Businesses all over the world are transforming for a better customer experience; they have realized that the only way to remain relevant is to ensure that customers are satisfied. As you are embarking on business transformation, the competition will not just sit and fold hands; everybody knows that rivalry is the hardest part of having a business; the competition wants to take over your customers; you, therefore, need to do everything necessary to survive.
The COVID-19 pandemic has effectively changed the way business is transacted; it’s no longer an option for you to embark on business transformation; it has become a necessity. A study reveals that 77.3% of 100 Fortune 500 CIOs realized the reason to embark on transformation and decided to prioritize it in their 2021 budgets.
According to the Kotter change model, employees should play the pivot role for any brand that wants to embark on a successful business transformation. Why should this be the case?
We shall explore some important aspects of business transformation and then decide if employees should play a pivotal role.
1. Meeting up the urgent need of the transformation
There is a sense of urgency to any business transformation; you don’t enjoy a monopoly. The reason for embarking on this business transformation is to stay ahead of the competition.
When your customers are satisfied, there won’t be any reason for churning your product. The initiative indeed comes from the CEO, but the execution of the project falls on the employees.
Depending on the nature of the business transformation, it may cut across departments, and in that case, a lot of people will have to participate. If your employees don’t see the reason for the urgent need for the transformation, it will stall or even die off completely.
Do you have employees with the right mindset? Can you make them see the need? You must consider these before setting out.
If they don’t have the right mindset to understand the urgency in the transformation, you have to make them see the need. The transformation must be seen by all as a common goal, and there must be a dedicated effort to align and direct employees toward this common goal.
2. Having a guiding coalition
Can you build a guiding coalition from your employees? Since your business transformation will cut across departments, you need to build a cross-functional team. The team must include managers and employees from different sections of your organization.
This will ensure that they can generate new perspectives and ideas. The team you choose will lead the transformation, so you need to be painstaking about your choice; ensure that those in the team will be committed to your business transformation program.
If you don’t have the necessary skill within the organization to lead the transformation, you can outsource some aspects that are vital to the success of the program.
3. Flexible organizational culture
Is your organizational culture flexible enough? Will employees readily shift ground to adopt new culture? Can you contain resistance from employees to transformation if it arises?
What most brands do during the process of onboarding is to initiate employees into what goes and what doesn’t in the organization. There is this “the way we do things here,” that every employee must imbibe.
A business transformation may require a total overhauling of the old ways. For instance, new technologies and management tools must be integrated; legacy systems must be revamped; employees have to go through training sessions to understand the intricacies surrounding these new tools and apps.
There could be reasons to automate some tasks, and this may breed palpable fears among employees who may feel threatened of losing their relevance. In situations like this, can you bring employees to see the need for adopting the new ways of doing things?
At the onset, you must have drafted a strategy that is completely different from a “to-do list.” Your transformation strategy serves as your roadmap. It must specify what you want to achieve when you have to achieve it, and how it will be done.
You must seek input from across departments so that everybody will have a buy-in.
4. Promote a volunteer army
Business transformation is usually initiated by the CEO, probably in conjunction with the CIO, however, the C-suite must be carried along. Managers from different departments must also be in the picture.
Do you have employees who truly believe that sometime in the life of the company some form of transformation must occur to reposition the company and make it more relevant? Do you have a select number of employees who want to add more value to the company and customers?
While the C-suite and other managers will help to push the idea across employees, you still need “a volunteer army.” This is a select number of employees who freely see the vision as something that must be done.
These are employees who do not need any coercion but are compelled by a strong enough vision. This volunteer army will carry the information across to other employees because they believe strongly in the transformation and want to drive change, they are being pushed by their own conviction rather than by coercion. They don’t feel like they have to.
5. Concretize small wins
You must have a yardstick for measuring success. When you have small wins, you need to celebrate the employees for their effort and dedication. Understand that any achievement in business transformation is a step forward.
A win repositions your brand and by celebrating employees for their dedication, you are encouraging them to do more. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way business was transacted.
A lot of employees who work from home do so in environments that require more from them. They sometimes have to mix some elements of the household tasks with the office work. While they may not be doing so intentionally, the situation they have found themselves in makes such things unavoidable. When you celebrate them, they believe you understand their precarious situations, and they reciprocate by putting in the extra effort.
