For digital transformation to stick, change has to become routine. Yet most companies still struggle with implementation, particularly the sort that requires people to not only adopt new practices but also to rethink more deeply-rooted attitudes and expectations. A new, more distributed approach is needed in complex organisations.
At a previous company, I led the turn-around of a business unit that was, at the time, struggling with its product identity and delivery model. Not surprisingly, the turnaround involved both a new strategy and a big chunk of change management. I had never heard of participatory change models. Fortunately, a few members of my management team recommended — gently, but persistently — that we take a more inclusive approach.
Through that summer and into the new year, we assembled and empowered a network of both managers and individual contributors to guide and implement the change. Collectively, we built the new business.
It was not easy. It took only two months to set the strategy but two years to shift the organisation. That said, as I was leaving my role to prepare for a new gig in modern org design, my team and I received the highest compliment. In a third-party survey that rated firms across our industry, clients cited our product as a differentiator in the broader portfolio. I hope that my “guide network” recognises their role in this and are proud of their achievement. I know I am.
Guide networks (or Change Agent networks as they are often labelled) are effective, because they both enact and amplify change actions. Even the most well-funded digital transformation team will struggle to drive change to the edges of a large, global organisation.
Partly, it’s a matter of scale. There is just not enough of the central team to go around. But mostly, it’s a matter of psychology. Change management efforts fail when a top-down, carefully-engineered vision is rolled out to a largely sceptical organisation. People don’t like change done to them. The failure rate only increases when you add on top people’s filters of culture, language, and beliefs.
Instead, modern change efforts require a more participatory approach, in which change emerges as part of an organic, ongoing process.
A network of voluntary change agents or “digital guides” can serve as the eyes and ears of such an effort.
Connecting with and supporting these people is an obvious first step, usually through your organisation’s social tools or a dedicated community.
