The role of organizational culture in Digital Transformation

In 2020 where the business is IT, software is made up of building blocks from all over the place. Each of those moving parts has its ecosystems, tooling, and lifecycle.

Put together with the increasing competitive pressure and pace of innovation, it’s clear that the way people collaborate between teams, departments, and organizations play a critical role in the success of Digital Transformation.

How do you create an organizational culture that lives and breathes collaboration?

Timely, coordinated decision-making is necessary with the use of automation, open standards, and a set of collaboration tools that are open by default and embrace “Open Everything.”

The critical part, however, is making sure that everyone understands the big picture and appreciates that it’s no longer possible to achieve things on their own.

“Collaboration has to change, along with the way we communicate.”

Startups do not spend a lot of money on software and infrastructure. They use tools such as Slack, Google Docs, Open Source software, and run their services in the cloud where companies like AWS, Google, and Microsoft are sponsoring them with free credits.

The key differentiators for these startups are their people, their ideas, attitude, commitment, hunger to win — and the leaders who create a fun and rewarding environment.

 “Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast’’ (Peter Drucker)

Leading by example

Many organizational challenges crop up in enterprises from legacy processes, technology, and structures. This often comes with a lack of courage for necessary change, along with not being able to focus on one thing but trying to win several races at the same time.

Executives need to lead by example with open communication, transparency, and engagement with the workforce. Ideally, they turn into community leaders and mentors as well.

Cross-functional culture and experiments

Companies realize that the organizational culture they are looking to create is similar to a startup with empowered employees that are the company, and not just work for the paycheck.

Making it a great place to work is therefore becoming a central initiative, where companies set up cross-functional teams, run hackathons, and truly focus on the development and happiness of their associates.

At the end of the day, digital business is a people business. If you make your organization a great place to work, you will have happy, motivated employees creating great products that delight and engage customers.