What really works in digital transformations?

We asked Alexander Budzier, Fellow in Management Practice at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and Director of Oxford Global Projects, to give us the lowdown on his new book Intelligent Change: The science behind digital transformations, co-authored with Thomas Gottschalck, Kim Bjørn Thueson and Astrid Lanng and published by Wiley.

1. What is your book about? 

Alexander Budzier (AB): It’s about what makes digital transformations excellent. There are a couple of things that motivated me to do the research and write a book. First, in my previous research, I found that how digital projects manage organisational change is one of the crucial factors in realising impact, value and benefits. So, that warranted a deep dive into the transformation aspect of digital projects.  

Second, we noticed that now everyone in digital has heard about agile, tried it and probably built their own version of agile. But a lot of the frameworks, like the famous ‘Eight Steps’ by John Kotter, are top-down, linear processes – waterfalls really. So, I wanted to find out how agile has cross-pollinated those transformation projects where we change the technology and the organisation at the same time.

2. Did you find anything surprising?

AB: Most practitioners believe that the first thing in a transformation is to have a great vision by top management, a grand purpose and a good rationale for change. But we found exactly the opposite: a grand CEO vision reduces the commitment to change by increasing resistance. Same thing with early end-user involvement. Everybody thinks it is important, but when we look at hard data, it doesn’t actually help.

3. Why do digital transformations typically fail?

AB: The single biggest reason for failure and success is trust. A transformation needs to be trusted by all stakeholders, including the end users. Only if a transformation is abandoned can we genuinely call it a failure; everything else is some sort of grey area with different degrees of success. Transformations only get abandoned when stakeholders lose the trust in the transformation to deliver the economic case, solve tech issues or have political support in the organisation. 

4. What do digital transformation leaders need to do to make change management effective?

AB: The first thing is to make the case for change management. It shouldn’t be an afterthought; it shouldn’t be bolt-on. Managing organisational change together with technological change is a must. But that requires resources, time and money. So, the first thing is to make the case for taking the change aspect seriously.  

The next thing is to figure out how to effect change and make it stick. The world is full of well-meaning advice, but do we know what truly works? That’s where this book comes in. We looked at the real-world hows and the whats – the principles and the approaches that bring about successful change.

5. What's the difference between what should be done to effect a successful digital transformation and what actually works in practice?

AB: When we prepared for the research, we read more than 1,800 papers, articles and books about transformations. The most surprising insight from that was how little evidence exists. Very little we found – despite more than 30 years of thinking about transformations – tells us what actually works and what doesn’t. 

Take, for example, early end-user involvement. It’s a mantra of agile and design thinking. We tested it and it has zero correlation with success. Why? In our interviews, it transpired that what seems a good idea is nearly impossible to pull off in practice. You ask for a subject matter expert, and you get someone who currently can spare some time on the project. You don’t get the truly knowledgeable expert, you get who is available.  

And even if you get the good ones, it is insanely difficult to keep them involved for the two or three years a big transformation takes. Even the idea in the agile framework where you have a product owner is usually much more complicated. You have a product owner, but you also have other product owners who have interfaces with the core system, you have the regulator, you have architects, you have security folks – and they all want something different.  

Can you give one example of a digital transformation that worked well?

AB: We found many transformations that worked well and that we describe in the book. Take one example about a big transformation in a bank that cracked how to solve the problem of user involvement. They strengthened their PMO and then created an 18-month rolling plan for expert involvement – to the level of detail that, in 16 weeks on Thursday and Friday, they will need four experts from accounting to test a process. That worked; they got the good experts. There are many of those examples we found. Pockets of excellence are everywhere.  

You give seven levers of digital transformations that might influence success. Which are the most critical?

AB: Leaders must build trust in the transformation, communicate, train and make the line management own the transformation. We also found that three core project management success factors support transformation: good risk management, stakeholder alignment and effective governance.

Are there any secrets to success or other pieces of advice you would offer?

AB: The biggest piece of advice for anyone in projects is to periodically stop and ask the question: but how do I know this works?  

Intelligent Change: The science behind digital transformations is published by Wiley 

 

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