If you’re undertaking a far-reaching digital transformation project, there’s a good chance you’ve come across some resistance.
The more wide-ranging the change, the more likely people are to fight against it. It’s therefore vital that you identify where the resistance is coming from and decide how you can overcome it.
Fear of the unknown
Resistance is usually the result of people fearing something with which they’re unfamiliar.
News of a process that has always relied on printed documentation being moved to the digital realm will be seen as nothing more than an inconvenience by some. Others will suggest it’s change for change’s sake.
In reality, they simply fear the unknown.
To allay their fears, your business needs to explain the reasons for change. What does it involve? What drivers lie behind it and which benefits are they likely to enjoy once the change is complete?
Communicating the who, what, when and how will prevent hearsay and rumours from filling in the blanks.
Make the future exciting. Although it’s an unknown, it shouldn’t be seen as daunting; the past, on the other hand, must be painted as ‘old hat’ rather than a comfort.
Identifying the reasons for resistance
Here are three questions to ask yourself whenever you encounter resistance to digital transformation.
- Is the process clearly better?
People will engage with processes that work. If there’s no clear advantage, or teething problems are far too prevalent, they’ll look for workarounds.
- Is the new experience positive?
If digital transformation removes functions people have long relied on, they’ll quickly revolt.
Is the experience of the new digital process positive? Ask the team what it feels like to operate and whether or not they believe something has been lost during the transformation.
- Has everyone been involved enough?
People don’t like being pushed around - they’d much rather do what they want.
If you haven’t involved individual team members enough during the decision making process for digital transformation, they won’t feel like joint owners of the project and are therefore more likely to show resistance.
What’s in it for me?
People need to know how they’ll benefit from digital transformation. You therefore need to be armed and ready with answers to the inevitable barrage of questions.
Common benefits you can promote include:
- increased productivity;
- simple, more approachable processes that are easier to get to grips with;
- time saved which can be invested in far more interesting activities and projects;
- far fewer steps to remember and potentially get wrong; and
- freedom; digital transformation frees you from the confines of a single, desktop computer.
The above are top-level answers, but you can delve into each one to explore the benefits further. Increased productivity, for example, might lead people towards sales targets (and therefore bonuses) quicker, while less room for manual error will increase one’s success rate at work.
Be open, honest and communicate regularly, and resistance to your digital transformation strategy should begin to subside.