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AI is now poised to revolutionize change management, project management, and strategy execution. Here are three compelling reasons why you might want to start using AI.
Business and technology are evolving faster than ever. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a game-changer. The speed of adoption has been unprecedented and is now at significant levels in organizations, amongst leaders and boards. The annual global McKinsey survey found “one-third of survey respondents say their organizations are using gen AI regularly in at least one business function” and “nearly one-quarter of surveyed C-suite executives say they are personally using gen AI tools for work” and it is on the agendas on one-quarter of boards. Source: McKinsey, August 1, 2023 AI is now poised to revolutionize strategy execution, change management and project management, and strategy execution. If you’re wondering why you should embrace AI to lead these essential dimensions of business transformation, here are three compelling reasons that might just change your perspective.
- Speeding up work with AI
In our fast-paced environment, speed can be a defining factor in success. Research conducted by Harvard, MIT, and Boston Consulting Group has demonstrated the acceleration that AI can bring to work. This study involved hundreds of consultants across 18 different work tasks. They found that consultants using AI managed to complete tasks 25% faster than their counterparts who didn’t use AI. They also found that those using AI finished 12.2% more work tasks. They also completed tasks 25.1% faster. Source: HBS Working Paper, 2023
The benefits of acceleration are now being applied to the context of project management, change management and strategy execution. Projects that once took weeks or months to plan and execute can now be streamlined and accomplished in significantly less time.
Several studies show the impressive nature of AI tools in improving speed of professional and project work. For example, business professionals who used AI where found to write 59% more business documents per hour. Also programmers using AI could code 126% more projects per week. Source: nngroup, 2023
By leveraging the power of AI, change leaders can meet deadlines more efficiently and support their organizations to stay ahead of the competition.
- AI: A creative partner in success
Creativity is another important aspect of project management, change management and strategy execution. It is the driving force behind innovation and problem-solving. While AI is often associated with automation and data analysis, it also has a creative side. One example is ChatGPT, a generative AI model that is now making its mark by outperforming even the brightest minds.
In a creativity test, ChatGPT went head-to-head with 200 Wharton MBAs and emerged victorious in both quantity and quality of ideas. This showcases the untapped potential of AI in infusing creativity into projects. Whether you’re brainstorming ideas for a new product launch or devising a groundbreaking strategy, AI can be your creative partner, helping you generate innovative solutions. Source: Wall Street Journal, 2023
This applies also to quality of outcomes. In the Harvard, MIT and BCG study described above, those who used AI also produced 40% higher quality results than those who didn’t. Source: HBS Working Paper, 2023
- Adapt to Survive: The Generational Shift
The business landscape is in the midst of a generational shift, and technology is at the forefront of this change. Traditional methods of operation are giving way to more tech-savvy approaches, and AI is playing a pivotal role in this transition.
According to research by Salesforce, generative AI has been used by 49% of people. and 65% of generative AI users are Millennials or Gen Z. An excellent Salesforce infographic summary can be found here and see chart 16 showing usage of ChatGPT by age group here. This data shows that 31% of ChatGPT users fall in the 18-34 age bracket, and their utilization of AI is on the rise. The generational divide becomes even more pronounced as we move up the age ladder, with only 9% of users aged 45-54 using ChatGPT. This suggests that younger professionals are embracing AI as a fundamental tool in their work, whereas older professionals are lagging.
For businesses, this shift implies that to remain competitive and relevant, change leaders must adapt to the changing preferences and practices of their workforce. Embracing AI is not just about staying ahead but also about ensuring your business remains attractive to top talent.
Getting Started with AI for Your Projects and Strategies
Now that we’ve highlighted the compelling reasons for integrating AI into your change management, project management, and strategy execution, it’s time to explore how you can get started.
Here are some practical ideas to kickstart your journey into the world of AI:
- Leverage AI for Content Generation
One of the simplest yet most effective ways to incorporate AI into your daily workflow is by using it for content generation. ChatGPT, for instance, can assist you in generating dot point outlines for longer emails, strategy documents, reports, workshop agendas, and more. By offloading this repetitive task to AI, you can free up valuable time for more strategic and creative work.
There are many more sophisticated ways to use ChatGPT and AI to tools to generate content that will improve your project management reporting, and change management communications. Much of this is driven by the way you draft ChatGPT prompts, and a whole new digital skill in prompt engineering has emerged.
In particular, you can use ChatGPT to generate different versions of your strategy documents for different stakeholder groups. Each audience requires a nuanced approach with different styles, tones, length, format and communication objectives. Instead of re-creating the communications material (content) manually, you can use AI to generate the different materials for you, including different media formats such as text, graphics and video.
You can also ask ChatGTP to generate ideas for you of the different content formats. They sky is the limit in terms of creativity.
- Integration with Existing Tools
AI is rapidly becoming an integral part of our existing tools and platforms.
For example, Google’s document and email services now incorporate new AI-powered features Duet AI to enhance productivity and content creation. Canva’s new Magic Design AI tool can assist in creating visually appealing presentations. Also Microsoft 365 Copilot is set to offer AI assistance starting November 2023.
Keep an eye out for these advancements and explore how they can streamline your project management, change management and strategy execution.
As these tools develop, there will be more integrated multimedia offerings within an individual tool, such as the ability of ChatGPT4 to generate images and text within the same platform. This is called multimodal AI. Ease of use will continue to improve, and this is developing very quickly.
- Transformation membership community
To fast-track your skills in strategy execution, project management and change management, consider joining a paid membership community such as “Turbocharge Your Transformation” membership academy. This membership offers one-hour monthly masterclasses on topics such as “Turbocharge your Transformation with AI tools”, playbooks, and additional resources to help change leaders navigate AI, workplace culture, and other leading-edge tools to stay relevant. There are also monthly group coaching sessions.
Members include executives and managers from a range of functions including Finance, Marketing, PMO, HR and Technology/Digital teams. They are all responsible for implementing strategies, transformations, change and projects, usually on top of their day jobs. They all have busy workloads, and participate live in Zoom sessions, or watch recordings in their own time asynchronously.
The investment is moderate, and the long-term benefits are substantial in terms of time saved, increased productivity, accelerated execution, reduced risk and increased success rates.
Leveraging AI: The Path to Digital Transformation
In conclusion, the era of digital transformation is upon us, and AI is at its forefront. Change management, project management, and strategy execution are no longer isolated tasks but are deeply intertwined with technology and innovation.
The advantages of adopting AI are clear: speed, creativity, quality and staying relevant in an evolving business landscape.
As the statistics show, the generational shift towards AI adoption is already underway. To remain competitive and attract top talent, businesses must adapt and leverage the potential of AI. From content generation to integrated AI tools in existing platforms, the opportunities are significant.
So, don’t be left behind. Embrace AI, unlock its potential, and pave the way for your own transformation and success in the ever-evolving business world. Your journey into the future begins with a single step towards AI-powered change management, project management, and strategy execution.
PS Not sure what to do about getting your strategy unstuck, your projects powering ahead, your digital transformation turbocharged?
You have 3 choices:
🚀 Get your question answered free and discretely by emailing me (in 110 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
🚀 🚀 Discuss your question with me in a Zoom group coaching session. Email me beforehand to stay unidentified, then join the group in asking “what if” questions. Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me, email me on lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).
A restructure is not the same as a strategy. But, you can apply open strategy principles to any type of project, transformation or change.
I’ve written about the benefits of an open strategy process, in lieu of traditional approaches that I call “dark room” strategy. Someone asked me whether this means I’m an advocate for democratic strategy.
I’m not.
Strategy is NOT democratic.
Strategy means making a choice between options. If you sit on the fence you don’t have a strategy.
And it is the role of leadership to make this choice, to make these tough decisions, to make the tradeoffs based on the evidence and opinions. Leadership makes the high level strategic choices, sets the parameters, the “non negotiables”.
There are always “non negotiables” that are not up for debate.
Once leadership has set the “non negotiables”, there are always plenty of “negotiables” where you can involve others, your team, and have an open process. The trickiest part is knowing how to balance the negotiables and non negotiables for maximum payoff and influence.
PS Not sure what to do about getting your strategy unstuck, your projects powering ahead, your digital transformation turbocharged?
You have 3 choices:
🚀 Get your question answered free and discretely by emailing me (in 110 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
🚀 🚀 Discuss your question with me in a Zoom group coaching session. Email me beforehand to stay unidentified, then join the group in asking “what if” questions. Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me, email me on lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).
Strategy is making a choice between options. And it is the role of leaders to make the tough decisions for strategy execution and transformation.
I’ve written about the benefits of an open strategy process, in lieu of traditional approaches that I call “dark room” strategy. Someone asked me whether this means I’m an advocate for democratic strategy.
I’m not.
Strategy is NOT democratic.
Strategy means making a choice between options. If you sit on the fence you don’t have a strategy.
And it is the role of leadership to make this choice, to make these tough decisions, to make the tradeoffs based on the evidence and opinions. Leadership makes the high level strategic choices, sets the parameters, the “non negotiables”.
There are always “non negotiables” that are not up for debate.
Once leadership has set the “non negotiables”, there are always plenty of “negotiables” where you can involve others, your team, and have an open process. The trickiest part is knowing how to balance the negotiables and non negotiables for maximum payoff and influence.
PS Not sure what to do about getting your strategy unstuck, your projects powering ahead, your digital transformation turbocharged?
You have 3 choices:
🚀 Get your question answered free and discretely by emailing me (in 110 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
🚀 🚀 Discuss your question with me in a Zoom group coaching session. Email me beforehand to stay unidentified, then join the group in asking “what if” questions. Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me, email me on lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).
It’s hard to influence stakeholders. Learn three tips that will help you prevent stakeholder rejection in your project and strategy execution process.
2 stakeholder questions. One answer.
A CIO asked me how to get their digital transformation business case approved, after initially being rejected.
A HR manager asked me how to get their leaders to participate in their change initiative, when they’re indifferent.
In both cases, involving your stakeholders early in your project (business case or change initiative) will ensure they have a stake in it and won’t reject or ignore it later. Dr Robert Cialdini, well known psychology academic, describes the influence principle of “consistency”: people seek to be consistent in their actions. If they’ve been involved in developing something, they are most likely to support it later.
Here is an unusual example, a former politician who was recognised last year as a top 100 innovator by The Australian newsletter. See here for an example of how Victor Dominello gets large scale public support for hard-to-implement digital initiatives.
Try these 3 techniques he uses to influence his stakeholders:
- He interests others in his mission by solving a specific pain point for them. People are more likely to pay attention to painkillers (fix an immediate problem), rather than vitamins (less urgent). Find your stakeholder’s pain points and solve for these.
- He gathers a broad community of supporters around him with transparency throughout the change journey.
- He selects bold innovations, and explains them very simply so anyone can understand.
To get MUCH MORE inspiration and ideas to Turbocharge your work, join our growing community here.
PS Not sure what to do about getting your strategy unstuck, your projects powering ahead, your digital transformation turbocharged?
You have 3 choices:
🚀 Get your question answered free and discretely by emailing me (in 110 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
🚀 🚀 Discuss your question with me in a Zoom group coaching session. Email me beforehand to stay unidentified, then join the group in asking “what if” questions. Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me, email me on lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).
Achieve more with less effort. AI has the potential to take your work project, change management, and transformation to the next level.
The chances are you’re under pressure at work, to deliver more, with less resource.
Most people I talk with have tried ChatGPT, but many are unclear how to get the best value from it to reduce their workload and improve their work quality. They aren’t sure what other AI tools could help them. And they don’t have time to try hundreds of products.
If this describes you or your team, you need to do something about this, or you’ll be left behind. The fact is that we are being expected to be more productive by using digital tools as part of our everyday work.
There is unprecedented pressure on us and you’re not imagining it. Here are some fascinating findings from recent McKinsey research.
This report predicts 50% of our current individual workload is likely to be automated by 2045. (I’m summarizing Exhibit 8 here, it took me a while to understand this one.) Their previous study was in 2016, and this prediction has sped up by a decade since then. So it is not your imagination that change is accelerating.
The best way I can help you to get on top of AI quickly is with the current module of the Turbocharge membership. It specifically focuses on accelerating your project and change management work. There’s a one hour video with everything you need to know, a playbook with cheat sheets, and a live zoom group coaching session in September to get your questions answered about your personal use of AI in your project work.
What: Turbocharge with AI group coaching
When: Tuesday 26 Sept 8-9am AEST (Sydney) / Monday Sept 25 3-4pm PT (California)
Where: Zoom
Cost: Pricing is still at founding member rates of just $US99 per month. Cancel anytime. If you aren’t satisfied within 14 days, I’ll refund you. Join here.
PS Not sure what to do about getting your strategy unstuck, your projects powering ahead, your digital transformation turbocharged?
You have 3 choices:
🚀 Get your question answered free and discretely by emailing me (in 110 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
🚀 🚀 Discuss your question with me in a Zoom group coaching session. Email me beforehand to stay unidentified, then join the group in asking “what if” questions. Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me, email me on lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).
Stay out of the Dark Room by Lisa Carlin and Dr Norman Chorn, 2021. Lisa and Norman say: Move out of the dark room, and take an open, participative, agile approach to strategy development, and strategy execution.
To stay relevant in our fast changing post-Covid world, organisations need a nimble, agile approach to strategy and innovation. It is difficult to know how to do this in the new world of work which is more democratised, more digital and more confusing than ever. Most important is to STAY OUT OF THE DARK ROOM. Today, I’m pleased to share with you an article written by Dr Norman Chorn and myself, recently updated. It outlines 4 features of an agile approach to strategy and innovation, which is an important trend in the future world of work.
Stay out of the Dark Room
An agile approach to strategy
STRATEGY AND INNOVATION ARE FAILING
Before Covid, research studies generally found that the way we practice strategy failed around 50-80% of the time. In our original 2014 article “stay out of the dark room” we observed that strategy formulation was often separate to strategy execution, which led to a number of disconnects, and low staff engagement. We argued for the need to get out of the “dark room” of strategy formulation, and instead approach this as a participative activity with people at all levels of the organisation.
Since the pandemic, we need to make decisions rapidly as the environment has become more unpredictable and unstable. This means an even faster approach to strategy and innovation is required. It has become trendy to write about “the new normal”, the “futureworld of work”, the requirement for “agility in the post-Covid era. We don’t have the luxury of extended periods of consultation, but yet we believe it is even more critical to involve staff in the strategy process. What does this mean for the approach to strategy and innovation?
WHY WE CAN’T GO BACK TO DARK ROOM STRATEGY?
Picture a small strategy team beavering away in their war room, developing strategy PowerPoints, and finalising recommendations in an iterative process with the board and executive. This is the traditional “dark room” approach. Execution only begins once recommendations are ratified, often with a delayed start, in a separate phase, often by a different team.
This is an outdated and flawed approach, with 3 issues described in previous research:
An incomplete diagnosis of the situation occurs where the information gathering and analysis fails to account for the diversity of views and expertise that exist in a complex organisation. In fast-moving and uncertain environments, it is inconceivable that a few carefully selected people, no matter how skilled and talented they are, can capture the richness of information necessary to understand complex situations.
An incoherent picture of the strategy occurs when staff are not involved in the diagnosis of the situation The all-important rationale (“why”) behind strategy can get lost. Leaders are then obliged to try and “sell” the strategy to the rest of the organisation (after the recommendations are endorsed) through all the noise, uncertainty and angst created by the new strategy. This is usually associated with high levels of misunderstanding and cynicism. This, in turn, leads to fear and resistance through the organisation.
Low staff engagement with the organisation and strategy happens as human brains react negatively to threats of social exclusion, reduced status and fairness. As we now know that if staff are isolated from the strategy process, their discretionary effort and productivity falls.
Alarmingly, this negative impact is heightened amongst knowledge workers – leaders are likely to get only grudging acceptance when they announce a new strategic direction after emerging from the “dark room”.
AN AGILE APPROACH TO STRATEGY
An agile approach to strategy has 4 key elements:
An open strategy development process immerses a representative cross-section of people within the organisation. This is opposite to the traditional “dark room” approach, where the strategy is only communicated widely only after it has been endorsed by the Board.
A many-to-many, synchronous communication approach occurs between those responsible for developing the strategy, and the rest of the organisation. Traditional approaches are asynchronous, one-to-many communications such as a business analyst conducting data gathering interviews, or a facilitator conducting staff focus groups at periodic intervals to gather intelligence. Those responsible for developing the strategy then disappear for weeks or months back into their “dark room” to assimilate the information they have collected, and develop recommendations. In contrast, a synchronous communications approach is not periodic; it is an ongoing working methodology with staff at different levels, who are participating in various working groups, working concurrently on developing and implementing different ideas, with coordination by a core project team in a many-to-many relationship. In Design Thinking parlance, this is a co-designed approach.
A seamless integration between strategy formulation and execution phases is noticeable through iterative rollouts that Agile Project Management calls sprints. Ideas are trialled through small-scale, low-risk pilots, which means some execution of ideas is happening concurrently with formulation of other ideas. This removes the artificial divide between formulation and execution phases, and again speeds up execution.
Digital platforms offer a number of tools that speed up this process, most of which can be used in hybrid work environments. This includes:
- Engagement tools such as CultureAmp, Pyn and Lattice.
- SkillsTech tools that help businesses build a competency framework, such as Skills-Base
- EdTech tools that help train the working groups fast such as HowToo, LearnUpon, ANewSpring and EdApp.
- Productivity and communications tools such Slack, MS Teams.
It is an exciting time in the digital world and there are typically hundreds of tools in each category, each suitable for different purposes.
The two approaches are summarised in the following table:
Traditional approach Agile approach Thinking vs doing Thinking by senior execs Doing by rest of organisation
Thinking and doing done interdependently by many people in organisation Idea Closed, ‘dark room’ Open, transparent, co-designed Objective setting Set beforehand – usually at the top Emerge from the process – many involved Communications Asynchronous, one-to-many Synchronous, many-to-many Project management Linear sequential (waterfall) project management, not well integrated Seamlessly integrated, Agile Project Management (sprints) Speed Slower, delayed exposure of ideas Faster Work tools Manual approach supported by basic tech productivity tools Digital platforms and HR Technology Staff engagement Staff are consulted Strategy is pushed
Staff are engaged in working groups Strategy is pulled
HOW DO WE INVOLVE STAFF AND SPEED UP THE CYCLE?
To balance involvement and speed, staff are are invited to join working groups with carefully architected responsibilities, that contribute in a meaningful way to the strategy development and execution. They have a shared responsibility with the core project team for generating a work product and outcome. This means the core project team are relinquishing some of their control of the outcome to the working groups, but still mentoring and guiding the teams through their work. This enables the core team to leverage their efforts considerably, and get accelerated results.
By moving out of the dark room to an agile approach complemented by digital technology, organisations can be more nimble and flexible, enabling faster responses to market conditions. Staff participating in the strategy formulation process are already modifying their work to fit with the new direction. It creates a tide of enthusiasm, a ‘buzz’ that generates a critical mass in the organisation without management needing to ‘sell’ the new direction. It is a pull rather than a push approach.
Different perspectives can be tapped throughout the organisation, which generates better quality data and decision making in a world of uncertainty, with an abundance of information, and a diversity of views.”
Lisa Carlin works with ambitious digital leaders to turbo-charge their business, cultural and digital transformation. Those working with Lisa have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOAL. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust, and on the Advisory Board of Rebelliuz, the Tiktok for jobs. Lisa runs an Organizational Development Community exploring leading edge ideas in digital transformation, culture change and business innovation. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA). focus on accelerating growth, transformation and scale ups through behavioural expertise. Her portfolio of work includes advisory boards and business mentor to Founder/CEOs in the HRTech, EdTech and workplace learning sector. Prior to establishing her own consultancy in 1999, she worked with global consulting firms including McKinsey & Co and Accenture.
lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup.com |Connect on LinkedIn
Dr Norman Chorn is a strategist and organisation development consultant. He works with executives and organisations to develop future strategy and organisational capability. His particular areas of focus are setting strategy for uncertain futures, and developing the resilient and adaptive organisation.
norman@drnormanchorn.com |Connect on LinkedIn
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Learn digital transformation in 5 simple steps, overcome challenges with practical tips for successful strategy execution.
Here are a few important digital facts: - Most businesses are prioritizing digital. No surprise, Gartner says 91% of businesses are engaged in some form of digital initiative.
- AI is getting particular focus. “More than 50% of workers experimented with generative AI, either at home or in the workplace” (ZD Net June 2023).
- Based on my research, the challenges blocking digital transformation efforts are mostly due to culture and people, eg scoping issues (poor alignment of people), financial overruns (most often due to skills and people issues), resistance to change (culture), stakeholder problems (culture), and regulatory/compliance issues (NOT people).
To adopt a business-focused, disciplined project, change and culture-friendly approach to digital, check out my tips of the week.
5 steps for your digital strategy:
(And it applies to any other project or strategic initiative too!)
- DOCUMENT your objectives clearly and succinctly. In a workshop I ran last year for tech/high growth Founders and CEOs, the biggest reported issue was lack of documentation. In large enterprises, there is more typically too much documentation and insufficient clarity and agreement on objectives.(hint: use ChatGPT to summarize, or identify issues with your objectives).
- DEVELOP with others. Co-develop with people and they will engage more in your digital strategy and plans. (The most important thing you can learn from design thinking principles).
- DIVIDE it into stages. Chunk it. Prioritize it. How do you eat an elephant? Chunk by chunk. If you feel overwhelmed, it probably means you are stuck on this step. Too many projects, too many high priorities.
- DELEGATE accountability. This is a massive topic and I’ll cover it in more depth in later editions)
- DRIVE momentum – distribute responsibility throughout your organization to get there faster.
Thank you to all the amazing, wonderful people who have emailed me back to say they enjoyed last week’s tips. I love to hear how you find this useful.
*****
PS Not sure what to do about getting your strategy unstuck, your projects powering ahead, your digital transformation turbocharged?
You have 3 choices:
🚀 Get your question answered free and discretely by emailing me (in 110 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
🚀 🚀 Discuss your question with me in a Zoom group coaching session. Email me beforehand to stay unidentified, then join the group in asking “what if” questions. Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me, email me on lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).
Co-design your strategy development and implementation to accelerate strategy execution.
Last week someone asked me whether they should update their strategy and planning process. A great question! Traditional strategy development approaches happen in the “dark room”, behind closed doors. After being refined to perfection by the project team, sometimes consultants, and the executive, it is submitted to the board. Once approved, it is then announced to the organization.
I recommend you avoid the dark room approach because:
- It can miss important information, which is best understood by people closest to the customer, or by those experimenting with seemingly unrelated innovation elsewhere in your organization.
- It takes too long, often 6-12+ weeks of intensive effort and another lag for approval. This delay is problematic in our fast moving business environment (eg AI has changed the landscape considerably this year).
- Dark room approaches triggers an adverse psychological and neurological reaction in the rest of the staff. It is likely to leave them feeling excluded, threatened, and powerless. This is the very opposite of the influence and organisational development approaches described by researchers such as Robert Cialdini, Edgar Schein, David Rock and others.
A better approach is where you involve those impacted or responsible for delivery from the very beginning. This means that the implementation in a sense is already starting as you formulate strategy and plans. It is a combination of strategy development and strategy execution. People exposed to the new strategy ideas are already figuring out how they can do things differently when they walk out of the meeting room, They are changing their focus in subtle ways. I’ve previously written about this with Dr Norman Chorn. This delivers the best support and the most momentum, and is consistent with HCD and design thinking.
For more alternatives to dark room strategy, and case studies of successful transformation projects, watch or listen to Davina Stanley interviewing me on her podcast or YouTube
Davina is a talented Communications Specialist who I know through the McKinsey network.
*****
PS Not sure what to do about getting your strategy unstuck, your projects powering ahead, your digital transformation turbocharged?
You have 3 choices:
🚀 Get your question answered free and discretely by emailing me (in 110 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
🚀 🚀 Discuss your question with me in a Zoom group coaching session. Email me beforehand to stay unidentified, then join the group in asking “what if” questions. Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me, email me on lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).
Improve your strategy implementation, transformation, and project management. Learn why aligning your approach with company culture is critical for success.
This week I have one simple message for you, whether you’re a CEO, transformation leader, change management professional or project manager.
You can’t implement your strategy, digital transformation or projects until you’ve done this one thing: “adapt your approach to your culture.”
No matter how much you may want to execute any initiative (including changing the culture), you can’t influence at scale until you’ve figured out how to align your execution approach to the culture. This includes:
- your business rationale and strategic context, so people get the “why”
- your project management governance, essential to get traction
- your change management approach, to build momentum
- your leadership style, particularly if you are new to the organization
And once you’ve figured this out, you can significantly accelerate the change.
Here’s a one minute video on this, from the Rethink Change conference that I presented at last Friday in Sydney, Australia.
*****
PS Not sure how to get your strategy unstuck, projects powering, and transformation turbocharged? I can help you.
- 🚀 Get your question answered free.
How: Email me (in 100 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
2. 🚀 🚀 Discuss your question in my monthly Zoom group coaching sessions. How: Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership. (Your questions will remain anonymous if you email them in advance.)
3. 🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me. How: Simply email me on lisa.carlin@futurebuildersgroup
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).
Join the AI revolution of 2023 in business strategy execution. Are you using AI for project management and change management work?
43% of CEOs are “using AI to make strategic decisions, while 36% are using generative AI for operational decisions”. Investopedia, June 27, 2023
AI tools are the disruptive tech theme of 2023 so far. (I’ve added “so far” just in case…. who knows what else will unfold for the rest of 2023. Especially if the last few years are any indication.)
So are you using AI tools to save you time with your projects, be more productive, and inspire the people around you?
If you’ve joined almost 4,000 subscribers to this email, you are an innovator, change maker or transformation executive interested in strategy execution. This means you MUST have tried some of the new AI tools else you’re falling behind.
In terms of the diffusion of innovation, I believe AI is already at the stage of adoption by the late majority. Eric Langley, Fractional CIO agrees – see his description here.
Seriously, why would you use a typewriter when you can use a word processor?
A tape recorder when you could stream music?
A book of maps vs Google maps and GPS?
Yes, I know the problem is finding time to try out all these tools to determine which ones will give you the biggest benefit for your time (cost is secondary as they’re fairly inexpensive and many have freemium versions).
So this brings me to 3 AI ideas you can try right now to save you time and inspire others.
My 3 tips for this week
- Record, transcribe and summarize your meetings immediately eg Otter.ai
- Improve your communications by providing an alternative to emails – record brief videos to share quick snippets of information regularly with your team or business eg Descript (your EA or VA can edit this as easily as editing a document)
- Influence groups of people on your proposal, strategy or big idea, by pre-empting objections. Use ChatGPT to generate a list of objections and questions tailored to your particular stakeholder group, and then proactively address these objections (or frame them out) in your presentation.
If you would like to explore this further, I invite you to join my live Zoom masterclass “Turbocharge with AI” on August 8th, 8-9am AEDT. This is part of the Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
Here’s to your transformation success.
*****
PS Not sure what to do about getting your strategy unstuck, your projects powering ahead, your digital transformation turbocharged?
You have 3 choices:
🚀 Get your question answered free and discretely by emailing me (in 110 words or less) and I’ll answer as many as I can in my weekly emails.
🚀 🚀 Discuss your question with me in a Zoom group coaching session. Email me beforehand to stay unidentified, then join the group in asking “what if” questions. Join Turbocharge Your Transformation membership.
🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 Access 1on1 mentoring with me, simply reply to this email.
If you’re interested in
#strategyexecution,
#digitaltransformation,
#changemanagement…
* Subscribe to my personal weekly email to your inbox here.
See the OD Hive mastermind community – peer mentoring groups for OD and transformation professionals
—
About Lisa Carlin
As a strategy execution specialist and scaleup mentor, Lisa works with ambitious digital leaders to turbocharge their transformation and business planning. Lisa’s clients have an independent sounding board and expert advice so they have absolute confidence they WILL ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS. Lisa is Co-Founder and Director of FutureBuilders Group of organisational development specialists, and volunteers as Chair of the University of Cape Town Australia Trust. Her early career was with Accenture (South Africa) and McKinsey (USA).