Ext building purposeful tech

Humans@Center

Building Purposeful Tech: a blueprint to make transformations operational and sustainable

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4 minute read 02 Oct 2023

Explore how technology enhances transformation success by fostering the right mindset and skills in our quest to unlock organizational potential.

In brief

  • Leaders should demonstrate the early value of technology-enabled approaches and engage early adopters and influencers to rally the workforce.
  • Use technology to swiftly translate your vision into reality.
  • Allocate resources to empower your workforce with the necessary mindsets and skills.

Reiteration is vital: To place your people at the heart of your transformation and achieve your objectives, our extensive research with Oxford reveals that this focus can amplify transformation success by 2.6 times. But the crucial question arises: 'How can we concretely achieve this?' Managing this emotional journey involves implementing six pivotal success factors, one of which we term 'Build' or 'Purposeful Tech,' prompting us to delve deeper into this subject and offer practical insights.
 

How EY can Help

Digital transformation is more about people than about technology

Numerous factors contribute to the failure of digital transformations, a subject widely discussed elsewhere, but a fundamental underpinning often surfaces: people. Drawing on our extensive experience as digital strategy consultants, we frequently observe these initiatives faltering because organizations tend to overlook the pivotal role of individuals in their success.

 

Typically, the human element of change tends to be underestimated in digital transformations. When we perceive technology as the sole driving force behind organizational change, the human aspect is easily marginalized. Whether pursuing digital or business transformation, it's imperative to acknowledge that these endeavours will inevitably reshape and influence your workforce. Consequently, prioritizing the well-being and engagement of your people becomes an indispensable prerequisite for achieving transformational success.
 

Purposeful technology as a catalyst

While organizations undergo various types of transformations, whether it's business overhaul, technology implementation, or digital strategy innovation, a consistent driver in managing the journey of your people is the strategic use of technology.  Purposeful tech is an important catalyst for driving your people and transformation results.

The key lies in the development of technology that not only serves its intended purpose but also captivates and inspires individuals to engage with it in innovative ways. For instance, instead of merely assessing ERP transformation initiatives through integration testing, consider fostering collective employee engagement through ERP simulation games, providing them with hands-on experiences with the technology. In addition, it is crucial to actively involve employees in testing new tools and systems, rather than solely relying on project team members, and gathering valuable feedback from the workforce.

 

Furthermore, tools that facilitate open communication and feedback, such as chatbots or fundamental collaboration platforms like Mentimeter or Mural, can prove highly beneficial in this regard.
 

Technology as a change enabler

Leveraging technology as a catalyst for change, the critical path to success involves its strategic integration into a customized change management plan and roadmap, thereby rendering change more tangible and achievable.

As an ADKAR practitioner and strong advocate of this change methodology, I firmly believe in the emotional journey it encompasses when faced with life changes.

Lynn Mottie

EY Belgium Consulting Senior Manager

Graph adkar change methodology

Successful change isn't just about starting a new task; it involves cultivating the right mindset, motivation and skills over time. Let’s explain by drawing parallels to real-life experiences like renovating a house.

Undertaking transformative projects entails more than simply grabbing a drill and plunging into renovations. Such an approach wouldn't instil that necessary mindset required to sustain a considerable renovation project; people would give up real soon. Any transformation, including house renovation, necessitates an awareness of why the change matters; understanding why one wants to renovate a house and what benefits it offers. This initial step is followed by cultivating the right mindset and igniting a desire for the challenge; wanting to be part of this endeavour. Only then can individuals lay the foundation to acquire knowledge and skills, planning step-by-step renovations and determining necessary tools and abilities.

Consistently nurturing these mindsets, skills, and behaviours throughout the journey is paramount. Additionally, purposefully harnessing technology at each phase to amplify the transformative experience holds significant importance.

Unless we begin to engage people differently, they will not achieve the expected levels of adoption.

Celine Rossavik

EY Belgium Consulting Manager

People will not reach the expected levels of adoption, if we do not start engaging them differently. In collaboration with clients, we implement ERP simulation games at the onset of an ERP transformation. Our emphasis is on experiential learning with the tool to cultivate the appropriate mindset and foster engagement for adopting this technology. We encourage individuals to interact directly with the new tool, incorporating immersive activities that provide them with a unique and innovative way to become familiar with the tool or adapt to the new situation.

This underscores the importance of dedicating additional effort to cultivate business engagement and preparedness right from the outset, fostering a technology-oriented mindset through innovative methods that enable individuals to genuinely immerse themselves and experience technologies such as SAP.

We must invest additional effort in fostering business engagement and readiness right from the outset. Cultivate a technology mindset through innovative methods that enable individuals to feel and experience new technologies.

Davy Van Ingelgem

EY Belgium Consulting Partner

Later in your transformation journey, you start focusing on building the right technology skillset on top of mindset. In early stages awareness and motivation need to be generated, and people need to receive all the information to answer their questions. But a next key phase, is making sure your people are able to change towards the new way of working. They can be motivated and have all the information, but if they don’t know how to do it in practice, your transformation will not succeed. We focus on building the required behaviors and skills in order to make it possible for people to shift towards the new way of working. This can be done by immersing your people in innovative ways of learning, engaging them with interactive learning tools such as SAP EnableNow, etc.

To summarize, successful transformations are purpose-led, tech-enabled and human-centric. By combining these elements organizations can create a transformation strategy that is both effective and sustainable.

As the transformation journey progresses, the emphasis shifts towards developing the necessary technology skillset, complementing the established mindset. Early stages of the transformation require generating awareness and motivation while providing comprehensive information to address questions. However, a pivotal phase follows, ensuring that individuals can effectively transition to the new way of working. Motivation and information alone won't suffice; practical know-how is essential for transformation success. Our focus lies in instilling the required behaviours and skills, enabling people to embrace the new working paradigm. This entails immersive learning experiences and engagement through interactive tools like SAP EnableNow.

In summary, successful transformations are guided by purpose, empowered by technology, and centered around people. By integrating these elements, organizations can craft a transformation strategy that is not only effective but also sustainable in the long run.

Summary

In this comprehensive article, it becomes evident that successful transformations are characterized by being purpose-led, tech-enabled, and human-centric. Through a combination of purposeful technology integration and fostering the right mindset and skillset, organizations can achieve sustainable and effective transformation.

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