FACT CHECKED
Who do you think of as a leader?
The CEO probably. In an institutional context, your old school principal maybe. But that’s actually quite a narrow-minded view of leadership.
Today, the traditional hierarchical approach to enterprise structure and organizational development is no longer fit for purpose.
There are — and should be — leaders within every layer of the organization. Particularly when it comes to the issue of leading change. And you need a change leadership platform that reflects that.
A world of influencers
The consumer world is now full of influencers. It’s no longer just the celebrities of Hollywood that people listen to and follow, it’s the micro-influencers of social media.
Consumers flock to YouTube and LinkedIn for thought-leadership on any given topic. The internet is full of “experts”, giving their advice on everything from household chores to complex business and legal issues.
The workplace is changing too. Businesses that operate holistically, without silos, and with less rigid structure are leading the way. It’s a core component of effective digital transformation.
It’s about being agile.
Because in the digital business world, change is happening all the time. And agility is the only to keep pace with it.
An agile change leadership platform
So, in order to lead change, enterprises must put in place an agile change leadership platform.
Management Innovation eXchange founders Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini write that, “continuous improvement requires the creation of change platforms, rather than change programs ordained and implemented from the top.”
However, this isn’t how most enterprises operate.
“The reality is that today’s organizations were simply never designed to change proactively and deeply—they were built for discipline and efficiency, enforced through hierarchy and routinization.”
Hamel and Zanini
Instead, enterprises need to take a real-time, embedded approach to change. Why? Because change programs fail 70% of the time.
The problem with change
The main problem with traditional change programs is that they’re built on these three assumptions:
- Change starts at the top.
- Change is rolled out.
- Change is engineered.
Believing that change starts at the top implies that executives have the sole right to initiate deep change. In reality, executives are often the last to know when change is needed.
By the time an issue is big enough to necessitate the CEO’s input, the organization is already on the back foot. Therefore, most change programs end up being catch-up programs.
When change is finally initiated from above, it’s rarely embraced. Traditional change programs often generate cynicism and resistance.
Genuine buy-in happens through involvement. So, for change to be embraced, everyone must have the right to contribute to it.
The term “change management” suggests that transformational change is something that can be managed. In actual fact, change takes on a life of its own. It needs the right change leadership platform in order for it to happen organically.
A change leadership platform for digital transitions
When it comes to digital change, a digital platform is needed.
Too many traditional enterprises still approach their goal of digital transformation equipped with analogue tools, processes and mindsets. This places prohibitive limitations on the organization’s ability to change.
Digital change is an ongoing process because new technology is always coming onto the market and causing disruption. Enterprises need to keep pace.
A digital tool is needed to manage employee adoption of new technology, ensuring it’s fast and successful. Using a Digital Adoption Platform can allow enterprises to behave in a more agile and innovative way because it facilitates this ongoing transformation.
What is a Digital Adoption Platform?
The Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) was pioneered by WalkMe. It’s an algorithmic layer that can be applied to any digital system, application, or tool.
The DAP is useful as a change leadership platform because it accelerates user adoption of digital tools and provides insights into user behavior to facilitate further change.
With the DAP’s insights, enterprises can drive transformational change better. They can discover where users struggle, what features are underutilized, and where inefficiencies exist.
The DAP is a holistic solution that enterprises can implement easily to drive adoption across all software platforms with minimal effort.
Absolutely no coding or R&D effort is required. Its intuitive drag and drop interface simplifies the management of digital change and its advanced artificial intelligence streamlines the user experience (UX).
Leading digital change for a digital future
Traditional notions of leadership are changing in both the consumer and business worlds. The idea of “how we do things” within large enterprises must also change.
Analogue approaches to change leadership and management must be set aside in favor of truly innovative, digital solutions.
The Digital Adoption Platform is one such solution. As a change leadership platform, it has the capacity to bring your organization up to speed with the digital revolution.
