Digital Transformation Today

“My agenda is to have leaders think about how to use technology to create a more fair and just culture”. Recently I started a small project considering the potential of digital transformation initiatives in the context of the COVID 19 crisis. When I began the research I could not have imagined that the quote above from Kathleen Bot (in early May) would have such resonance today amidst the continuing pandemic and protests in response to the killing of George Floyd. To clear both my head and my heart, I will set my cultural perspective on these issues aside for now to discuss digital transformation in martech today.

My early research revealed that even the definition of digital transformation varies widely depending on the source. Definitions in the martech market ranged from:

Technology-centric: “Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new business processes and customer experiences”. Salesforce

To people-centric: “Changing the potential of human beings in an organization”. Widen

And more general: “Using new technologies to tackle old problems”. Workfront

It may be safe to say, broadly, that digital transformation relates to change supported by technology. In addition to the definition varying significantly, the current state of digital transformation for any company or institution is hyper local and dependent upon key characteristics of its strategy, culture, operations, and technology. As the two points above became more clear (which for us here in Chicago was about day 30 of our shelter-in-place), I realized the COVID 19 crisis had similar characteristics. Although the crisis is global in terms of its spread and terrible potential, it is very much local in terms of its specific impact upon a family, home, neighborhood, city, or country.

Today, as the world cautiously re-opens and organizations respond to rapidly changing cultural and consumer priorities, digital transformation initiatives are critical to supporting the urgent need for change. Below I’ll share the insights and observations of several colleagues whose careers have been focused on leading successful digital transformations, and who graciously spoke with me during these tumultuous times.

“There is an assumption that digital transformation is about technology, but that is not always the case – it’s really about people, process, and change”. I met John Horodyski after he moderated an excellent panel on metadata during a Henry Stewart conference in New York. John’s ability to treat the topic of metadata governance as approachable and actionable, and dare I say enjoyable, came as a refreshing change of pace. When was the last time you brought up the concept of governance and received a positive response from your audience? In John’s role as Managing Director for Optimity Advisors he leads client digital transformation programs focusing on information management, metadata and taxonomy for content optimization, rights and governance, and change management for content operations.

Creativity, Data Analytics, and Technology. These are the three dimensions that John and the team at Optimity integrate to lead transformations in how their clients engage with customers, suppliers, and associates. Data Analytics and Technology, while not simple or always mature within an organization, were obvious topics for this discussion. However, I was surprised to hear the first term, creativity and the use of “design thinking”. As John went on to explain the iterative relationship between the three dimensions, the importance of creativity became clear. In this context creativity applies to the ideation and problem solving space, where leaders and change agents consider how to initiate or respond to change with new and perhaps untested methods.

Further research revealed that creative thinking could be more important in today's environment than ever. “Leadership in these fast-moving times requires creativity, empathy, and stewardship, in order to develop the solutions needed to tackle the complex problems we face”, thnk.org. In John’s telling, a significant number of transformation projects hinge on the team's ability to use data and the insights it can provide to question everything from strategic objectives to tactical operations. As an example, one of his CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) clients spent significant time speaking with users in workshops and collective intelligence sessions so as to better understand their needs and requirements. And, with these qualitative and quantitative data from the usage of their DAM (Digital Asset Management) system, user personas were able to be created to help establish much of the user experience (UX) needed for an effective transformation.

As John and I concluded our discussion one additional point surfaced worth sharing. The first related to the velocity of change. Despite the significant immediacy and urgency the current health and social issues confronting the world have engendered, the need for strong governance and change controls remains paramount. This might be a good topic for a follow-up posting that looks into how well the transformations we’ve watched (e.g. telemedicine, remote schooling, curbside pickup, etc.) were supported by governance and controls.

“Digital transformation encompasses any project that optimizes the way we live and work through technology”. My experience with Kathleen Bot at Inspired Intellect introduced me to how she applied her background in organizational psychology and change management to lead digital transformation and adoption programs. In her current role as the Director of Advisory Services and People Science, Kathleen is also responsible for leading Inspired Intellect’s internal people strategy. I spoke with Kathleen several days after speaking with John, and began with a similar set of questions about digital transformation and our current environment.

We began by agreeing that there is a clear sense of urgency today that previously posed a challenge to many transformational leaders. From Kathleen’s experience, despite this obvious need for change the biggest challenge facing these leaders is underestimating the complexities of transforming cultures, legacy processes, and creating alignment for change across an organization.

One Inspired Intellect solution that Kathleen provides in support of this particular challenge is innovation management and organizational alignment that is facilitated remotely through a crowdsourcing platform called, ThoughtExchange. Crowdsourcing serves as an extremely effective tool to create a fair and just system during the ideation process. It eliminates organizational hierarchies and power structures by allowing participants to respond anonymously to an open-ended question. Once they contribute their thoughts, they rate which thoughts or ideas they think are the best. Through this mechanism, you are able to get a breadth and depth of information that you don’t typically see in the top-down transformation process and create buy-in for initiatives by including them in the planning stages.

Based on my discussion with Kathleen, integrating the platform's crowdsourcing capabilities with a change management initiative typically begins with helping leaders understand how an organization thinks and what it values. For the technologists reading this it may help to look back at Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (http://www.butler-bowdon.com/abraham-maslow---motivation-and-personality1.html), which are often directly applied to change management initiatives. Very, very briefly; in times of uncertainty and change people will often shift back to their most basic needs, which include questions like: what will happen to me, will I still be valued, will I be heard? Until these needs/questions are addressed, individuals and even entire organizations, may be frozen. However, when these needs are identified and consistently addressed individuals typically become more assured, enabling a shift to higher self-fulfillment goals such as engagement and creative problem-solving.

Unlike a static survey, ThoughtExchanges can be used as part of an integrated and iterative change communication plan – giving leaders a fluid view into the organization realtime. Additionally, the crowdsourcing nature of the Exchanges promotes inclusiveness, tapping into the “silent majority,” those individuals who are not on the leadership team or are less likely to speak up amongst their more dominating peers. Finally, In addition to the benefits of real time feedback, the results of each Exchange are evaluated live and post-mortem by consultants like Kathleen who are able to discern patterns and meta insights that provide more context and value from the results and data. And even more intriguing, is when crowdsourcing is applied across organizations patterns emerge which help identify approaches to accelerate time to value for these types of initiatives in the future.

In closing my discussion with Kathleen it was clear she believed that leaders who approach digital transformations holistically, with a focus on both the behavioral and technological aspects of change, will obtain value in their investments much faster than those who focus solely on technology.

“We need to change the entire way we think, and putting technology first would be the tail wagging the dog”. I first met Paul Belfani in 2018 during a consulting project that was focused on developing an architectural and metadata strategy for an educational publisher. It was a great project and it left me with the view that Paul had a strong vision for educational content development and distribution. Today, as the Vice President of Product, Content Systems at Macmillan Learning, Paul is once again leading a significant digital transformation initiative.

As Paul explained, Macmillan Learning had embarked on a foundational change initiative long before the COVID 19 crisis emerged, but the crisis added a significant (and Paul might say even a necessary) sense of urgency. As a higher education textbook publisher, Macmillan Learning has traditionally organized and operated in a very book-centric manner. Unfortunately this business has been competing with used textbooks sales and rental services such as Chegg and Amazon, while at the same time instructors have begun to employ free online materials and open educational resources.

The combination of these factors created a strong downward pressure on textbook pricing, which had been publishers’ primary bulwark in coping with these forces of change. These factors were then suddenly reinforced by the COVID 19 crisis as higher education programs quickly moved online. As a result, several textbook publishers (including Macmillan with its Achieve Product), are exploring or rolling out subscription-based services that bring the publishers directly in contact with the students, and move the content operations from book-centric to more “content-centric”, to quote Paul, recognizing that the richest, most effective learning experiences will be delivered through their courseware platforms.

As a little background, traditional textbook publishers follow a workflow designed around a physical book. To oversimplify the process for the sake of this post:

- A text manuscript is written and revised (and revised), often by a lead author with supporting editors.
- From the manuscript a book is designed and revised (and revised) including the visual components, typically by a small centralized team.

- The final book is subsequently de-composed (often several times over) into a smaller set of content “chunks” that can be more easily consumed in digital channels such as websites, ebooks, and learning management systems.

Unfortunately, many different tools and technologies are often used along the way, and each handoff from one tool or team to another creates unnecessary friction (e.g. additional effort, time, and errors). This is where Paul’s change initiative enters our discussion. Paul and his team are looking to change everything, from “the way we think”, to the tools we use, the roles we have, and the design of our processes.

Without going into proprietary details, let's say that the initiative is moving from the ideation and baselining phase into the early phases of execution. The good news is that Paul has the unequivocal support of his executive team, and as noted several times previously, a clear sense of urgency. However, one of the challenges he faces is that the individuals supporting the publishing operation are uncertain of where this change will take them. And if you recall from earlier, that type of uncertainty can inhibit the creative problem solving that Macmillan Learning needs to be successful in its transformation. As I wrapped up my discussion with Paul I was happy to learn that he was also in discussions with Kathleen to potentially enlist her support in his digital transformation.

As I close out this post several points stand out. First, the types of change necessary all around us – from the more broad social and health issues facing nearly everyone, to the more narrow organizational issues facing the types of clients I work with – demand creative thinking and leadership. And second, that type of creative thinking and leadership requires aligned and agile teams to fail fast and succeed fast. So, on digital transformation today, the impetus for motivation is clear and present, and many types of technology can be readily applied in support of change. So what are we waiting for?