We need more professional digital transformers.

"Change me on the A..." - the best-selling book title describes quite well the high frustration among all parties involved and the significant digital transformation gap in Germany. What is still going wrong and what so-called 'Digital Transformers' must do better is explained by the former e-business manager and trained change coach, consultant, and Top100 trainer Arndt Schmidtmayer. Speakers Excellence: The majority of digital transformations and change projects still leave much to be desired, why is that? Arndt Schmidtmayer: Executives and employees of startups, SMEs, and international corporations still have high potential for improvement in systematically and effectively guiding the unstoppable digital upheaval to finally generate a more positive participation and better results in these profound change projects. According to dii, only 17% of companies in digital transformations use structured change methodologies, even though digitization represents a far more significant company-wide change than switching from fax orders to an online ordering system. Speakers Excellence: What is the potential for improvement to reduce frustration and achieve better change results? Arndt Schmidtmayer: As the CDO (Chief Digital Officer) of an automotive corporation highlighted in a panel discussion recently: "The most important thing in digital transformation is the people and their mindsets." I can confirm this from my own experience as an e-business manager in 11 countries at another international corporation. Various articles and the CDO study 2017/18 by Kienbaum support this. However, changing the mindset is not easy, it requires a professional "Digital Transformer" - whether this role is fulfilled by a traditional leader or a colleague within self-organized teams is initially secondary. The focus must be on systematically and sustainably shaping not only technical and procedural but also emotional and often cultural change successfully together with those affected. While cars transforming into (including self-parking) robots are abundant, the human digital transformers who also consider the emotional world of all involved psychologically systemically are not yet widespread.

"Change programs usually fail not due to the subject matter."

Speakers Excellence: What should a "Digital Transformer" be able to do and achieve concretely? Arndt Schmidtmayer: Digital Transformers should be experienced change coaches who implement changes effectively and sustainably with digital competence, change background knowledge, and experience with proven methodologies, as well as emotional (leadership) intelligence. 86 percent of respondents in a change survey by Mutaree believe that a comprehensible benefit of the change project is the most important requirement to support a change process motivated, engaged, and with joy. And it is not truly understandable for all those affected if they only hear the supposed benefits preached from above, even if or especially if this is announced in a fancy PowerPoint presentation or an email. A truly positive emotional charge through co-creating the benefits of the (digital) transformation for customers, suppliers, employees, and management or the company works better - turning those affected into participants is and remains a classic, but unfortunately still too little considered in practice.

"Emotions - both good and bad - must be more considered."

Speakers Excellence: Is co-creating the benefits all there is? Arndt Schmidtmayer: No, of course, a general openness or a new digital (not necessarily Silicon Valley) culture is necessary, as well as a willingness to change or courage, and a new understanding of digital leadership, not just the new agile methods like Design Thinking and Scrum. Additionally, the critical individual concerns and fears must not only be identified but they must be addressed in trusting, constructive, and solution-oriented individual conversations between employees and change agents or mentors, and leaders. Not only must factual conflicts be resolved, but also the negative feelings in the subjective perception of individuals must be accepted, appreciated, and addressed - it sounds logical, but unfortunately, it is time and emotionally consuming and is rarely applied in everyday work life (exceptions as often confirm the rule - feel free to share your positive or negative experiences in a comment). Speakers Excellence: What else needs to be considered? Arndt Schmidtmayer: Established change principles such as "Turning those affected into (digitally) involved participants" play an increasingly important role - especially with the (virtual) possibilities exemplified by crowd-sourcing, open bar camps, or intensive hackathons (not just for programmers). Last but not least, successful Digital Transformers, especially in truly disruptive innovations (so-called "Pivots"), are characterized by a long endurance like that of a marathon runner, ensuring resources beyond the first 10 kilometers and taking different paths: because many roads ultimately lead to Rome or Athens or wherever the digital and agile journey takes us.

We need more professional digital transformers.

"Change programs usually fail not due to the subject matter."

"Emotions - both good and bad - must be more considered."

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