I am sharing with you here a feedback on this status quo that we observe in France when we talk about change, anticipation … new technologies or new ways of working.
Yesterday, August 26, 2020, the universities of Medef made their comeback and, in the morning Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, the boss of Medef, declared on France-Inter that for him, it is clear that “the recovery is not a mystic human-being who comes from the sky, it is necessary to go to seek it with the teeth. (…) We are not there just to wait for the government stimulus plan with folded arms, there is also a share of the responsibility of the bosses (…) We are in a crisis that is unlike anything and therefore economists do not don’t know what’s going to happen, and neither do we. But an entrepreneur, by DNA, is someone who is optimistic. “
It shows that companies facing the crisis are ready for … a recovery plan. See this morning’s replay on France-Inter of this interview of August 26, 2020
So why the sensation in the media, in daily actions, of a wait-and-see attitude, of a terrorist attack, to use the words of Judicaël Paquet in his post on French companies in hibernation in the face of Covid19 without seeking to develop their corporate resilience? .
First of all, one in three employees say they are overwhelmed by technology, according to the latest Cegos barometer, apprehension of technology continues to grow in the world of work … Faced with the end of the crisis, the stake is technological and human before being economic.
The transformations to be carried out by activating the 10 criteria of resilience of companies to become an actor in our way out of the crisis are omnipresent in the Covid19 crisis.
Supporting everyone in understanding technological, digital and digital issues, but also looking at alternatives so that everyone can live with dignity is our collective responsibility.
However, this situation is not new, in 2014 I noted for the first time this status quo of decision-makers faced with the arrival of Agile as a tool for business transformation in an essay why employees love Scrum and bosses do not.
This wait-and-see attitude of our managers, of our organizations, I see it in every support given to companies in the implementation of their strategic management.
I am sharing with you here a feedback on this status quo that we observe in France when we talk about change, anticipation …
State of mind of our decision-makers: background elements
Public actors are engaged in major projects of dematerialization and transformation of information systems (IS), to support citizens in each of their steps and create a SMART City, a smart and connected city.
Before the public actors, the dematerialization actors started a profound transformation of their IS and an update of their operating methods. Banks, insurance companies, energy and telecommunications suppliers have been in this race to renew information systems for more than 10 years.
Development, maintenance, hosting and operation services are subcontracted by public actors. Integrators must therefore, at the same time as their own digital transformation, integrate projects at different stages of the life cycle of the information system of public actors to support them in dematerialization, in their digital transformation.
Integrators can intervene upstream of the implementation of a solution, during the design and maintenance phases, or even downstream for the operation of the latter and carry out all or part of the following activities:
▪ Design IS, integrate technical solutions and software packages, develop tailor-made solutions
▪ A player in digital trust, it generates user journeys and customer journeys as well as citizen journeys
▪ Operate and maintain sensitive infrastructures and applications
▪ Assist users and public actors
State of mind of our decision-makers: all concerned
One in 3 employees say they are overwhelmed by new technologies. This also includes our decision makers. Decision-makers, managers, bosses are cautious in the face of a change that would call into question their status and their role in the management of companies or the country.
This transformation engages everyone and affects culture, interactions, behaviors, beliefs … It is a real change in managerial practices, in the management of work that is at stake. This is why the transformation of managerial practices will not be possible. operate only through action, the only one capable of moving representations, breaking down fears, and experimenting with new postures.
The transformation is therefore systemic, it concerns managers at the same time but cannot be envisaged without the participation of the management committee or the employees.
The transformation is profound, it takes time but needs, to maintain its momentum, milestones to celebrate its progress.
The transformation is aimed at a population that has already experienced several transformation plans, who feels little recognized and doubts the real desire and ability of management, or any strategic representative, to progress together.
Mindsets of decision-makers: what weighs on their shoulders in a digital or digital transformation
- Managers must be recognized for their leadership in the IT field, in the ability to unite and align operational teams and management around a business vision.
- Managers are responsible for creating a better place to work in order to attract the talents of tomorrow with more recognition, fairness, accountability, autonomy and a more agile managerial style of culture.
All this reinforces uncertainty in decision-making, the implementation of strategic management in which they can legitimately wonder if they still have a place towards a management 4.0.
How to act on the state of mind of our decision-makers in the face of transformation, in the face of any crisis or in the face of this V.U.CA world?
Managers must experiment with several postures and be supported in this volatile and unstable world in which the benchmarks of the 90s are no longer valid.
For this, the support must:
- Pay particular attention to the corporate culture, in which your managers have grown up and therefore show empathy, gentleness, while inviting and encouraging agile cultural change
- Put people back at the center as well as team spirit with collective support
- Align managerial practices with the company’s ambitions
- Unite teams with a vision that makes sense
- Propose a program taking into account the load related to the activity, the complexity of the change in terms of culture
- Identify the key success factors of the support mission
- Alert on risk factors and obstacles encountered
- Anchor the agile culture and help teams to be more and more autonomous in continuous improvement
- Propose initiatives aimed at improving managers’ commitment and support for the process
- Provide adaptive support, itself subject to continuous improvement via retrospectives and adapted rituals
This is why companies must be supported to deal with this concept of terrorist attacks, which consists in waiting for better days before hiring or taking on contractors.
Decision-makers, your best weapon in the face of
- a risk of new lockdown
- a market that is unable to recover
is to seek with “its teeth” the faith and the resources necessary for its own recovery.
Thank you, Mr. Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, for whispering these words to me and for your support for companies to maintain a good state of mind among decision-makers. Decision-makers, get involved and activate your resilience!
See also the 12 digital dimensions of the 21st century, in Canada, noted in a report by the Minister of Education in April 2019 and of which here is an excerpt in image
Author: Dominique popiolek-Ollé, Transmutation leader, Agile Executive Coach, Founder of In Imago, management consulting and disruptive transformation.