Digitalization – Deal with it!

Digitalization is not coming - it’s already here!

And it’s not going to go away. Sitting it out and burying your head in the sand is pointless. Even closing your eyes won’t make the “problem” of digitalization go away. It is here to stay. And that’s a good thing. And this new era is not so new, it started many years ago. At the beginning of the still omnipresent coronavirus crisis, many entrepreneurs and self-employed people approached me with the question of what they could do now to be more digital - and, if possible, to do their entire business online immediately. But digitalization is not a project that is completed by using an online store. It is a process and an attitude that affects the entire company at all levels. The crisis has now suddenly shown what has been neglected in this direction in recent years. On the other hand, that’s not such a bad thing, as it forces us to think about it now.

Digitalization - Deal with it!

Based on my insights into the working methods of companies in Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Shenzhen, it struck me after my return how skeptical we are of new technologies here in Germany and Europe. For me as a “tekkie”, this is difficult to understand. For me as a coach, however, it is: we live in security and prosperity and owe this largely to traditional industries (such as the automotive and medical technology sectors), which we are now naturally clinging to and want to keep alive. That’s okay, as is the fear of job losses due to digitalization. But it’s not a solution. Because digitalization is not coming… it’s already here. Deal with it! The question must not be: Will technology affect my business? It should be: How can I actively shape this change? And this question hovers over my work with entrepreneurs and the self-employed.

Copy & Paste?

Silicon Valley has created a well-functioning ecosystem in which tech start-ups and corporations can scale and develop. You can walk through Shenzhen, the “Silicon Valley of hardware”, where road traffic consists almost exclusively of e-cars and urban planning is supplied with city data in real time. - But how can we transfer this to Germany and Europe? Especially the things that work well, preferably without the downsides such as external or self-exploitation of employees or complete surveillance including social scoring. Taking individual aspects out of context and adopting them in isolation doesn’t work, and if it does, it’s by chance: a bit of Scrum here, a table football game there and Casual Friday at the end of the week. People often forget that things are different here: our framework conditions, rules, values, social system, culture and history - they cannot be applied 1:1. Fair-weather agility then leads directly to frustration among employees (“Yeah, what have they come up with up there again?”) and at management level (“Can’t they just work efficiently in an agile way?”).

Digitalization with humanity

In order to continue on “our” path into the digital age and not head towards dystropy, we need to put a value that has sometimes fallen out of fashion back at the center: humanity. In the end, it’s always about people: whether employee or manager, software architect, developer, trainee or senior, supplier, provider or customer. People are the ones that all technology should serve and they are the most important resource in this transformation. Successful digitalization requires not only technical development, but also the personal development of the people and teams involved. No more shock paralysis. Get your clothes in order, breathe and actively shape the future. Then agile values and an agile mindset have a chance of not just being empty phrases on the foyer wall, but of becoming lived practice.

Not all that glitters is agile

In the same breath as “we want to be digital now, please” often comes “…oh and please also agile… really nice with Scrum or Kanban and dailies and so on. Because these methods will make us faster, more efficient and more cost-effective”. - Hm. With an approach like that, I’m guessing that the “agility” project will also fail. Agile methods are of course a good start, but it is much more important to develop the values and the mindset. What self-image should be behind the methods? Clarity is needed: why do we actually want to be agile now? Why don’t we carry on as before?

A model - imprecise, but useful

The question was already on my mind in my first agile projects in the early 2000s: Why? Why overturn all processes, change responsibilities, dissolve hierarchies, new tools here and fancy methods there? Just because it’s hip at the moment and everyone is doing it? Yes, you can of course argue with faster, higher, further, more flexible… but for me, a completely different reason has emerged over the years: Working agile - thinking agile - helps us to deal with knowing that we don’t know anything - in other words, with uncertainty. And how did this come about? An imprecise but useful model helps here: at some point - when this digitalization also began - complicated became complex. That was a turning point, but it’s already over. Complicated used to be complicated. Now it’s complex.

The “good” old days

Not everything was better in the past, but some things were easier. At least to understand. Projects were manageable. Even large projects could be based on relatively stable framework conditions. An MS Project plan still had a useful half-life. The connection between cause and effect was comprehensible. If something was changed at one point, it was possible to estimate what effect it would have. That was the great age of the optimizer. Making the process more and more efficient. Cutting out what could be removed. Fine-tuning and coordinating the adjusting screws so that the entire project structure runs like clockwork. That worked quite well, at least until the costs of further optimization exceeded the benefits. But that was just one problem.

I know that I don’t know anything and I don’t know what I don’t know

Let’s blame it on the Internet. Maybe not the first generation, not even the second, but at some point our projects started to develop a life of their own. Gradually, barely recognizable. Accompanied only by the uneasy feeling that things were getting confusing. A few systems linked here, a data exchange there, a few interfaces added. And today we are faced with applications and system landscapes whose algorithms can no longer be explained by individuals (but do work). Complex systems in which the relationship between cause and effect is no longer clear. And anyone who turns a cog here cannot be sure where or on what it will have an effect. And this doesn’t just apply to projects - companies and our society have also developed in this direction. But that’s not all. The framework conditions are no longer so stable either: fast cycles, fast markets, new contexts, everything is dynamic, a physical virus that - snap - turns the entire world upside down. Safe habits here, GDPR there, employees and their needs and shareholders have needs too. And all at breakneck speed. So here we are, with three options:

1. continue optimizing and sticking to the familiar: this ends in frustration or burnout - and the goal can no longer be achieved.
2. sit it out. Theoretically possible if you have staying power and bet that everything will go back to the way it was before. But: it won’t.
3. accept uncertainty and shape it yourself. Sounds exhausting, laborious and unsatisfactory. And it is. But it is the only chance.

Ok, accepting uncertainty - what’s so difficult about that? In my experience, the biggest hurdle to overcome is the fear of having no control. Not having anything to fill MS Project and any PowerPoint report traffic lights with. Not being able to cover all eventualities in a linear fashion. Not being able to protect yourself in the long term. Not having a scapegoat if something goes wrong. And this is where agile methods come into play: because they are there to establish the values, beliefs, visions - in short - the mindset that we need to find solutions: more trust, more courage, more personal responsibility.

Your agile start to digitalization

Yes, and how do you do that now? How do you and your company become more agile? I have been researching the miracle pill “Digitalikum forte plus C” for years. Simply give every employee a tablet in the morning before the first meeting and after a week the pain is gone and everything is agile. That would be nice. Unfortunately, tablets often only cure the symptom. For agile transformation, companies cannot avoid changing their “habits”. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned in over 20 years of experience with technology and people: It takes time, patience and energy. Well, we don’t have that in abundance. That’s why it’s all the more important to start in the right places. Otherwise the path ends in an expensive dead end.

There are four aspects that I find particularly important:

1. your own way: Agile methods are nice and useful, but they are also just the best practices of others. It is important that you find your own agile way that suits your company, your employees and your framework conditions.
2. the first step: get into action, try things out and find out what works and what doesn’t. It makes sense to use Scrum, Kanban or Lean methods at the beginning - but simply imposing such a framework on an entire company is risky. It is better to start with partial aspects of it, e.g. a daily meeting or a retrospective.
3. from project to mindset: Changing the culture or mindset does not happen overnight and is always dependent on the employees. In order to establish personal responsibility, solution orientation and out-of-the-box thinking, a coach is needed to provide competent support for the professional and, above all, personal development of employees. Managers can also take on this role if they have the appropriate expertise.
4. use what is already there: In my experience, there is often untapped potential in companies for this path: your employees, with all their ideas, strengths, knowledge and talents. Raise and use this treasure for your process.

And now?

Shape your path into this digital age. Continue on this path consistently and take your employees, colleagues, customers and suppliers with you on the journey. Transform your company to continue to be or become more successful in the digital future. Give me a call - for support, ideas or simply to exchange ideas. An agile path also has a lot to do with togetherness and communication. I look forward to hearing from you.