a question?

I recently designed and delivered a Leadership programme for a top-performing global organisation.    It was the first development many of their managers had received in a long time or even at all.    I focused on the essential skills leaders need to help them become match-fit for their digital future.    My design phase research confirmed that the leadership skills required can be developed and do not require leaders to build their Data Programming skills.

Interestingly, where once Emotional Intelligence was the realm of top performers, it is now considered the entry-level requirement for managers and leaders at all levels.

Many outcomes from the programme focused on greater self-awareness.    With comments like ‘I’m aware now of what I’m thinking and feeling when someone else is talking.  Or ‘how I might have interrupted to quickly resolve the issue under pressure to achieve the customer orders on time    .’With their self-awareness, habits began to change, and listening, questioning, and empathy skills improved, both at work and home.    Even more exciting and fulfilling for me was that the leaders were practicing these skills authentically, not needing to borrow the characteristics of superhero leaders.

They were making a difference to their team and family members by being themselves with new and enhanced skills.

What does this mean for Leaders and the workplace of the future?

According to a recent article by CCL (Center for Creative Leadership), “regardless of where a leader falls in your organisation chart, strong conversational and coaching skills are essential.    Challenges like the global COVID pandemic, widespread political and economic uncertainty, and the recent rise of remote and hybrid workforce models….interpersonal relationship-building and effective virtual communication are required to build high-performing, geographically dispersed teams”.

In addition, as the focus increases on Digital Technologies and Digital Transformation, it is worth remembering that the greatest value comes from the human and technology working together.  This then places higher (not less) demand on leadership capabilities such as collaboration, empowerment, engagement, and adaptability.

As workplace pressure increases, we can often focus on the immediate task and problem-solving or, in my case, trying to remember the specifics of an elevator pitch.    What difference could a pause, skilful listening, and a perceptive question make to your next conversation?

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE

LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Reddit
Email

What sparked Klarity 4.0 HR?

digital transformation from chrysalis to butterfly
digital transformation from chrysalis to butterfly

What sparked Klarity 4.0 HR?

I am fascinated by how, through history, each industrial revolution has improved productivity, leading to a positive impact on society and crucially improving working conditions.

With the fourth industrial revolution and Digital Transformation, this will continue.

I can’t entirely agree with the prospect of robots taking over our jobs. Instead, humans will continue to play a central role, utilising skills of creativity, insight, complex reasoning, and emotional intelligence. In the same way, computers and software packages have meant that people who previously performed secretarial roles are no longer required.

However, those people are now undertaking roles as Quality Assurance Technicians, Human Resource Administrators, or Executive Assistants. Those individuals have learned and acquired new skills, which has meant they can pivot with the changing environment. This requires organisational support, confidence, investment, and commitment to be uncomfortable while learning.

For several years, I have successfully delivered change programmes in global businesses in the manufacturing, aerospace, nuclear, and engineering sectors. Having worked more recently in SMEs (Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises), I fully understand the time and resource constraints. It is hard to honour the commitments made, ensuring that quality products delivered on time to the customer. Therefore, it is entirely understandable that business leaders are not focused on how new technologies or ways of working could transform their businesses, yet.

The same businesses tend to suffer from low productivity, inefficient working practices, inaccurate data, and without digital foundations in place will be unable to fully maximise their growth and productivity.

Engaging Digital Adoption brings together digital technologies and people in a unique way to harness the full potential of Digital Transformation. Successful Digital Adoption happens when the team owns the new technology who look at ways to improve it, and new habits withstand the pressure of delivery.

One of the most significant barriers to Digital Adoption is the lack of engagement with the workforce.  

In my experience, shop floor staff already feel left behind with spreadsheets and will feel even more daunted by the prospect of using digital technologies. They have a latent talent, an incredible experience, and tacit knowledge to be harnessed. We must capture their unique insights to inform the technology and pass on to the next generation of workers. In the next few years, we will have five generations in the workplace, and without engaging adoption, their skills and talents could be left behind.

With Klarity 4.0 HR, I aim to create a community of practice, supporting and enabling individuals to perform at their best, developing new behaviours and being a catalyst for business success. All of which embodies my values of caring for people and leaving a lasting legacy.

I recently delivered a webinar as part of the Digital Leaders Virtual Summit where I share my thoughts on ‘Cultivating the Conditions for Engaging Digital Adoption’, which can be viewed here. I am interested to know your thoughts.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE

LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Reddit
Email

What exactly do you mean by becoming digital

becoming digital blog header

What exactly do you mean by ‘becoming Digital’ ?

I overheard a conversation recently between two experienced professionals comparing how ‘digital’ different businesses are “…this organisation I know really understand digital; they now have all their contact details for clients in Outlook…and instead of production plans on spreadsheets they use an ERP system”

Whilst it may seem semantics there is a significant difference between digital, digitisation and digitalisation and in order to truly harness the full potential of Digital Transformation it is essential that you and your organisation are clear on the difference. According to an MIT CapGemini Consulting report one of the most significant barriers to Digital Transformation is ‘lack of familiarity with digital – “we don’t know how to do that”, without being clear in what we mean by ‘becoming Digital’ any progress will stall.

Digitisation is the process of converting data to digital formats

Digitising takes a paper-based process and makes it electronic. For instance, a client recently replaced the need for filing cabinets of HR records with a global online system. Previously this information would have been stored locally in one of their 70 onsite locations, requiring a significant amount of HR time and effort to produce management information. The HR Team can now automate reporting freeing up their time for more value-added activities, such as using the digitised data to facilitate strategic resource planning discussions.

For continued business success in today’s markets, achieving growth in productivity and profitability; digitising is essential. However, despite more than 20 years of business digitization history, the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) has found that only 28% of established companies have successfully digitised. Furthermore, research has found that companies cannot adopt new digital business models; their core systems, processes, and data, if they have not digitised first.

Digitalising is the act of implementing digital solutions to improve business performance

Typically, critical business processes like sales orders, production planning, maintenance schedules, manufacturing operating procedures are run on legacy systems or separate spreadsheets. Whilst the data is digitised these spreadsheets and systems don’t talk to each other and are time consuming to operate, update and maintain. Further time is wasted creating management information to accurately report on operational performance, comparing performance of each shift or measuring the conversion accuracy of sales opportunities to orders.

It seems the daunting prospect of traditional (long and expensive) ERP implementation maybe deterring leaders. Perhaps you have had experience of development and testing over running, often meaning that time for engaging workforce, and embedding behavioural changes would be sacrificed.

Digital technologies such as internet of things, data analytics, robotics, and artificial intelligence can help extend visibility into a company’s operations all the way to customers’ mobile devices. ‘By connecting data flowing from the manufacturing plant with data flowing from customer activities, all then mediated through connected technologies, crunched in the cloud, and fed back into manufacturers’ systems, a virtuous data loop is formed that enables manufacturers to achieve unprecedented customer service’. Anson, Manufacturing 2020.

Operational Excellence still plays a vital role for the inherent benefits of discipline, standardisation and removal of waste. There is really no point in digitising waste. Business gains from digitalising and utilising digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence are shown below;

what is digitalisation

Digital Transformation

Digitising may previously have helped achieve noticeable gains within your industry sectors and is still an important enabler for digital technologies. However, digitisation on its own is now not enough to compete. Digitalising more and more processes will not make your business digital.

Established companies have started to define innovative digital strategies which will transform their business to become entirely customer-driven. Schneider Electric SE has moved beyond selling electrical products to providing energy management solutions. Kaiser Permanente views itself not as a health care provider but as a patient-provider collaboration. BMW is not just an automobile manufacturer; it’s a provider of individual mobility. Philips has sold off multiple businesses, including its foundational lighting business, to focus on “improving lives through health care innovation.” MIT Don’t Confuse Digital with Digitization, Jeanne Ross.

What does this mean for leaders?

Leaders need to be able to hold the paradox of maintaining and continuously improving the business while at the same time, creating the conditions for innovation and future possibilities. In a previous article, a recommended approach involved creating a ringfenced area focusing on Digital Adoption. Leaders must provide a clear vision and relinquish control to a team who are then empowered to experiment and learn.

For digitising, digitalisation and Digital Transformation the message is consistent; without engaging digital adoption, ensuring the technology adoption is made through an empowered workforce, the technology benefits will not be fully realised. Whilst, the bridge to Digital Transformation crucially involves data, processes and technologies, organisation wide clarity on purpose, strategy and employee engagement is the important first step.

© Copyright 2020 Klarity 4.0 HR Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Protected with www.ProtectMyWork.com, Reference Number: 8365220520S046

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE

LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Reddit
Email

Digital Adoption – A change managers experience

Digital Adoption – A Change Manager’s Experience

To quote the Chinese proverb ‘The best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now.

If you have ever attended presentations or read articles about Industry 4.0 you are likely to come across terms like ‘revolutionary’, ‘ground breaking’, or ‘disruption’ and whilst it is challenging enough to keep the current business running, this perception of Industry 4.0 can make your preparations for the digital future feel even more daunting.

It is vitally important to get the implementation of digital technology right, to truly harness its potential. But technology on its own will not transform your business; the greatest value comes from employees and technology working together. If this engagement is not achieved it is likely the workforce will fail to adopt new ways of working.

With the investment in new technology wasted and labelled as “another initiative of the month”.

The critical role that people, leadership and culture play in digital transformation is less talked about than the technologies and while these aspects are perceived as harder to change, they are key to the success of a digital adoption programme.

Digital transformation cannot be driven by top-down instruction to change. All leaders, at all levels must demonstrate key leadership traits to create the best conditions for employees to start thinking and working differently. Leaders need to enable the organisation by providing vision and purpose, creating conditions to experiment, empowering people to think differently and ensuring collaboration across functions.

Digital transformation cannot be delegated to the IT department.

In terms of Digital talent there is no secret black box knowledge which can only be found in Silicon Valley, Millennials were not born with digital skills and you don’t need to retrain your employees to be Data Scientists or Programmers.

Core-Periphery Model as an organisational enabler of Digital transformation

According to Melissa Valentine, Stanford University, the Core-Periphery Model (CPM) provides a useful change management structure to enable businesses to shape the Workplace of the Future.

The Core represents a small group of employees who are invested in, trained, nurtured, and empowered to assemble project teams from a peripheral group of employees.

Core employees need to adapt to constant change and require the ability to continuously learn. Businesses should create the opportunities for continuous lifelong learning, not necessarily in the traditional classroom format, but online, and at the point of use.

For instance, whilst adopting Operational Excellence doesn’t require everyone to be Six Sigma Black Belts, it does require staff to have an appreciation of the scope and range of application of the techniques. In the same way, it is important to invest in your leaders and employees to become digitally savvy, gaining an awareness of digital technologies; what they are, how they can be adopted and the expected benefit of use. For example, BASF utilise 1 hour of their weekly Senior Leadership Team meetings to learn about new digital technologies.

Rather than the alarming prospect of robots taking over, the latest research shows that humans will continue to play a central role in all business sectors, bringing uniquely human skills of creativity, complex reasoning and emotional intelligence ¹.

We are fortunate, in the North West to have access to a comprehensive range of digital talent, support and funding, making the opportunity to adopt digital technologies even easier. The Innovation Centre at Sci-Tech Daresbury is acting as a hub for digital technology firms providing expertise to clients on a project basis, whilst support programmes such as LCR 4.0 START and Made Smarter and organisations such as The Virtual Engineering Centre help create the best conditions within an organisation to ensure that digital technology is fully adopted and stimulates further business growth. Everything you need to prepare your leaders and workforce is available right now, including maximising the Apprenticeship Levy for leadership and workforce development.

Whilst the Digital Revolution might seem daunting, maximising regional and UK funding opportunities to develop your digital leadership and workforce and accessing specialist impartial digital technology advice is a good place to start.

¹ Coming of Age Digitally. Learning, Leadership, and Legacy’ MIT Sloan Management Review Research Report. Summer 2018. By Gerald C. Kane, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips, David Kiron, and Natasha Buckley

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE

LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Reddit
Email