A step-by-step guide to an empowering employee experience
E-Book, Englisch, 228 Seiten
ISBN: 978-91-984700-5-5
Verlag: Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)
Your step-by-step guide to
- Identifying key problems and digital opportunities.
- Adopting a new and smarter approach to the digital workplace.
- Maximizing value creation with the help of service orientation.
- Crafting a powerful digital workplace strategy rooted in hands-on experience and proven methodology.
- Learning how to design winning digital services with actionable tools.
What sets this book apart
What distinguishes this book from others on digitalization, digital transformation, and the digital workplace is how extensively it is used in practice. This is because authors Oscar Berg and Henrik Gustafsson draw from a wealth of hands-on experience and apply these same steps in multinational companies from a variety of industries.
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Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
CHAPTER 2
ADOPTING
A NEW APPROACH
2.1 INTRODUCTION
As employees, we now expect digital capabilities and our user experience to be equivalent to what we can get as consumers. We can communicate with anyone in the whole world. We can perform various tasks and meet various needs and preferences via digital services wherever we are via the most suitable device. And the services we use are simple and appealing. The problem is that many of us consider our digital work environment to be complex, inflexible, and incoherent, with poorly structured systems that are difficult to use. There is a substantial gap between our expectations of what a digital work environment should be and our experience of it in reality. In addition to making our work more difficult, this also causes frustration and saps our motivation. So, why is this the case? Imagine living and working in a city without the intention or means to organize and structure buildings, streets, and squares as a whole in order to make living and working in the city simple. It could hardly be called a functioning city, and those who could leave would leave. Yet, our digital work environments have sprung up without the equivalent of urban planning. Countless systems and tools have been designed and implemented independently of one another without considering the employees’ perspective, the employees’ situation, and the appearance and functioning of the digital work environment through the lens of the employees. As a result, the environment that was intended to make our jobs easier makes our jobs harder instead. The complexity grows with each system and function added, which, paradoxically as it may be, can lead to a decrease in productivity although the individual systems and functions per se are made more powerful. This leads to our view of how the digital workplace should be defined: A digital work environment designed purposefully and holistically with the user front and center. Some might disagree with this definition, arguing that it just defines the characteristics of a successful digital workplace. We could have simply defined the digital workplace as “All the digital tools and solutions the employees need to get their work done”, but in that case, what would make the digital workplace any different from what most employees already work in? Well, nothing. In addition, when defining it is as a set of tools and solutions, we are inclined to focus too much on the what – the technology. We need to break away from a technology-centric mindset to avoid the problems this way of thinking causes. Also, as technology is in constant flux, such a definition can hardly be relied upon for long. We believe the digital workplace has to be defined in a way that separates it from a digital work environment that has not been designed holistically or with the user front and center. It needs to make clear how we should think and act to get it right. We need to see and understand the entire digital work environment from the point of view of the users in order to design it in a way that empowers them. Just as in the case of urban planning, the knowledge and intention to structure the whole and ensure that each part interacts well are crucial. The digital work environment must be as effective as possible in meeting every need of its users. This requires both a holistic view and the ability to put the individual user front and center, which in turn, requires a common strategy, coordination, and governance for the entire digital workplace. In addition, policies and guidelines are needed for the appearance, functioning, and development of all its services and characteristics. Every change must be designed to fit well with the employees’ digital work environment and with the whole. We believe that a functioning digital workplace is the foundation for successful digital transformation, as illustrated in Figure 12. The digital workplace serves as the platform needed to enable the organization to rapidly adapt to new expectations, requirements, and opportunities. Figure 12. The digital workplace plays a key role in digital transformation. The development of our digital work environments requires a completely new way of thinking and acting – one that puts the people who work in these environments front and center. 2.2 THE PROCESS IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS
Over the years, many have attempted to understand, and find models to explain, why some companies have such a great capability to be innovative and, time and time again, develop new products and services in areas where they were previously not active. One of the most popular theories put forth in recent times is Simon Sinek’s Start with Why.15 Sinek believes he has found a common denominator among innovative companies and uses Apple as an example. Apple always starts with why it is doing something instead of what it is doing, which is what most companies tend to do. Sinek’s theory is best explained by a model called the “Golden Circle”, which consists of three rings: WHAT If we start from the outside, the outer layer of the circle represents what the company does. This is usually easy to describe because it is simply a description of the products or services that the company provides, but it is also easy for other companies to copy it. HOW The middle layer describes how the company does what it does, for example, how they produce, present, and sell their products or services as well as how they think about what they do. This is not as easy to work out and then copy. WHY The inner layer, the core, represents why the company does what it does. In other words, why the company exists in the first place, what it believes in, what its culture is, and what its values are. This is immensely difficult for other companies to describe and copy. Sinek discovered that what separates the most successful companies and leaders from those less successful is that they know their purpose and they consistently think, communicate, and act on the basis of that purpose. They are purpose-driven. Companies such as Apple and Google can be considered in this category of companies. So, why are we bringing up the Golden Circle theory in a book about the digital workplace? Well, because we think that the concepts behind it are also of the utmost relevance for developing the digital workplace. Far too many opinions of the digital workplace are based around an image of countless tools and functionalities. We believe that this leads to an incorrect and ultimately counterproductive way of thinking about and acting on the development of the digital workplace. Functionalities and characteristics will inevitably change over time. After all, few things change as quickly as digital technology. If too much focus is dedicated to the functionality of the digital workplace, we run the risk of getting trapped in a solution-centric and technology-centric focus instead of actively understanding and supporting the business and its goals and needs. Instead of focusing on what the digital workplace should consist of, we need to start with defining its purpose – what we call its mission – and then how it needs to develop to best fulfill this purpose. It is, of course, up to each organization to define the exact purpose of the digital workplace, and it requires a lot of effort to define and align it with its business strategy. Yet, in practice, we believe that it always revolves around supporting new digital ways of working and empowering employees to work smarter together. So, after the purpose has been identified, only one question remains: how should the digital workplace be developed to achieve this? This is where we see a clear gap between how most organizations work and how they, in a strictly methodical sense, should strive to develop the digital workplace. We go so far as to say that this is the primary cause of not only the poor state of digital work environments in many organizations but also the failure of the desired impact of internal IT investments to materialize. On top of that, this gap results in decreases in employee productivity, efficiency, and innovativeness. This insight is the seed that bore the fruit of this book. Its mission is to try to close this gap, which it does by describing proven, clear, structured, and practical approaches for developing the digital workplace based on its mission and vision. 2.3 A NEW APPROACH IS REQUIRED
The word “technology” is related to the Greek word téchne, which means “art”, “craft”, or “craftsmanship”. Technology is intended to reduce the physical or mental load on us, and in general, raise our standard of living. However, the digital work environment in many organizations does the exact opposite of this. Therefore, we need to find our way back to this original meaning of technology. We need to put the people working in the digital work environment front and center. If we do this, then it will lead to the following results, among others: Fewer, easier to use, and more appealingly designed systems stripped of everything unnecessary. More consistently designed systems to ensure we feel at home with them and don’t have to learn a whole new way of doing the same thing in different systems. Increased...
