6/22/23, 10:53 AM 12 Reasons Your Digital Transformation Will Fail

FORBES LEADERSHIP

12 Reasons Your Digital

Transformation Will Fail

Dr. Corrie Block, PhD, DBA Forbes Councils Member

Forbes Coaches Council COUNCIL POST | Membership (Fee-Based)

Mar 16, 2022, 07:00am EDT

Organizational Behaviour Expert and Executive Coach based in

Dubai, UAE. Find him at: www.drcorrieblock.com | Paragon
Consulting FZE.

GETTY

If you were to go in for heart surgery, buy a new car or say your
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wedding vows to someone knowing that there was an 84% chance

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of failure... would you even bother?

Most major consultancies agree that no matter how awesome your

tech is, your digital transformation (DX) efforts appear doomed
from the start. In 2016, Forbes assessed the risk of failure in digital
transformation to be 84%. According to McKinsey, BCG, KPMG
and Bain & Company, the risk of failure falls somewhere between
70% and 95%.

Clearly, we’re doing something wrong in digital transformation, yet

we’re still willing to go through the motions knowing that it’s
largely a waste of resources.

Over the last decade, I’ve executed dozens of DX and artificial

intelligence (AI) projects, without a background in engineering,
coding or IT. Why would an organizational behaviorist like myself
be asked to lead large-scale DX efforts? Because tech is only 20% of
the equation.

Drawing on DX experiences in dozens of companies over the last

decade, and 25 years of research in organizational behavior, here
are the 12 reasons I think your DX will probably fail:

1. Lack of alignment to business outcomes: Most technologists,

vendors included, struggle to put DX into financial language. If you
want to get your CFOs onboard, you need to be producing a net
present value (NPV) and delay cost calculation before your first
proposal presentation.

2. Lack of awareness within the organization: Humans by default

fear what they don’t understand. The majority of your employees
will reject new software, tools, apps and processes, even if they will
improve their lives, unless they are slowly, consistently educated.
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#humansnotresources

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6/22/23, 10:53 AM 12 Reasons Your Digital Transformation Will Fail

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3. Micromanagement/mismanagement of agile teams: Why do you

keep putting engineers at the top of DX projects when what you
really need are soft skills ninjas? Putting expert coders and
engineers where expert leaders and managers should be is a recipe
for disaster— think 80% soft skills, 20% technical prowess.

4. Distraction by the minutia: Part of what makes engineers and

coders great is their attention to detail. If you don’t proactively
train that strength out of them by the time they reach project
management level, it becomes a weakness, and their attention to
detail will distract them from seeing the big picture, being visionary
leaders of their teams and communicating across departments and
business units.

5. Shiny toy syndrome: Stop buying cool things that don’t have a
solid business case for implementation! Stop it!

6. Inability to translate into executive language: Most executives

are not technologists by trade. Your inability to translate your
efforts into a compelling story that non-technologists can
appreciate leads to self-isolation and siloing of the DX team. Drop
your IT vocabulary and start telling compelling user experience
(UX) and financial stories instead.
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6/22/23, 10:53 AM 12 Reasons Your Digital Transformation Will Fail

7. Lack of control over external vendors: Clear timelines, owners

and deliverables keep everyone working at the same pace on the
same problems. Your lack of agreed-upon consequences for unmet
expectations ensures that you will pay higher delay costs for not
holding your vendors accountable.

8. Lack of training for internal users: “Our new user interface (UI)
is so intuitive that users won’t need to have their fears addressed
and their hands held through the transition,” said no successful DX
project owner, ever.

9. Loss of talent to competitors: Your wizards are being hunted by

companies willing to pay them more and let them work from home
at 2 a.m. on a Friday night/Saturday morning if that’s what they
want. Trust me, I’m often the one hunting them.

10. Resistance for fear of being replaced: You have internal

saboteurs who fear losing their jobs, so they’re doing everything in
their power to undermine your progress behind your back. Who
can blame them? Wouldn’t you if you thought your job was on the
line?

11. Slow decision-making processes: Your executives don’t have any

sense of urgency because you didn’t bother with the delay cost
calculations. So they’re playing golf while you’re tearing out your
hair, burning money and losing your competitive edge.

12. Poor prioritization of development: You’re using politics in

development prioritization, instead of profitability and business
outcomes.

That’s why you’ll fail.

By the way, did you notice what I noticed? None of these have
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anything whatsoever to do with the technology. Your tech is fine;
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6/22/23, 10:53 AM 12 Reasons Your Digital Transformation Will Fail

it’s the people who are getting in the way. You will fail 84% of the
time, not because of inadequate technology, lack of organizational
capacity or lack of funds. You will fail because you are looking at
DX through rose-colored virtual reality (VR) glasses when you need
to be paying much more attention to the soft skills.

Humans are the problem. And the solution.

Stop promoting your technologists to their level of incompetence in

the finance and soft skills areas needed to execute across a mosaic
of stakeholder groups. Or at least train them when you do! Though
in my experience, it’s far less costly and less effortful to teach a
strong leader technology than it is to teach a talented engineer
leadership.

The reason you only have a 16% chance of success is that you’re
paying attention to the wrong things. DX is 80% soft skills, 20%
technology.

So do you really have the right leader on the project?

Statistically not.

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for

leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Dr. Corrie Block, PhD, DBA

Dr. Corrie is an Organizational Behavior Expert and the UAE's top business
coach. Find him at: www.corrieblock.com|... Read More

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