How to overcome digital transformation fatigue

Causes, symptoms of fatigue

The first step to overcoming digital transformation fatigue is to understand what it is and the most common causes and signs.

Digital transformation fatigue – or transformation fatigue for short – is a concept that explains the exhaustion that workers may feel due to the continuous adaptation efforts to the digital changes imposed by their companies.

In short, the cause of transformation fatigue is trying to do too much, too often. Companies with a solid track record say more than two at once is almost a bad thing, and the risk of more than one per year impacts the same IT and line teams. There should be enough time between projects to give everyone involved a break.

By definition, transformations cannot occur regularly.

Even if a company tries to undertake a few smaller projects, digital transformation fatigue can still occur.

Signs that workers are feeling digital transformation fatigue include:

• Workers complain that their time is being wasted.
• They feel like they are being asked to do the same tasks multiple times.
• You don’t feel valued.
• They have the feeling that their concerns are not being taken seriously.
• You feel it is difficult to work with key people.

CIOs and other leaders can take steps to overcome and prevent digital transformation fatigue. Here are five important tips.

1. Only include necessary project participants

Project managers should avoid assigning multiple employees to work on a project. Companies say transformation projects often require up to twice as many workers. Hiring more employees than necessary means losing important project time, time spent on lengthy explanations, and dealing with employee objections. Consider the following steps:

• Only assign people to the project who will be given actionable tasks.
• Limit the number of employees invited to participate in project meetings to those who are either directly involved or responsible for approving milestones.
• Manage distribution lists for project documents and restrict access to project management websites to those on approved distribution lists.

2. Develop proper documentation

An important step in avoiding digital transformation fatigue is creating appropriate documentation. Technical Documentation helps employees in the future to optimally manage project-internal dependencies. Companies say that documentation is the foundation of project communication. To proactively address this issue, consider the following:

• For each project task, capture the upstream relationships, or the requirements on which a task depends, and the downstream relationships, or what other tasks depend on that task. These records ensure that any changes made during the completion of the task fully account for the impact on the associated tasks. This step can also identify changes where the ripple effect is too large and whether that change could introduce the risk of fatigue and setbacks.
• Specify the criteria for task completion and success, e.g. B. defining measurable goals, results, quality standards and other relevant factors. Note the specific personnel responsible for applying these provisions and limit this group to those involved.
• Identify key milestones where project information and status can be shared more broadly and what specific information can be shared with other groups.

3. Share only selective and concise updates

Project managers should strive to establish and control communication channels. Employees must have sufficient knowledge to do their jobs properly, but they do not need detailed information about everything that is going on. Too much information can be a major cause of fatigue. Information overload can lead to loose communication, which can complicate project management and encourage potential misunderstandings and errors. Complete the following steps:

• Assign a specific team to each task and appoint one or more leaders depending on the number of employees and roles involved. These leaders help lead their teams and serve as the primary point of contact for functions that depend on their team’s success, as described in the task documentation.
• Group similar tasks by relationships and dependencies and assign one of the task leaders to lead the grouped tasks. The leaders of these group tasks are then responsible for coordination with the project managers.
• For any task that requires significant activity for both the IT department and line staff, ensure that IT and line managers collaborate on cross-task communications and any reports that each respective leader presents to their management team.

4. Simplify problem reporting

Project managers who establish, document, and approve a clear process for handling problem reports and complaints are essential. Clearly describing the steps for reporting problems reduces confusion and can lead to a smoother resolution process. Make sure the process addresses the following concerns:

• Who each task handler should report an issue to and when such a report should be generated. Is suspicion enough or should task managers take time to validate the problem?
• At what point should a task issue be escalated from the task group to the project managers? Task managers should avoid other escalation routes if possible.
• Which of the project managers takes responsibility for the problem-solving process and what determines a successful solution? In general, this depends on whether the issue exists within a task, a group of tasks including upstream and downstream dependencies, or the entire project.
• Set a reasonable time frame for delaying downstream tasks until the issue is resolved. It’s incredibly frustrating when time or follow-up work is wasted because of an upstream issue.
• How to report and address disagreements with a decision or another team member. An anonymous process can prevent disruptive rumors and limit complaints.

5. Establish a process for dealing with project changes

Project managers should establish a clear process for dealing with proposed or mandatory changes to project requirements. Not only are changes to specifications frustrating for everyone involved, but these requests can pile up and lead to scope expansion that puts the entire project at risk. Check each of the following:

• Consider how you will submit and review change suggestions so that only truly significant changes are communicated to and considered by the project team. Even suggestions for minimal changes—especially those that are rejected—can be disruptive.
• If a change is approved, how can the project manager, together with the working group leaders, map the scope of the change along the dependency chain identified in the project documentation and work out the details for implementation?
• When does the change warrant a mass meeting of project staff and when does it warrant an explicit repeat of past phases or even the entire project? Justification is crucial for any change, especially changes that require repeating changes that have already been made.

A cohesive project team, a well-documented project with clear information communicationand effective management of external challenges will significantly increase project morale and minimize the risk of an unfavorable outcome.

Tom Nolle is founder and principal analyst at Andover Intel, a consulting and analytics firm that first looks at evolving technologies and applications from the perspective of the buyer and the buyer’s needs. A programmer, software architect and manager of software and network products by nature, Nolle has been providing consulting services and technology analysis for decades.