How can tech leaders take people with them on their digital transformation journey?

Roland Emmans, technology sector head at HSBC UK Commercial Banking, explains how tech leaders take people with them on their digital transformation journey

People don’t like change, or so we’re often led to believe. With the technological revolution of the last ten months, how can businesses make sure that their people engage and join them on their digital transformation journeys? More than two thirds of all digital transformation fail1 and in most cases that’s because organisations force change onto their people rather than involving them in the process and evolving new systems around the feedback they receive.

Ultimately, human beings are very simple and respond to three things:

It’s essential that technology leaders understand that digital change can very often be seen as a threat and it can be hard for people, especially when it’s happening all of the time. Whether it’s an automated process replacing something that has long been completed manually, or something technical that employees may be worried about adapting their skills to. From the conversations we’ve been having with customers we know there has been a huge level of technological change in recent months with many firms accelerating four or five years’ worth of digital transformation all at once.

From ways of working, to evolving software and new working practices we’ve all experienced huge change during the pandemic for a prolonged period of time. It’s said that it takes six weeks to form a habit and we’re well beyond that at this stage, so as technological change becomes permanent rather than temporary it’s critical to keep people focused on the future and not looking back to the past. To an extent the large amount of change in the last year has raised people’s tolerance but many businesses are still in the middle of this digital transformation. They are becoming increasingly focused on their ‘new normal’ and delivering permanent tech strategy transformation for the future to deliver long-term sustainability and success. There are several things to consider to do deliver these strategies effectively.

In my view the most important thing is to sell a vision to people. Leaders need to make it personal for their employees, make it clear that by introducing this new digital tool their life will become easier and their productivity more efficient. Leaders can look to do this by winning hearts and minds through demonstrations and simple, clear communication. If, for example, a business is introducing a new collaborative tool they need to make it clear how

that will benefit employees.