I recently read an article in which the author declares the word transformation to be meaningless. He says the word is being overused.
He continues to contend that in its place we need to be more specific and unpack what transformation means in a larger initiative. In other words, he wants us to speak about specific changes rather than the broad idea of digital transformation.
I disagree.
I do believe we need to point to specifics, but I fear my colleague has overlooked the difference between change and transformation.
Change has to do with specific behaviors. We are automating X. We are building Y for greater efficiency. Ideally, change initiatives lead to the overall result of transformation.
The word trans is the idea of crossing over or going beyond. It has completion at its heart. Form is easily detected in the word formation. Transformation is the conviction that a current form must become a different form. Changes take place so that the result is completion of a new form.
Consider the difference a year makes:
- A desire to reduce legacy technology gave rise to remote work and resilient business operations and customer connectivity.
- The focus on HQ based security changed to managed security services and zero trust policies.
- Business experienced a twenty percent increase in digital customer interaction.
- Touchless, frictionless, virtual, AI and ML are becoming normalized.
Each of these and so much more are behavioral changes driving the crossing from one form to a new form.
Why does this matter and why I hope you agree with me.
Transformation must remain in our vocabulary. It belongs with words like revolution. Or love. Some words may be misused, but they can never be overused. We need them.
Transformation is one of those words we cannot do without.
You share in common with your fellow stakeholders a vision. It is a vision that is worth investing years in. You have a vision because at one point you were part of a form that needed to become a different form.
New compels you. When you are tired and want to give up, it is likely because some change projects are failing or people are fatiguing and you don’t have a sense of making headway. That’s when you step back and remember why you are doing what you are doing in the first place.
The form you seek is worth the failings along the way. Projects fail; but they also succeed. That’s business. People work well; people don’t work out. That’s natural. But the need to get out of one thing and into another: That is a calling, and that is the dominion of a leader.
Close doesn’t count in transformation. We do or we don’t. Close works in change; projects can be tackled again with lessons learned along the way. Transformation is the very fabric of being. We become what we were not.
How to keep transformation in our vocabulary
- Continually place the Why in front of people. And continually celebrate how a person’s or team’s completion of a project or ongoing work feeds the why.
- Celebrate the changes along the way, but more, celebrate the changes people are experiencing in themselves. People want to transform too. But it’s a long road. Identify the changes they want to make in themselves along the way and affirm their growth.
- Just keep moving. Setbacks are setups for comebacks. In transformation, failure is part of forward. Redefine the value of failure for people.
- Push to finish. In football, the last yard is the hardest. I don’t believe that transformation has no end. A new form emerges. X becomes Y. There is a Z, maybe in our leadership time and maybe not, but Y is worthy of living in for a while; it’s worth growing in. But you have to get there. If you are close, push. You get far by saying “Don’t give up.” You finish by teaching “Don’t let up.”
Words matter. I fight for them because they represent you. Statistics are great, research is illuminating, leadership principles can be golden. But if you lose sight of why you are pursuing statistics, research and principles, they simply become ingredients in a pot of meaninglessness.
A lot of people are happy to focus on detailed work or change projects. We need them. But few understand transformation. You do. It is why you are a CIO. Don’t lose sight of transformation; more, don’t lose sight of you.
