In these times of the COVID 19 pandemic, everything is uncertain. Many people have lost their jobs, many businesses have had to close, and those who still keep their employment and their businesses fear for their job and financial security.
At times, the situation seems to improve, then some new risk appears or a new restriction; we go back and forth constantly. In this new reality, those who have remained afloat, or even increased their profits, are those who have known how to adapt their business to the circumstances through technology. Technology and flexibility for change are, today more than ever, not only the key to success, but to survival itself. This has become evident from small businesses to large multinationals, from government services to independent professionals, in summary, applicable in all types of companies.
It is not a secret that the technology of the last 50 years has surpassed in quantity and speed the advances of all previous centuries. What was new yesterday is the norm today, and tomorrow it may be obsolete. Advances exceed our imagination and we cannot afford to be left behind, we have to keep up to date to stay current. Technology and flexibility.
Within this context is the relevance of digital transformation, which goes beyond being a competitive advantage to a necessity. Today’s digital transformation is not just about having digital platforms for our businesses, it is a way of organizing work, processes, and where the human factor is fundamental to define them.
The situation is not solved by telling the staff that now they are going to work in this or that way, it is them who know the best from their own experiences how things can be done, and those who can discover possible improvements with the day-to-day activities, since they have had to adapt to a whole new way of working, to organize their time, their physical space, and even their relationships with their bosses and collaborators. This implies a new organizational culture, which includes efficient communication with both clients and employees, and empathize with their circumstances, their needs, and their adaptation processes. This is also part of the transformation.
Implementing changes from above without having previously explained why and the benefits to be obtained, generates resistance to change, which very possibly leads to management failure. When changes are constant and without consulting those who actually do the work, they are conceived as a trial-and-error test with them, so they are not taken seriously, or worse, they increase the uncertainty generated by the current pandemic.
Organizations must constantly change to adapt to their environment and continue to meet their objectives in this changing world, and the need to do so through technology has become evident in the current emergency situation. Digital transformation is today more than ever a necessity for survival. But organizations do not change just by incorporating new technologies, establishing new processes or structures, but they change when the people involved are able to adapt to these changes, assume them, and evolve with them. To achieve this, you have to eliminate, or at least minimize the stress generated by change.
Today we can see how, for the majority of young people – for whom change is a constant, even more in the field of technology – flexibility has become a necessity. They have incorporated uncertainty into their work life, leading them to develop a new way of thinking and living that is assumed and known how to face it. In the same way, companies must assume uncertainty and face it with the same flexibility when seeking continuous improvement in their digital transformation process, and doing so in conjunction with their human factor, in order to have a greater chance of success.