This is a backward blog posting!

This will be my final post before leaving for Chicago tomorrow morning.  So, I wanted to do this one more like the way I think about things – BACKWARDS.  Instead of telling what areas I can help with, I thought I’d ramble about what areas I like to talk about!  I guarantee it would be an entertaining discussion.  Just make select an open appointment here:  then wander over, say hello and lets just talk about one of MY favorite things.

1.  Project failure.   I know more than I ever wanted to know about this.  There was a group of us that Left NASA at the same time and moved to Orlando to start a company dedicated to turning around troubled projects, programs and operations.  When we started, we thought we’d seen just about all the problems that project can get into.  WRONG.  For the next 5 or 6 years we only worked on turning around projects that were at least 100% over budget, perhaps 3 or 4 years late, had irate customers… or simply failed to deliver anything of value. 

It’s not easy to judge project failure!  EVA won’t do it.  It’s a very subjective thing.  “Could anyone have done better in the same situation?” is a basic test, but there are many more. 

So, we fired, hired, replaced, improved… bought contracts, had contracts “novated” to us, and were very successful ending up with a stand-along building and 70 employees.  There’s a lot of trouble out there!   There were project mistakes made that I didn’t think cold be made.   We worked on Casino projects, entertainment projects, airline projects, and many other types.  

Our group learned a lot!  I love to talk about a failed project and how it can be recovered.  Number 1: be ready for stress.  We called being personally ready “the full wax job.”  Exercise, diet, mental toughness, how you dress…  no kidding!  But you need to be prepared.

2.  Working with a team that has widely diverse skills.  If the team gets diverse enough, sometimes you can’t understand what the other people are saying.  I’ve managed teams with theoretical physicists, mathematicians, brilliant engineers and more – of course, they were totally convinced they were ALL CORRECT, don’t even think about doubting their work.  This was great fun.  I loved it and learned a whale of a lot about things they didn’t teach me (a humble engineer) in school.

3. Project risk.  How to think about it, how to predict it, how to anticipate it, how to communicate it, how to budget for it, how to look for the often-neglected positive risk.  It’s CRITCAL that project managers and their teams master this skill.   I’ve had friends die a horrible death  because we (in a larger sense) didn’t manage risk well.

4.  Have the courage of your convictions.  Tell people what you believe, tell the bosses what your project team believes.  Don’t fall into the trap of “drinking your own bath water” or the “echo chamber.” 

Well, I feel better!   Wander over and chat with me!

-- Dave Maynard

GOING TO THE 2017 PMI GLOBAL CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO?  

Don’t forget about ASK THE EXPERTS!

Stop by and talk to Dave Maynard or one of the other experts.  There’s more information about it at https://tinyurl.com/y7ff8f3g

The first success variable in The Digital Transformation Success Formula is individual transformation. Countless sources are predicting the disappearance and / or displacement of jobs. But for as long as we exist as humans, we will still need each other's. What if losing jobs was the way we could resolve disengagement and be transformed to a greater state of authenticity that leads to better innovations and happiness?

We have developed a professional mindset in conformance with a few stereotypes of the professional life. It is a mindset that often separates who we really are to show just a small part of us that the business world expects to see. We were programmed this way from our earliest upbringing and later through the corporate world-structure and mindset even more. However, the truth is that the motor that powers our professional life is our individuality, our authenticity.

While our individual programming allows us to reproduce the professional pattern without much effort, this restrained professional mindset limits our potential. For many of us, key personal values like aspiration and dreams are often well outside of this professional patterns, which is an identity that we spend most of our awake time at work.  Have you ever noticed how some boldly authentic posts may attract attention on LinkedIn while a few people suggest that Facebook should be used for such posts instead?

Our individual values, passions, interests, and aspirations are the regulators of our energy. When we stay close to or within their influence, we experience the greatest level of energy, positivity, and happiness. The more we move away from them, the less positive energy and consciousness we experience. As a result, the person lacks authenticity and is operating like a robot on autopilot and barely using his / her brain. This is the complete opposite of someone that is mindful and alert.

Our organizations are filled with these robot-like individuals, conditioned to repeat procedures mindlessly. When a change is announced, these are the individuals who resist the changes the most, all while being disengaged.  Double the issues!

Employee disengagement is the biggest challenge that organizations around the world face today. But, these organizations created or contributed to such situations as well. Starting at recruitment, many HR departments already have their restrained criteria established, like a box to fit employees, and then the employees do their best to fit in the box to get the job.  While this is a way to standardize an organization, it is an approach that restrains creativity and authenticity.

Can an individual be that great without authenticity? Brain science and neuroplasticity reveals otherwise. The statistics about global employee engagement, which is down to 13% according to Gallup, proves this. With digital transformation, we have the opportunity to empower our people to release their fears, find their inner values and passions so they can embrace them. As a result, they will become mission-driven and innovate in their professions. Creativity and authenticity are much needed today to increase innovation in our businesses and organizations. Losing jobs but gaining mission can be a great solution to disengagement.

I encourage every leader to embrace their authenticity by engaging in self-transformation so that they inspire their organizations to do so as well. This is the best way we can turn around disengagement and create organizations with individuals on missions, who are energized, happier and productive in the digital age. Many disengaged individuals will at this point release themselves from jobs that they are tied to but dislike, and are wasting both their resources and that of their organizations, to embrace their individual missions, which may be another position, another view of their contribution, or else, with great enthusiasm. As a result, the mission-driven workforce will transform our organizations to experience more business innovation and success. Everyone will experience greater individual happiness.

If you are a digital transformation leader, I invite you to join my mastermind coaching program, Leaders on a Digital Mission here.

Find out more about my book The Digital Transformation Success Formula here.

Your coach in transformation,

Nadia Vincent

As I prepare for the launch of my book “The Digital Transformation Success Formula”, I am often asked by friends who are not in the technology field “What is Digital Transformation?” That is a great question to ask and a great place to start. I say “start” because digital transformation will impact your life one way or another, like the industrial era had impacted your life and that of our parents. Whether you are aware of it or not, you will be making a choice between “digital transformation or death”. Leaders will have to decide first. I help them make the right decisions and guide them to succeed when they choose digital transformation.

What is Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation is how the latest digital technologies combined with strategic business innovation are reshaping the actual era, reinventing businesses, organizations and our lifestyles.  Many professions as we know them today will disappear in a couple of years. Many of you have already changed careers or experienced the loss of a job. We see many “ends” but digital transformation also offers many “beginnings” and that is what I want to guide you to take advantage of.

Digital Transformation and Leadership

Technology itself is evolving fast, but it will not create the transformation by itself. I have as proof the many millions euros/dollars technology and business projects that I had the opportunity to either manage, lead, participate in or witness in the corporate world (and especially in Fortune 500 companies) over the last 20 years. In fact, relying too much on technology is the number one reason for technology project’s failure.  Leaders are creating the transformation. Our lifestyles, businesses, and organizations will be how our leaders shape them. My new book, “The Digital Transformation Success Formula” is aimed at leaders so they can transform themselves first, and then transform our organizations, businesses, and lives efficiently.

Are you a leader?

Every leader, no matters your title, your industry, or your work status as an entrepreneur or an employee, you want to be involved. Join my group of Digital Transformation Leaders by opting in for the 1^st report, “The N°1 Formula for Digital Transformation.” Just click the link to the portal below. Check out the blog on the site as well. I’ll keep you posted soon about the launch event for the Digital Transformation Leaders platform, as well as the book launch.

You won’t want to miss the launch event.

I’ll bring together a great panel of experts to deliver value to you on several aspects of digital transformation. Furthermore, for one hour, you will be able to download the Kindle version of the book for free. That’s not all. You will also be able to purchase the printed “The Digital Transformation Success Formula” book at a reduced price, all during a limited period of time. Additionally, there will be several other gifts to win.

Opt-in and join our group at www.digitaltransformationleaders.com.

Once you opt-in, I’ll then send you a private invitation for the launch event, coming in November and the Digital Transformation Report. You’ll also receive a video training on how to “Create Your Digital Transformation Vision in 7 Days”, for free.

See you there!

Nadia Vincent

A recurrent question I receive is about what the difference between Change Management and Digital Transformation is.  The simplest answer I provide is that Change Management is one part of Digital Transformation.

Change Management is about leading and implementing change successfully in an organization or business toward a specific outcome.

Digital Transformation is about implementing a series of changes that impact the organization, its business, the workforce, its customers and prospects, competitors and in some case a whole industry and its future, creating a transformed state.

Change Management and Leadership VS Change Management

First, I want to designate change management as “Change Management and Leadership” instead. Simply because if all you are doing is managing change, then your organization may not be sustainable. Change management by itself only appears to be reactive and is more of a survival approach. Unfortunately many organizations have sacrificed a large part of their ROI due to only being reactors to change. Change Management & Leadership, on the other hand, means that there is a leader who takes ownership of the situation and leading to a vision greater than the change itself. Change Management and Leadership is essential for Digital Transformation but is not itself Digital Transformation.

An organization may have successfully lead and implemented many changes making it very good at Change Management & Leadership, but without achieving digital transformation.

On the other hand, any organization that has achieved Digital Transformation has mastered Change Management & Leadership.

Change Projects

Change projects have always had a higher failure rate than what we would call familiar or less innovative projects. In technology, an industry with a fast innovation pace, most failed projects are in fact change projects. One reason I find is that at a point, we rely too much on the technology and our individual barriers challenge the projects, causing a succession of small issues that lead to bigger issues.

Before the advent of Digital Transformation, there was the need to “enable organizations for change” to maintain profitability and competitiveness. With Digital Transformation, there is a need to “digitally enable organizations” to prevent organizations from dying a quick death.  This occurs very quickly now, because that’s the speed at which digitalization can shift a business and organization around.

The Digitally Enabled Organization

The digitally enabled organization is the new organization today. We must understand that transformation is not a destination, but something that happens during the process that leads us toward the business’ transformative vision. Change is the catalyst that, combined with multiple other elements, activates the process of making the transformative vision a reality—our new transformed business a reality!

As an executive, a manager, a leader, is your organization digitally enabled?  Take the quiz here and find out.

Attending the PMI Global congress in San Diego?  You can schedule an individual session with me in the “Ask An Expert” sessions and meet me in the Solutions Center (exhibit hall). Book your session here. http://congresses.pmi.org/NorthAmerica2016/sponsors/hours-overview