Leadership in Digital Transformation

An unsung hero of leadership is the language we choose to use and choose to avoid.

What we dub fat words – strategy, culture, creativity– are those words that have lost meaning because they have been invoked, incorrectly, so many times. By so many.

In contrast, Leadership must possess a clear definition of language, able to set company horizons in visionary terms.

Leadership is often tasked with moving a business from point a to point b. In the case of Arcadis, digital transformation is the journey we are in the process of undertaking. Two words that risk being fat, too – especially when put together. And, as we define them – employing digital technology to make our business more competitive - we determine a double-edged sword: potential and profligacy. More simply, 70% of these manner of journeys fail, in all business. Meaning 30% succeed.

As a leader one has to determine are these odds good enough?

Further, these decisions need to be endorsed and actioned by the many, across national cultures and corporate culture, if they are to succeed. Both the bottom and the top of business must dovetail in their roles and remit, not crash together in some manner of figurative, tectonic cultural plate.

Leadership must possess empathy, therefore. Not one that is about people only, but one that understands the business itself and its predilection for change. Notwithstanding, the wise leader knows that change is the only constant, she can be certain of. Indeed, Kevin Kelly, ex founding editor Wired, has suggested that the speed of change in developed economies will never be this slow again. For some of us – leaders included – that very phrasing feels exhausting.

On the hunt for a useful model, then, we see benefit in a model of change first described by Swedish Psychologist, Claes Jansenn, back in the 1970s. Aptly named The Change House, Jansenn used his house as a metaphor to help people in both their private and professional lives understand the emotional impact of change - its intrinsic flow as we move from one ‘room’ to the next:

Each room possesses different psychological states: contentment (we’re happy here!), through to denial (ie we don’t need to change!); from confusion (we’re lost!) up into renewal (we’re alive!). But, and it’s a big but, each room has drawbacks. Too long in any creates turmoil in the manner of complacency, misery, bewilderment and burnout, respectively.

Working with Jansenn’s model we have been able to map where those in Arcadis have a tendency to anchor. Where the objective is, for instance, digital transformation, we see our pedants, pragmatists and pessimists brimming with denial – close to the so-called Dungeon Of Denial. Alternatively, we see our dreamers, creators and optimists humming in a constant state of renewal.

Lisa Samways Arcadis

How do we reconcile each state?

We firmly believe that Leadership needs the pessimist and the optimist if she is to succeed and lead her team through change. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, ‘Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The Optimist invents the aeroplane. The Pessimist, the parachute.’

Blending the powers of pessimism and optimism allows a good leader to help the business find its own luck. Luck in a commercial sense, not as some form of self help! In the West, in business, we tend to shun luck as a four-letter word. In the East, it is coveted far more. And respected.

In his book, Go Luck Yourself, one of the UK’s leading brand strategists, Andy Nairn, frames luck into a code that many of us in leadership might recognise:

• Appreciate what you’ve got • Look for opportunities everywhere • Turn misfortune into good fortune • Practice being lucky It’s the fourth territory that we have found especially helpful, in Arcadis. Because it’s this seeming contradiction in terms that can elicit great leadership from good leaders.

There is a tendency to cite the same companies again and again when we describe those businesses that are led well – who foster invention: from Amazon to Zappos.

These organisations make a conscious effort to foster serendipity in their culture. All too often, company processes are designed to eliminate the role of chance – but smart companies do the opposite. They encourage unusual cross-fertilisations, incentivise happy accidents and make room for surprise discoveries.

This is more than that cliché of failing forwards, rather it’s an invitation to explore and discover; to progress without a clear horizon in mind. And to avoid the dogma of denial. Dogma kills luck and optimism both. Without optimism, pessimism thrives. And none of us needs that, right now.