Creating Digital Transformation By Fostering Strong Relationships
By Albert Stadler, Vice President of Information Services – Chief Information Officer, Crowder College
For the last several decades, business leaders and journalists alike have been calling for “digital transformation.” Despite my natural distaste for overused buzzwords like zero-trust and digital transformation, most leaders agree that there is a constant need for organizations to evolve in order to continue to serve colleagues and customers well. Digital transformations have given rise to e-commerce, fully online universities, on-demand streaming, work-from-home, and many other business changes. These changes have created entire industries and kept historic organizations relevant after their original product was rendered obsolete.
Over the years, my understanding of how to best implement these types of changes has evolved. As an IT leader, I have overseen several massive changes in the digital ecosystems of the organizations I have been fortunate to serve. Early evolutions centered on cloud-based email and moving away from single-point-of-failure services; however, for my institution’s latest digital transformation, I was brought into an organization to help recover from a debilitating ransomware incident. With COVID-19 on the rise, three months later, we sent everyone home to finish the semester online. This was a time wrought with nothing but digital transformations.
The need for digital, if not institutional, transformations will persist as customers’ needs change and new technologies are developed.
Still, these kinds of unprecedented times are far more manageable with meaningful relationships. Relationships are central to understanding whether the next transformation will be a resounding failure or a roaring success. Furthermore, relationships are essential to recognizing the appetite for change within an organization. Being mindful of how colleagues feel about a large project, or if they are tired and worn down about ongoing changes in the company, are essential to know their willingness to move forward with institutional change. This kind of introspection informs on whether now is the best time to move forward or whether a temporary pause is necessary.
Maintaining healthy relationships requires small habits such as walking the hallways, eating with those outside of your area of influence in the organizational tree, asking questions about your colleagues’ accomplishments, discovering the work outside IT, and listening to how important the work of your colleagues’ is to the organization. Being an active participant in the lives of others and genuinely listening to their concerns can help alleviate any potential resistance to the kinds of inevitable changes that occur.
Within IT groups, change is an understood and well-accepted (though sometimes begrudgingly) constant. Outside of the IT group, change may occur much slower. While IT groups would like to see themselves as central to operations, we often are unaware of important initiatives happening outside of the IT scope and the kind of energy required by these projects. Intentional relationships with individuals throughout the organization help build your understanding of an acceptable pace of change. When too much change occurs or happens too quickly, team members can become obstinate, and well-intentioned transformational visions can do more harm than good.
Upon returning to campus from our spring COVID closure, the pressing technological needs of the college were evident. Getting email to the cloud was needed to provide better, more flexible access to everyone shifting between campus and home quarantines. A new Learning Management Service (LMS) for all online classes had been selected one year earlier and needed to be implemented before the next academic year. There were other non-digital changes coming to the college, including the planned retirement of the existing President, procedures for managing the spread of COVID-19, and a complete redesign of the assessment required for accreditation. These transformations, both in and out of IT, exhausted people across the college. Unfortunately, many of these changes were non-negotiable. They could not wait. The time required of faculty and staff to oversee the transitions, develop new procedures, and learn new systems (while still fulfilling their regular duties) was immense. Having previously invested in relationships across our organization helped us to avoid pushing for additional transformation at the wrong time.
If a limited desire for change is the status quo, leaders must prioritize future goals. Just like security frameworks begin with inventorying current software and processes, a catalog of current solutions must be made. Following this review, you will be better able to prioritize and select the most prescient changes to make rather than trying to accomplish everything at once. Currently, I have moderated the pace of my dream to transform the IT team through automation. The need is there, and the benefits are obvious, but the team and organization are not ready. Other projects are more vital for this time.
When transformations do occur, you must continue to lean into relationships with your people. Repeatedly share the vision for the future so that everyone can appreciate and understand the reason for the extra work. One newsletter, email, or meeting to launch a transformative change will not sustain your teams to the end.
As these projects progress, find time to celebrate accomplishments regularly. Make excuses to pause the work, gather the team, and celebrate together. These moments offer time to recognize the work already accomplished and offer opportunities for new perspectives on the problems they are currently facing. Most importantly, though, the celebrations provide a repose from the daily work, help renew the team, and restore their enthusiasm for change.
The need for digital, if not institutional, transformations will persist as customers’ needs change and new technologies are developed. As technology leaders, we must not forget about the impact of transformation on very real people. Building and investing in relationships will pay dividends in ensuring the success of necessary transformations and continued organizational progress.