A couple of years ago, I led an agile transformation program for a major hospital system. Their vision statement was to pilot process changes and new technologies to improve patient experiences while simplifying work for doctors, nurses, and administrators. They asked me to train their project managers on agile methodologies and apply agile/scrum to several project types, including electronic health record system deployments and M&A integrations.

Most importantly, they wanted to incorporate planning for change management in their agile practices. StarCIO’s approach is to redefine change management practices as transformation management to signify that it requires a different mindset and new approaches in digital transformation initiatives.

In transformation management, we plan for change as a type of work prioritized and committed to in every sprint.

Change management: Challenges Digital Trailblazers

We’ve all seen the statistics on unsuccessful digital transformations, and I recently shared 24 ways to avoid painful failures. Failure to meet an initiative’s delivery goals remains an issue, especially when organizations must upskill talent and adopt digital transformation core competencies such as product management, agile, DevOps, and data-driven organizational practices.

A big part of my focus at StarCIO is guiding C-levels on developing Digital Trailblazers and continuously improving transformation competencies. We guide Digital Trailblazers in ideating new products, planning roadmaps, aligning data governance with data science, and developing other best practices selected from our database of over 150 activities.

But deployment isn’t the end game – it’s actually the start! To deliver business value, Digital Trailblazers must seek end-user adoption of practice changes and use of new technologies. Without adoption and improved experiences, it’s hard to meet stakeholder expectations and demonstrate business outcomes.

“While 89% of large companies globally have a digital and AI transformation underway, they have only captured 31% of the expected revenue lift and 25% of expected cost savings from the effort,” reports HBR on The Value of Digital Transformation. Yikes!

Second, delivering new capabilities through a release management strategy signifies the beginning of the next release cycle. Digital Trailblazers must create agile feedback loops to adjust priorities and requirements – and that demands quick end-user adoption and practices to capture their sentiments.

13 Ways to ease adoption and improve experiences

Today, I’m proud to announce a new StarCIO white paper on Change Management in Digital Transformation, in which I share 13 ways to ease adoption and improve experiences. The paper has an action plan covering the transformation responsibilities of C-levels, Digital Trailblazers, and multi-disciplinary agile teams, including their stakeholders.

This paper is a collaboration between several exemplary leaders participating in my weekly Coffee with Digital Trailblazers. Change management comes up in nearly every episode because of its importance in digital transformation and challenges. While many best practice frameworks exist, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to driving change with stakeholders, early adopters, the “layer of clay,” and detractors.

The white paper will help you develop a strategy for your organization and the specifics of different digital transformation initiatives.

When you download the white paper, you’ll also get access to the monthly Driving Digital Newsletter and three other tools:

• Digital Trailblazer Career Checklist for product managers, DevOps engineers, and data specialists
• StarCIO Vision Statement Template to help you kick off new digital transformation initiatives
• StarCIO Agile Planning white paper on continuous agile planning practices

I hope you’ll take advantage of these tools. Please reach out to me with your questions.