The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation (Management on the Cutting Edge)

by Gerald C. Kane

Agile principles are an effective approach to digital transformation in organizations. Instead of planning a long road map of how to respond, teams develop short-term initiatives to engender small-scale changes in the company and in its processes. Next, the team evaluates how well the intervention meets its intended goals, and then plots the next small intervention. Agile teams don’t develop a grand plan for digital transformation; rather, they take one small action at a time, assess its effect, and do it again. Management must effectively communicate to these teams about the strategic direction of the organization, as well as pay attention to and circulate the results of the teams, so that they come together into a set of meaningful changes. Instead of directly telling the teams what next steps to take, a process of ongoing two-way communication permits action above planning, and future action based on present results.