When digital change goes wrong: 6 crises and how to resolve them

One of the major obstacles in digital transformation is that the outcomes can feel so intangible. You can’t easily measure the value of culture change or track the return on investment of a new way of working. 

Here, I’m sharing the crises my clients come to me with, where those seemingly intangible things we do together can turn a situation from crisis to success. 

1 Your digital change specialist isn’t delivering change

You recruit a change specialist to level up your organisation’s digital operation. But you’re getting mixed feedback from your stakeholders who feel they aren’t being listened to and are getting frustrated. Perhaps the person is too technical or too junior for the role. Or perhaps they lack the skills and experience to bring stakeholders on board or cope with their demands. Or it could be that the individual has created a toxic team culture or simply hasn’t gelled with their colleagues. 

Solution 

For a digital change specialist, leading an effective team while creating and maintaining good stakeholder relationships is more than half the role. So the individual may need to learn those soft influencing skills through coaching and mentoring. Or it could be time to start again with a fresh job description, person specification and team structure analysis to find a candidate equipped for the strategic challenges ahead. 

2 Your digital agency has been left unmanaged

You commission an agency to deliver a tech project (CRM implementation or website implementation, for example) but you don’t appoint an internal lead to liaise with them on a day to day basis. Or maybe the internal lead has left and the agency has lost this internal point of contact.  The agency is therefore left to manage stakeholders and make decisions on priorities and planning on your behalf. The trouble is they don’t know the stakeholders they need to manage. They lack the influence and trust they need within the organisation to manage expectations and chase the right opportunities. Your stakeholders don’t feel they’re getting what was promised. 

Solution 

The answer is to bring responsibility for the project back in-house and keep this set-up for the length of the project. Create an internal team who have accountability for the project and the agency. They have the trust and influence they need to manage internal stakeholders. And, should you need to replace the agency at some point, this team could take over and keep things running in the meantime.  

3 A digital project spirals out of control

You asked your digital lead or agency to deliver a digital product but the project has run out of control. Now it’s this big thing that everyone sees problems with. It’s too complex and entangled for anyone to touch, so it’s come to a complete halt. The agency or digital team is therefore completing tasks where they can. But it’s unclear if these are strategic decisions or just a way to keep busy while they wait for bigger decisions to be made. 

Solution 

There are many possible reasons for this. Maybe your team doesn’t have the capacity to dedicate to the project. Perhaps they don’t have the skills they need to complete the work. Or maybe they lack the agency to make decisions due to their position in the hierarchy. It’s time to go back to the start and review your strategy. How does this project fit into the organisation’s overall objectives? Assign a governance structure to clarify what decisions are made where. Develop a working approach which allows stakeholders to track progress on the project and follow the thinking behind decisions made. 

4 Your digital project stalls due to staff change

You’re midway through a big technology implementation. Then the project lead leaves the organisation and the whole thing stalls. No one knows what to do. Some of the team who could have stepped in have left too, feeling disillusioned and demotivated.

Solution

Of course you can look for a straight replacement of those roles, but you also need to  avoid the problem reoccurring. Start by discovering what went wrong. What’s preventing digital people from staying with the organisation? What’s pushing them to leave? Perhaps there’s a culture problem. Or it might be an issue with organisational structure, roles and responsibilities. But most likely it’s a problem with process and decision making. Think about how you can adjust your culture or processes to keep people motivated. These insights will reveal ways to move the project forward. 

5 Lack of time stalls your digital project 

You’ve approved funding for a big digital transformation project, but it’s not moving as fast as you’d expected. Your digital people are telling you that they haven’t got the capacity to do it. They need extra headcount to meet your demands while ticking off their daily tasks.

Solution 

It’s common for timelines to slip a bit. But when this happens repeatedly, it’s usually because of a lack of prioritisation. To get things back on track, look at your team’s daily tasks. For your team to take on extra tasks, something will need to give. Does everything on that list need to happen? Is there anything you can deprioritise? Having created a list of tasks, good planning involves prioritising them as well. And that means identifying what you’ll pause as well as what you’ll start doing. If there’s nothing you can deprioritise, perhaps it’s time to pitch for more staff. 

6 You don’t have time to achieve digital change

You know you need to be more strategic about digital, but you just haven’t got the time to think it through properly and build a phased action plan.

Solution

Sometimes the best thing to do is to bring in a consultancy. This will force you to find the time and give you extra people to think and strategise with. Take care not to bring in an external partner without the appropriate internal structures to provide accountability, transparency and decision-making. (Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in situation 2 on our list - where consultancy is unmanaged and not delivering what you and your stakeholders need.)

In each of these situations, the teams I spoke to had reached a crisis point. They needed urgent guidance and support. If you’re in this boat right now, I hope these examples have helped you. And if you need further support, get in touch!