There is no denying that change is hard but it is also the only constant. If you are an IT leader, you might be at the forefront of driving change. You might also be aware of the challenges and hurdles such as resistance to change, lack of stakeholder involvement, financial constraints, tight deadlines and much more.
Irrespective of how experienced you are, these are daunting challenges and can easily derail your digital transformation initiatives. As a CIO, your goal is to keep your digital initiatives on track and prevent them from diverting too much from the path. This would only be possible if you continue to learn from your missteps and improve. Avoiding the same mistake on your next digital transformation can drastically increase your chances of success.
Here are some of the digital transformation lessons that IT leaders have learned the hard way so you don’t have to.
6 Digital Transformation Lessons CIOs Must Learn Quickly
Here are six lessons IT leaders should learn to win at digital transformation.
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Make Clarity The Focal Point
Clarity in everything from vision to goals, communication to collaboration is critical for your digital transformation success. You need to convey your vision to your team members in an easily understandable way in order to get their support. Clear all their doubts before embarking on your digital transformation journey.
Give them a sneak peek into the future by making them visualize what the chances might look like when fully implemented. This will give them a better idea about your goals. All this can go a long way in keeping your team motivated and focused. Never move forward until each and every member of your team clearly understands your vision.
Yes, this could lead to delays and slowdowns but it will benefit you in the long run. When your team fully understands what you expect from them, they are more likely to deliver great results as compared to when they have fuzzy understanding of digital transformational goals and vision. This can be the difference between success and failure so you should never take it lightly.
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Master The Art of Resource Allocation
Digital transformation demands a specialized set of skills and resources and if your businesses lack them, you will struggle to implement it. It is as simple as that. Some businesses even struggle with digital transformation despite having the right resources at their disposal. This is because they poorly allocate and utilize those resources. As a result, those resources won’t benefit them the way they should.
To get the best out of the resources, you will have to master the art of resource allocation. Designating the right resource for each task is crucial for the success of your digital transformation initiative. Digital transformation is not just about migrating from legacy systems to VPS in Norw, it is also about transforming the mindset, behavior and approaches as well. This requires a lot of work so you should keep that in mind.
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Ensure Progress Visibility
Digital transformation is a long and arduous process. As a result, the risk of stakeholders losing interest could be a lot higher as compared to traditional projects. That is why it is important for IT leaders to ensure progress visibility. Once the stakeholders see progress in real time, they will start supporting your digital initiatives such as switching from old school systems to VPS Singapore.
Your goal is to keep them engaged from start to finish and this would only happen when they see continuous progress in the right direction. You can review business metrics and project outcomes and communicate the progress you have made on a regular basis. Even better, you can opt for a dashboard that shows your progress towards your milestone to the stakeholders in real time. This ensures transparency and helps you hold your team accountable for their actions as well. You can even create a centralized repository for resources, tools and metrics to make it easier for stakeholders to track progress. This can make a world of difference in their opinions about your digital transformation initiatives.
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Leadership Enablement
If you are trying to fly solo and win at digital transformation, this is not going to happen. You need a highly motivated team of professionals with dedicated skillset and commitment to succeed at digital transformation. Your goal is to empower them by providing them the support they need whether it is in the form of finances, tools or human resources. On the flipside, their goal is to act as a supporter for their leader, enabling leaders to make their dream come true. It is a two way relationship where both parties must benefit and learn from one another.
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Have a Change Management Strategy
Change management can be tough especially if you have not done it before. You need to keep all the stakeholders on the same page for a successful transition from cheap dedicated hosting to cloud. If they are resisting change, you need to figure out why and address their reservations about your digital initiatives instead of ignoring them. The best way to do that is to put yourself in the shoes of your stakeholders. Think like an employee and look at the problems they are encountering on a daily basis. This will give you a better idea and help you create a change management strategy that is acceptable for all the stakeholders.
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Don’t Shy Away From Trying New Approaches
When you try to digitally transform a business, it is not just making minor changes. It will change everything from processes to technologies such as cheap dedicated server hosting. This will warrant you to create new rules and define new roles. All this could have a huge impact on your day to day operations. You should keep all that in mind when pursuing change. You might even have to create a new culture that is more flexible and conclusive to changes you are about to make. Instead of looking at all these as a
Which is the best digital transformation lesson you have ever learned as a CIO? Share it with us in the comments section below.
