Intelligent CIO North America Issue 15 | Page 37

TALKING

‘‘ business

It ’ s clear that organizational culture needs to keep up with the accelerating fusion of digital and technology but every year I experience many Digital Transformations at top level and I can definitely see blind spots .

Joris van Oers , Managing Director , International Markets , BT
It ’ s therefore common for Digital Transformations to fail or not go to plan .
Often the reasons behind failure come down to leadership style and the way we collaborate – human dynamics is at the heart of any Digital Transformation after all . In this article , I cover the common issues that our customer community runs into and how to avoid them :
1 . Planning and direction
Leaders don ’ t always realize that their employees may perceive new ways of working and collaborating as a threat . This is why a transformation should always start with an inventory of perceived threats and an understanding of how they could impact the business .
The idea of servant leadership , so facilitating teams and giving them more control and responsibility , is often met with great hesitation .
Employees can also have an ‘ engineering mentality ’ – an aversion to principles such as fail fast , and they may pay less attention to the business value of new solutions . Leaders should take them on their journey , always explaining the reasons behind their decisions and the benefits for the business . It ’ s also essential to have a well-planned technology roadmap , so that leaders can continue to steer amidst all the struggles www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA
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