Avoiding Common Mistakes in Business Transformation

Change is constant. From highly competitive market conditions to disruptive technologies, our world is rapidly evolving. Effective business transformation will ensure your company maintains pace with this evolution. 

You may be familiar with the four key pillars to business transformation: people, process, data and technology. But it’s the intersection of data, technology and process – and the impact each of those intersections has on your people – that is the key to effective change.

This is what I call the transformation imperative. Once you’ve identified change is needed, your company’s transformation imperative helps you navigate the process quickly and effectively.

I’ll show you how identifying your transformation imperative can help you avoid commonly made mistakes when it comes to undertaking largescale change.

Identifying key points at each intersection

Knowing when and how to implement transformational change is critical to success. You can prioritize your efforts by analyzing where and how transformation pillars overlap, along with the impact this has on your people. From there, you can determine the timing and tactics we want to apply to each change.

Take data and process, for example. When we evaluate how these two areas of a business co-exist, we can identify sticking points, like if and how we are providing actionable data throughout the daily workflow. User experience, productivity and outcome driven actions all live in the intersection of data and process. Failing to address this intersection effectively will leave teams mired in inefficient and uninformed processes.

If you shift to process and technology, you might see how this daily workflow is enabled – or held back – by the technology used. And the intersection of technology and data will show us if you're measuring the wrong things or missing important metrics to evaluate the workflow altogether.

Everything is interconnected. Changing one pillar will affect another. It’s essential when undertaking any sort of business transformation that we plan for and evaluate each of these interactions.

Prioritize projects

Once you understand your transformation imperative, take time to appropriately frame the business problems that need to be solved. Accurately assessing the greatest need is vital in shaping any new process.

This exercise will likely reveal multiple areas that require your focus. Ask yourself these important questions to help prioritize your efforts:

• Is one transformation more impactful than the others currently?
• What dependencies currently exist between the individual transformations that, if solved, increase the overall impact?
• For process transformation: do you have the appropriate technology in place to enable the change?
• For technology transformation: have you addressed your process to ensure maximum adoption of the technology?
• Will one of these projects create internal champions that can help guide future efforts?
• What risks exist for each transformation, and what are your strategies to mitigate them?
• How will you measure and report on the success of each transformation?

Taking on too many elements of change at once can overwhelm your team’s resources and detract focus. Diligently working through the above process will help make sure you’ve pinpointed the initiatives with the broadest impact across the pillars of change. 

The importance of data

Think of your pillars as components of a car. Each part is necessary for movement, but the fourth component – data – is your driver.

If you’re not thinking about and using data effectively from the start, your project won’t go anywhere. Invest in defining your goals and the components you’ll use to measure progress.

Don’t wait until you’re 18 months into the change management process to begin determining your metrics. Identify metrics that capture the business impact of your transformation at the forefront so you can measure along the way and confirm you’re on the right path.

Don’t speed

Speaking of cars, it can be tempting to go fast. Once a company sees the need to change, momentum builds and people want to see results quickly. Resist that urge.

Going too fast too quickly can cause leaders to overlook important parts of the process. Those mistakes can lead to more expense and delays down the line. Make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to assess the problem and how your proposed change affects each of those key intersections.

Understand that patience is a virtue in business transformation.

Place process before technology

Place a special focus on determining the right process. It might be tempting to look at technology first – we’re often drawn to new gadgets, programs and applications that promise to solve our problems. But you can have all the innovative technology in the world, and it will fail if you don’t have the right process and people in place to absorb it.

Clearly defined processes should be enabled by innovative technologies. You’ll use data to drive your decisions in the process. And you’ll get that data from relevant technologies. This synergy is the key you’ll give to your people that unlocks a powerful transformation and sets your business up for success. 

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