Embracing Change
This rapid move of novel becoming normal is literally the Kano Model in action.1 And what's more, the rate of change isn’t slowing down. These incremental changes impact the business landscape drastically as customer wants and needs change over time.
Embracing these rapid changes is part of the modern business landscape that we now live in. While buzzwords like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and IoT dominate the conversation, it's more important to focus on the fundamentals that enable these capabilities. This means preparing your teams and your organisation to adapt to technology changes faster.
Teams that embrace change when things get shaken up have a very different culture to those that dig their heels in. They have the support and bravery to take controlled risks because they feel supported and know that if they fail, they won’t be thrown under the bus. Getting this balance right is where innovation flows.
Along with being a leader who fosters a ‘change culture’ there are a few other ingredients to navigating your way through digital disruption.
Get the Platform Right
The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that the current digital revolution is occurring at ten times the pace and 300 times the scale of the Industrial Revolution.² The best way to handle a world changing this fast is with a platform that embodies just that; one built around evolution, that’s flexible and agile. This is where the cloud comes in.
A solid cloud infrastructure is a crucial aspect of any evolving business strategy. It gives you the ability to store and use vast quantities of data to play and innovate with. It’s no coincidence that all of the most transformative technologies rely on cloud infrastructure to power them. As we discussed in our 2018 event round-up, 'Embracing the change culture', the cloud provides the gateway to innovate.
Make Sure Your People are Onboard
As author and analyst Daniel Newman3 puts it:
Technology may be the driving force behind the shifting face of the industry, but it’s how your employees respond that will make—or break—the future of your business.
Working fully in tandem with the right platform is making sure your people are fully on board. Some say this is the first step; however, technology and people are jointly important, as one working well without the other simply won’t be effective. Creating a culture for change, and thus one of innovation, is so important.
How to Keep Your People on Board
It can be tricky convincing people about the need to change as a large proportion of people like routine and as a consequence don’t warm to any alternative ways of doing things. Supportive leadership is an excellent start.
Here are four ways to help make sure your people are on board and stay on board:
Keep the momentum
Keep technology change at the top of your organisation’s agenda. Thankfully, New Zealand organisations are relatively small, so the degrees of separation between different levels of team members are less, meaning conversations and relationships are easier and in many cases, can be face-to-face or more personal.
Talk and listen
Talk about it constantly, listen and discuss, as the insights you will hear will always be valuable. People typically resist change, but now embracing it is a necessity in order to drive innovation. Listen to them – if there’s a better way of doing something, your employees will know about it.
Paint the vision
Make sure you talk about the big picture, so people understand your vision for the future. If it’s clear they are more likely to be supportive.
Make it the norm
Change should be part of culture along with learning and growing so these all become part of the “way we do things around here.” Measure, analyse, re-tune and celebrate often. A change culture needs to be overt.
Have a Plan and Be Resilient
Adopt the technology that’s right for your business and stick with it for your agreed time frame, measuring, assessing and talking constantly along the way. In our view, the best way to go about this is as follows:
Understand where you are and where you want to be
Assess then decide on a technology platform, where cloud plays a central role
Commit to a timeframe
Measure constantly and fine-tune
Understand that change is hard work, but very rewarding
CELEBRATE your success and your team!
Getting back to the fundamentals and having a clear plan should allow you to cut through the noise in the industry and avoid the magpie approach of chasing every new trend.
