Even the best Digital Strategy will fail if the company isn’t culturally prepared. Consistently the biggest reason digital transformation fails is organizational culture and resistance to change. Organizational agility isn’t a rigid process like scrum. It’s the sustained collective ability to quickly sense decide and execute. Leaders must build this vital capacity on trust not just on technology.
Old company structures like vertical silos yearly plans and departmental goals just don’t work at the speed the digital market demands. These structures create friction slow down decisions and value internal control more than delivering end-to-end customer value. A defensive culture that fears change is the single greatest roadblock to continuous change. This failure comes from a “trust deficit” where the fear of being blamed stops the key experiments and feedback needed for innovation.
Leaders must actively architect the digital culture by forcing structural changes. These include:
Prioritize reskilling and upskilling by making internal talent development a strategic budget item. Investing in the reskilling of the existing workforce signals commitment builds loyalty and closes the critical digital skills gap.
Culture can’t be outsourced. It must be led. The shift is from a culture of control to one of empowerment. Look at your leadership team’s comfort with risk. Is your organization more afraid of disruption from a competitor or more afraid of failing an internal project?
Institute psychological safety by visibly rewarding the learning derived from failure rather than punishing mistakes. This essential tactic lowers the risk of trying new things and decisively boosts the velocity of innovation.
Mandate cross-functional fluidity by getting rid of functional silos. Create permanent empowered value stream teams. These teams must include business IT and security and their success should only be measured by market results.