Key Points

• Organizational change is a must for digital environments.
• A digital environment encourages creativity and innovation.
• Change is a constant in a digital environment, thanks to the very nature of technology.

How do you enact lasting organizational change in a digital environment? Much of what is written about organizational change existed before the advent of the far-reaching digital transformation we’ve experienced in the last five years. However, you can still impact this concept by keeping pace with other organizations.

Understanding the changing environment is one of the bigger marks of success in this area. Thankfully, we’ve got a few tips and tricks to help you navigate a digital environment. Maintaining the status quo isn’t the desired state, but rather one of adaptation, resiliency, and cohesion that will yield the best results.

What Is a Digital Environment?

The digital environment can take many different forms. However, we can arrive at a solid definition thanks to the BINUS Business School. They term a digital environment as “a modern arena for business activities that use a wide variety of computer and network technologies.” Now, the idea of utilizing computers in the workplace is nothing new.

However, what marks a digital environment apart from the likes of a traditional office space is the sense of integration. Operations in the physical space become enmeshed with the virtual. Ostensibly, this allows for greater flexibility in how a business approaches the challenges it may find.

Digital environments have been a subject of intense focus by businesses for the last five or so years. It isn’t enough to exist purely in a physical space. However, the strength of an organization now depends on its ability to integrate and embody a digital space.

Understanding the Drive Behind Digital Transformation

A digital environment is created by digital transformation. During the pandemic, many of the larger businesses scrambled to try and get on the stick with the idea. Business couldn’t proceed as usual, for months at a time. So the need for vast organizational change became the order of the day.

However, digital environments take time to cook up. This isn’t an overnight process. During the pandemic, this was something done out of necessity. Organizations faced the prospect of oblivion without the means to adapt and engage their customer bases.

A business embarking on the creation of a digital environment today has the benefit of time on its side. Rather than taking months, they can embrace technology on a piecemeal basis. Slowly integrating and making sure it makes a lasting organizational change along the way.

Leading Organizational Change in a Digital Environment

So, we’ve defined and outlined the want behind a digital environment. However, how do you lead an organizational change in a digital environment? The idea of change is a difficult one to approach in a business context. There are always challenges present, regardless of the environment.

However, there are a few ways you can enact lasting organizational change while maintaining the ethics and standards of your organization. It is easy to think of digital environments as encouraging speed above all else. After all, if data is but a mouse click away, then surely the same applies to other concepts.

That said, approaching organizational change with the correct mindset and tools is what gets the job done. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the same goes for expecting immediate change. With the right infrastructure and mindset in place, you can make lasting organizational change in a digital environment.

Aligning Goals

One of the best ways to build organizational change in a digital environment is by aligning your goals with the technologies you’re acquiring. Strong organizational change is enacted regardless of the technology used. I don’t mean that they are independent of one another, but rather that the technology being used to develop the digital environment should be items that are chosen with purpose.

If you’re a data-centric production house, then looking into how to integrate new digital methods that align with your company’s goals would make sense. The same goes for other industries, like healthcare, education, and so forth. Buying new computers isn’t what fosters lasting organizational change throughout a digital environment.

Instead, a digital environment is one where you’re able to maintain the goals, standards, and ethics of your organization in a virtual space. When properly done, technology should fulfill its purpose within your stated goals, rather than being the end goal in itself.

Encourage Collaboration

One of the boons of a digital environment is the open-ended means of communication. This allows for cross-department communication, asynchronous contact, and so much more. As such, if you’re looking to make lasting organizational change in a digital environment, you’ll want to encourage collaboration. Now, collaboration and teamwork are part and parcel of a business.

However, what I mean here is to encourage collaboration regardless of the distance. If you have a branch in Austin, Texas, and another in Lansing, Michigan, collaboration might seem farfetched. However, with the aid of digital tools, teams can and should collaborate.

A digital environment allows the fabric of an organization to become more tightly-knit, regardless of distance. If remote work allows for collaboration, then a modern digital environment can do the same. Distances are a thing of the past, at least thanks to the nature of digital transformation.

Plan for Tomorrow, Act for Today

When you’re planning a digital environment, you pick pieces of technology that are available in the present. There are numerous principles at play here, but the one to keep in mind is that you’re working toward a solution now, not tomorrow. However, part of leading organizational change in a digital environment is preparing for new pieces of technology.

Computers, tech, and so much more change rapidly, that’s just the very nature of the game. As such, when looking to make a lasting organizational change, prepare to have an environment of continuous adaptation and learning.

A piece of technology that is mission-critical might not last a year. However, that is beside the point. When preparing for a digital environment, you have to accept that organizational change is going to happen regularly. Your team is going to have to adapt to new technologies, learn new skills, and so forth.

Teaching Hard Skills

Speaking of skills, part of the way you can lead organizational change in a digital environment is through continuous education and training. New technology requires new skills, and it is up to you and your team to rise to the challenge. This might be outside the norm for many industries, but those in the tech sector know exactly what I’m talking about.

In all honesty, this is a concept that leads to a strengthened organization. Life-long students are paramount for the modern organization, and a business that isn’t teaching hard skills regularly is failing to adapt.

During my time in tech, there was a constant focus on learning and then implementing what was learned into new workflows. You might think that things need to be set in stone for some time before results are seen, but you’d be surprised how fast most people can learn, adapt, and act upon what they’ve learned.

Innovation

One of the many lasting ways to make organizational change in a digital environment is to foster a culture of innovation. The advent of technology in your organization is going to lead to more space to creatively approach and solve problems.

Technology allows us to do things beyond imagination, at least if you grew up in an era of vinyl records, cassettes, and old phosphor monitors. As such, technology can handle the minutia while you focus on the work that matters.

This frees up employees to think creatively, to get outside of the box. The adoption of new technologies is already throwing things for a loop, so why not embrace the greater freedom afforded by the digital workplace for the better? Innovation is what going to set you apart from the likes of your competitors, leading to lasting organizational change for the better.

Engaging Employees and Leadership

What better way is there to encourage organizational change than engaging the workforce directly? I get it, change is a difficult concept, especially at a company-wide level. However, when you build a digital environment, it helps to get everyone on the same page.

Getting the workforce involved in laying the foundational elements of a digital environment also serves as a means of prepping them for eventual changes. Organizational change is a constant in a digital environment, not just an initiative meant to modernize operations.

Making change part of the corporate culture goes a long way, and helps to weed out those who might resist the path needed. If you’re looking to stay relevant in the changing landscape, you’ll want to make it so the resistance to organizational change is a mere speed bump.

Developing New Strategies

One of the most positive aspects of a digital environment when it comes to organizational change is the need for constant innovation. This leads to our next point, which is the development of new strategies. This isn’t a one-time change, but rather one of constant iteration.

As such, you and your team will want to lay down the groundwork for how to best navigate these changes. Developing new strategies requires a certain touch, and fostering a mindset that values feedback and adapts accordingly is going to carry you quite far in this endeavor.

Developing new strategies also provides a willingness to adapt. If you’re constantly looking at how to improve or make the best of the technology provided, then you’re willing to solve problems when they arise. Adaptation and resiliency are some of the benefits of a digital environment and one you can take advantage of moving forward.

Leverage Data

Our final talking point centers around the lifeblood of any modern business. You’re constantly gathering data, and that’s a great thing. After all, data drives many of the decisions we make in businesses these days. However, this also provides an excellent tool when looking at how to lead organizational change in your digital environment.

You can see when things are working, or when they aren’t, simply put. Further, data analysts within your company should be able to forecast trends and predict success rates for future change initiatives. Making lasting organizational change isn’t something done with intuition or a gut feeling.

Rather, most organizations will have the empirical means to drive their decisions going forward. Making lasting organizational change means looking at what works, and what doesn’t.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Looking for some other useful tips and tricks? You might want to take a closer look at the role change management plays in digital transformation. Digital transformation and digital environments are closely related, and you’ll want to keep abreast of how to navigate the pivot to a wholly digital workflow.

Further, you might want to consider looking at the remote-first companies that made an impact. Remote work has close ties to digital environments, and learning how these companies navigate the difficulties of a completely digital workplace might serve as an inspiration.

Conclusion

Leading lasting organizational change in a digital environment doesn’t have to be a difficult process. At its core, a digital environment fosters an environment of constant flux. The technology supporting your company is going to change constantly and with a little coaxing, your organization can do so too.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Golden Dayz/Shutterstock.com.