No digital transformation is possible without cultural transformation.
Something obvious, but at the same time surprisingly neglected by organizations in their strategic ambitions. Admirable ambitions, inspiring purposes and vigorous analyses coexist with inaction and negligence in relation to something inherent in any social organism: group dynamics is the limit of the group reach in any context.
Organizational culture is a socio-political-semiotic process that involves:
A collective mental map that establishes the lenses through which the variables of the internal and external environment are perceived, analyzed, and incorporated, guiding individual attitudes and group behaviors, shaping the company's way of being and influencing its strategic and operational choices.
Grouping operating and interaction standards for achieving a definite purpose in time and space, recognized by individuals as the defined set of norms and values - not necessarily explicit - for conflict resolution, problem solving, decision making, recognition, penalties, and enforcement.
The nature of the bonds that individuals establish with each other and with the business context in which they are find themselves, combining affective and rational aspects.
Organizational cultures are, therefore, social constructs carried out by groups orchestrated by leaders capable of articulating common interests, creating meanings and implementing mutual obligations between all members, in a permanent interactive process of domination, transformation and contestation.
Throughout time, leaders and subordinates model languages, traditions, norms, values, meanings, symbols, rituals, myths, processes, control mechanisms and recognition systems. Leaders do all this by means of a narrative that is seen to be natural, neutral, believable, fair and legitimate, to be able to organize social and psychological processes in this human grouping.
It creates, then, the distinctive expression of a company in relation to others. Every organizational culture is inexorably the original expression of its trajectory, in a continuous dynamic defined by internal and external social interactions.
And what is at stake in digital transformation?
It is just the resignification of these underlying elements that constitute the organizational culture. Resignification also of its own political articulation dynamics that allows the group to be involved with collective social construction.
Organizational culture is a systemic phenomenon. There is no specific alternative. There are no possible shortcuts. There is no endgame in the short term. It is a medium- and long-term journey, clearly with handouts along the way.
Three elements stand out in this digital context:
Organic: the logical-planned-linear premise of the industrial paradigm does not work well in the ephemeral-open-complex context of the digital paradigm. Abundant resources - including capital - become commodities, and value becomes the orchestration of these resources in delivering a collaborative ecosystem that should be distinctive and quickly accessible by the target community.
Light: the control premise and capital accumulation as value leverage in the long term are not presented in this new context. The focus is on lightness in everything: from the organizational structure to the software architecture. Transforming operational models to generate value by means of accessing services rather than product acquisition. Corporate relationships committed to the value chain transformed into agreements and situational partnerships in dynamic networks.
Empathy: the view centered on the experience of others is the valid view. And expressions like CX, UX and EX themselves, in this optic of value centered in customers, users and employees. The empathic logic in the onstruction and experiences of the journey connects solutions, relations, and content from the relevant context of the other, destroying referenced operational standards in product distribution.
Transforming a business digitally implies redesigning its culture from these three fundamental elements in the conception of behaviors, processes, and systems. It is not a secondary task delegable to the middle management, but rather the primary mission of senior management on boards of directors and executive boards.
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Daniel Augusto Motta, PhD, MSc
Founder & CEO BMI Blue Management Institute
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