Unlocking the power of digital adoption

This October 24 - 25, Adrienne Cohen, digital transformation and change consultant formerly of Lloyds Banking Group, will be discussing The landscape for digital adoption in 2023 at All Access Digital Adoption Live.  

Ahead of her session, we asked her to share her thoughts on the biggest misconceptions around digital adoption, how to overcome change resistance and how AI could potentially augment the discipline in years to come.   

PEX Network: How does digital adoption differ from traditional change management or IT training?

Adrienne Cohen: The biggest difference between digital adoption and traditional IT change management is the recognition that the process is people-led, not technology-led. IT change as we previously knew it was focused on acquiring, implementing and incrementally adapting technology. Digital adoption is an approach, a mindset a way of thinking and behaving with technology – not simply IT doing.

The goal of digital adoption is to ensure your entire organisation understands the why, what and how of the change. Change purpose, embedding an agile, learning, open mindset and trusting culture necessary to accept and adopt and embrace human experience enhanced by technology and the continuous change that digital evolution is bringing with it .

PEX Network: How does digital adoption fit into broader digital/business transformation strategies? 

AC: A digital approach to your entire business operation should be the key tenet of your entire business strategy and transformation efforts if digital adoption is an afterthought you are looking to shoehorn into a wider strategy, it is fair to say you are going to struggle. Digital adoption focuses on improving user experience by using technologies to embrace a new way of operating.

Also, one thing to get clear is not every project is a transformation but many may simply be digital enhancement. Transformation is about radical change. Many technical projects are not that, but instead are enhancements with a digital focus where the user experience needs to be reconsider from every internal and external angle.

The confusion about what digital adoption is, what digital transformation is and how they really impact an organization’s strategy and outcomes is a common cause for adoption resistance and the very unwanted change failure.

PEX Network: How do you counter resistance when rolling out a new digital adoption program?

AC: By understanding that every change project is unique and requires its own strategy, assessment, plan and focus. And from the moment you want to bring your strategy to life (and certainly not 3 weeks before you go live with a product) communicate, communicate, communicate. Employ the three Cs - communicate consistently, considerately and clearly.

Give your teams the opportunity to be involved in the change – consult not simply count them as part of your assessment for readiness, ensure a business’ leadership models and is engaged with the change and make your users feel that they are central to the change; help them to feel that this new future is one that they are part of rather than simply having it foisted on them.

When people (most people!) feel wanted, listened to and understand purpose the result is engagement, which then underpins adoption and ultimately the productivity enhancement your digital adoption is seeking.

PEX Network: What are three critical considerations companies need to make before they launch a new digital adoption initiative?

AC: That is the magic question! I’m sure different experts in this field will give you different answers, but for me it’s:

• Why – why does the change need to happen - what is the burning bridge for this change? Have absolute clarity in the requirement for what you are looking to change. You need to be able to share a clear and compelling vision and story for this change if you are going to successfully get others to buy into this journey and ultimately change behaviours.
• What – what are you anticipating this change to bring? Wrapping your answer up as the age-old cost benefit/reduction is unlikely to really help you satisfactorily advocate your case. Be specific. Are you looking for productivity enhancement, employee satisfaction competitive uniqueness etc? Knowing what benefits or outcomes you are seeking from making the change is critical; it ensures that as you roll out your change you can effectively guide and steer your programme.
• How – How are you going to prove that your change has been a success?  Change is a huge resource drain be that cash, morale and operationally draining and there is not an organization on the planet that can afford to make change with simply a hope of the outcome in mind.  Make sure you have a clear benchmark of where you start from and what the end result should look like and use the different avenues of business understanding to continuously measure progress.

PEX Network: How do you measure the ROI or success of digital adoption? 

AC: How you measure depends very much on what your motivation is for change and what your goal outcomes are (see question above). However, I suggest conducting a thorough analysis of the area of operation that is subject to the change and undertake that analysis to obtain a precise picture where you are and where the issue areas are. Build metrics that align with the above.

For example, if your goal is enhanced productivity / efficiency for employees alongside knowing the cost of acquisition and ownership you need to measure, use impact metrics (e.g the volume of apps employees use, does having to switch between tabs affect distraction or influence user error rates, are employees using the journeys you expect to access apps, if not what are they doing and why, etc).

PEX Network: How are advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics evolving digital adoption?

AC: AI is a fantastic tool that has huge benefits but we are still in early use stages. Until we can have robust tools and more critically have global confidence in how we can train and trust the data, and users who have the skills and awareness to use the tools in a more sophisticated manner, the huge power of AI will be limited.

That said, I can already see how its use is speeding up many operations’ ability to find and extract information. AI use is already putting greater pressure on the need for safely determining how and when its use is appropriate and establishing training across all user areas with the consequence of skyrocketing demand for skills for implement, interpret, communicate and understand experience surrounding its use.