Digital Transformation and the Sense of Self

It is really unfortunate that no one knows how to raise kids … until they’ve raised some kids.  With my crew, my first born, Brandon, is the guy that experienced my wife (Terri) and I challenging that learning curve as we discovered who we were becoming as parents.  His experience, then, leads to a different perspective than his younger siblings because he lived by rules that have changed over time.  The values we seek to instill in our children have not changed, but the rules/enforcement changed in some ways, I hope, because I have grown to understand more about helping younger humans find their own lives in a fairly crazy world.  Meanwhile, Brandon’s value does not change, even if the rules around him did.  He may have experienced responses to his behavior from me that his younger brother and sister did not (even in similar situations), but that is a sign of my maturity (I can hope), learning through my life with him, not a change in his value.  He may have lived under a different set of expected outcomes for his behavior, but my love for him is constant.

In my childhood, I was the first born in an incredible home; loving family, deeply committed to our church, surrounded by close friends, protected from many negative experiences.  I was a first hand witness as my parents grew and changed the rules the older we got.  Very strict on me, very lenient with my youngest brother, Andrew – who is 12 years my junior.  While my memories of those days are becoming opaque as my distance from them continues to grow, I do remember one such rule change that really upset me.  I had just turned 17, and my family had always been pretty strict with things, like movie ratings.  I had never seen a rated R movie (that my parents were aware of).  The previous Christmas holiday had brought the family one of the early, newly minted VHS tape players, and we were so excited at the idea that we could watch movies at home anytime we wanted.  My Dad thought it would be awesome to watch a scary movie with me (now that I was ‘of age’) and we sat down to watch the 1979 classic, Alien.  Ridley Scott really freaked out a generation with that one!  I was very excited, ready to be terrified, and it was sort of a rite of passage to watch my first rated R film with my Dad.  And then, when the time came, my little sister (2 years younger) and middle brother (5 years younger) were on the couch with us to watch the movie!  At least my 5-year-old brother was asleep!  I felt … insulted!  I still managed to enjoy the movie (always been a sci-fi fan), but I was revolted that my younger siblings received the same honor I did!  I’ve grown to understand things differently now, but at the time, I could not understand why I was being ‘disrespected.’

My intent is not to compare employees to children, although human development is … well, human development.  We experience similar changes at work.  So much of what we do is in furtherance of our desire for self-actualization.  Who am I?  What is my value to my friends, my family, my company?  Do I measure up?  Am I worthy of my compensation?  In finding meaning in our lives, we mark ‘rights of passage’ where we moved from one level of value to another.  As an example, at one point in my career, I was promoted multiple times over an 18-month period, which really had me feeling like I was ‘coming into my own.’  I was finally ‘of age,’ metaphorically, for more responsibility.  At this point, I really believed I was now in a place from which to help others chart their own courses, and lead highly successful teams.  At a different time in my career, however, those that had not walked my path (10 years at roughly the same job level) would suddenly jump up and be a peer, or even a superior, organization-wise.  For the most part, I’ve been great through these transitions, because I have taken to heart what I learned as a kid.  Organizations learn and change the rules, hopefully for the better.  Even as a hiring manager, I set as a goal to find talent and a quality of person that I would like to work for, not just with.  So, I never found my value tied to who all else is invited to the movie, but rather recognized who I am as valuable, regardless of position.  I’m currently learning to divorce myself from the need for constant external applause.  That is a wonderful thing, but it does not define me.  I am, in essence, uniquely my own, and my value is immovable and inseparable from me – no matter my position (reports, no-reports) or changes in measurement.

I’ve found that more broadly, we are individually on different paths to learning who we are, and our work often sets incentives that impact our sense of self.  Often, this influence of our perceptions will have unintended consequences as we seek to change culture in our firm.  For example, in several of the customers I have worked with, individuals move up the ranks, in order to gain more decision-making and freedom, as well as a much more decisive voice in product direction and project oversight.  Often, this increased span of control means that the individual also has purview over more teams, more work, more projects, wider range of architecture, etc.  While this hierarchical growth path does drive individuals to excel, it also has some undesired/unintended consequences when we look to bring a more ‘transformed’ and open organizational culture.  If I were this individual, experiencing a long history of organizational endorsement and power, I might have a desire to react in interesting and unintended ways.

• First, I probably want to enforce my path on others.  I may not respond well if others gain authority, position or voice without ‘paying their dues’ the way that I did.  This makes me an extension of the command and control structure that, potentially, holds talented people in intractable processes.
• Next, I might be disgruntled and look for the door when I feel that my previous efforts are being ‘ignored’ or ‘disrespected.’  In a transformation effort, we often seek to raise the volume on previously unheard voices, and this often can feel to the existing technical or business leaders as a ‘net loss’ of influence or control.  This is the emotion I felt when my siblings received the same honor (and watching Alien is an honor!) that I did.
• I will protect past decisions.  An agile organization is looking forward, and rarely back.  The past is effectively ‘sunk cost’ and should not have undue weight on present decision-making.  If I were a leader that heavily invested in our past decisions, I may feel very defensive of those past decisions, using that to defend status quo.  This is especially true for those efforts and initiatives that resulted in my promotion or recognition by the org.
• I probably also have an inflated sense of self, valuing my own voice over others.  Due to this structure, the organization has reinforced the value of my decisions and opinion.  This limits the willingness of others to participate  in efforts I am involved with, knowing the ‘more valued’ or senior opinion is the one that matters.  This can make me dismissive or closed off to other, less ‘senior’ opinions.
• Many of those that have scaled some portion of your company’s ‘ladder’ intuitively desire greater and more broad span of control, as most companies glorify leaders with large-scale responsibilities.  However, the broader remit actually decreases my value to any individual initiative.  Effectively, my divided attention simply reduces my level of involvement and increases my distractions to focused execution.  If I couple this with some of the previous attitudes I articulated above, I add bad to bad.  For example, I discount the opinion of ‘focused’ resources who are ‘junior’, while preferring my distracted and spread thin ‘senior’ opinion.

These are just a few elements that prevent some excellent resources from jumping into organizational transformations whole-heartedly.  Generally, advocating for a shift within your company in terms of digital transformation takes a view to making the org more innovative and collaborative.  We desire to raise many diverse voices to solve the hardest challenges.  However, even this thought can be enough to cause existing senior folks to squirm a little, because their value has been so strongly reinforced by the written and unwritten rules of the organization.  So, how do we lead folks into transformation while minimizing the above stressors that will cause disruption/lack of buy-in to your efforts.  Here are a few approaches I have heard of and tried.

• Redefine broad leaders as spreaders of ‘intent,’ rather than solution providers.  There is tremendous value in a broad view and understanding of outcomes the business desires, especially when coupled with deep knowledge of the existing organization (how things get done).  It infuses teams with purpose and an understanding of where ‘we fit’ in the larger vision.  When it comes to execution, however, you’re broader scope does not allow you to involve yourself in detailed decision-making, but rather in driving focus on intent/desired outcomes to all teams that own execution.  Do not feel the need to get involved in smaller, implementation-level decisions, as you are engaging there at your, and the org’s, peril.  You are not involved, day to day, and therefor lack context and dedication.  Also, your intent should be customer driven.  When intent is only for the benefit of your org, and not a customer or the company, then it is time to redirect.
• Remove territorial incentives.  I’ve kept aquariums for much of my life, and if you’ve ever kept ‘closed ecosystem’ style pets, you probably have experienced how adding new animals to the ecosystem can lead to a war as the animals seek to establish territory and control.  A good rule for the aquarist is to rearrange the tank as you introduce something new to the environment, which leaves no one with an existing turf to defend.  From this neutral footing, a new relationship to both the new animal and the environment is generally more collaborative.  Again, the analogy only goes so far as we transition to humans, but here are some ways to do something similar within your org.
  • Hire folks out of old roles into new roles.  I’ve actually seen customers that terminate an existing role, and create a new job description for the new role, while providing an enablement path for existing employees to earn the new roles.  The new role is defined by a completely new set of responsibilities, measurements, etc.  The intent here is to completely reset the individual’s view in how the company is seeking to find value in their work their view of the environment.
  • Establish a new org focused on a completely different structure and invite people to join.  Wrap this org around a new initiative/outcome for the company (like a new digital experience).  Much more voluntary, this again asks individuals to leave the old and enter the new.  In many cases, this provides a great buy-in mechanism, as well as a way to view the early adopters – those that are already bought in and are hungry for change.  Once the success of the new transformed team is apparent, then layout training and retention plans for those in traditional roles.
  • Create new facilities to house teams that operate in a new way.  Several organizations established a new culture and protected it from outside influence by moving the ‘new thing’ away from their existing surroundings and setting them up in new, external facilities.  In this way, there was a very real separation from the rest of the org, and a sense of building something new.  Make sure that the shift is not just a physical one, roles should be defined in new ways, but do not underestimate a shift in physical environment.  Interestingly, such a change also can kick start innovative, new thoughts.
• Recognize team identity over personal accomplishment.  In team sports, there are glory positions, and those that go beyond on the team.  Lebron James (perhaps the best basketball player in the NBA) will always stand out no matter what team you put him on.  However, Lebron does not win a championship without exalting his team to the highest honor.  Unless the Cleveland Cavaliers are awarded the title of ‘NBA Champions,’ Lebron will fall short of winning an individual award, like ‘Finals Most Valuable Player’.  Similarly, we need to establish a team culture where the team wins when customer value is achieved.  We can certainly recognize stars on that team for their individual efforts, but the metrics we use should promote bettering the team over playing for yourself.  The approach that I have seen prove to be very effective is shifting from a project orientation to a product orientation.  That is a subject for another time, and there are some great resources out there to understand this shift – but the point is to incent team outcomes and collaboration, not only work ethic or level of contribution.  We all win when we release new value to market, and you win for having helped us do so.

As we consider moving our organizations into more collaborative and innovative organizational and teaming structures, we have to do so while considering the impact on the individuals who are encountering these changes.  The past or current structures of your organization have created a system of written and unwritten rules that your employees have internalized in terms of their sense of themselves.  When you posit change, it will be challenging and unsettling, and we should consider how to find the most encouraging and productive road to travel so that we bring the most talent with us as we embark in a new direction.  Digital transformation, for all of its technical wizardry, is first and foremost a human challenge.  Embrace the human, and discover new possibilities.