Matching Digital Aspirations with Capacity for Change

Attempting a business-driven digital transformation requires public sector organizations to think beyond the potential of simply adding digital technologies to drive fundamental change.  Porter’s Generic Strategies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_generic_strategies) serve as the foundation upon which many transformation frameworks recommend that any public sector organization consider four broad scopes of transformation, but only commit a strategic intent to invest in one or two of the potential four scopes.  Achieving excellence in one scope of digital transformation, let alone two, may exceed an organization’s capacity for change.  A balanced approach in selecting a transformation scope should think about the interdependent relationship between supply and demand, such that having increased demand of new digital product offerings to consumers (e.g. general public, learners, industry, employees, etc..) must be matched by the operational ability to fulfill demand with quality output, the time to deliver, and ensuring value for money. Having a constant inside / outside perspective that looks at delivering change in increments is an essential factor when setting a digital transformation scope. The previous statement does not mean that any one of the possible areas of focus (client experience, digital products and services, employee experience) are set as 50% of the digital transformation scope, while operational excellence as the 4th transformation scope is set as a default 50%.

The key message is that a public sector digital transformation strategy must include a single strategy that may be heavily focused on driving relevance either through a client experience, digital products and services, or employee experience digital transformation scope; but not at the expense of ignoring the extent to which its counterpart of operational excellence must be determined. The same is true of the reciprocal where a focus on cost, quality, and risk is not providing value if there is no known associated benefit to the organization’s external population of service recipients. 

 Four Scopes of Digital Transformation

Client experience (satisfaction) 

Staying relevant to client needs requires a constant awareness of how client needs are changing and how the organization is attempting to meet the needs today and tomorrow. Having an external focus on client satisfaction requires data on the user journey, the service delivery model to support the user journey, and engagement with clients as a trusted relationship. Transforming the client experience can be measured in terms of client satisfaction.  

Digital products and services (agility, innovation) 

Transforming digital products and services to either clients or employees can be measured by the degree of agility in the organization responding to changing needs and the support of research and innovation to identify change and then implement change represented as digital products and services.  

Employee experience (satisfaction) 

Having an internal focus requires awareness of the employee lifecycle that starts with applicant tracking and ends with employee departure. Assessing the workforce’s ways of working requires knowledge of the people, processes, and tools to ensure that the workforce is enabled with the necessary skills and competencies. The transformation of the employee experience can be measured in terms of satisfaction.  

Operational excellence (cost, quality, risk) 

Operational excellence may often be cited as modernization, but using data for decision making and operations in addition to a culture of innovation to drive transformation can offer higher levels of productivity and performance, higher quality with lower cost, and reduced organizational risk. 

In summary, attempting to mobilize an organization around more than one scope of transformation may introduce resource constraints as the workforce is thinly spread across too many priorities; the organizational culture may send mixed messaging as investments are made available to smaller teams in support of innovation through experimentation, while on the other hand efficient and effective budget management practices impacting the broader workforce are applied to drive cost savings and cost avoidance; and clients interfacing with the organization may be negatively impacted as service models and products undergo frequent change or limited access to support is available.