Talking Transformation: Introducing SIMPLE

In our new video series, we’re sharing valuable insights and guidance directly from the leaders of business change. In this episode, Afiniti Digital Strategy & Transformation Director Jamie Campbell tells senior Partner Corrina Jorgensen how leaders can double the value of their digital transformations with our pioneering new framework: SIMPLE^TM.

Don’t forget to watch Part One: Digital Change Challenges, here and Part Two: Digital Strategies and Impact, here.

Corrina
So Jamie, I’m intrigued. I know you’ve been doing a lot of deep thinking and research, and I know the subject that we have close to both our hearts, actually, is around how you operationalise the strategy. Some great strategic thinking and work is done, but actually, how do you operationalise it and build that muscle within the organisation, such that all that great thinking and work on the strategy doesn’t go to waste? So can you bring that to life for us a little more?

Jamie
Absolutely. I think through research, I was very curious about why 70% of transformations fail. Why are they failing? A lot of the time, leaders don’t even know it’s failing. They don’t have the measurements or the tools to assess and evaluate how that strategy is being operationalised.

Corrina
And a lot of organisations don’t look back.

Jamie
No, they don’t at all. And when the ROI on the business case is so blown out, it just gets shoved to the side. So all the strategy work is basically for naught or gets lost in the execution. So I was really trying to look for how organisations and leaders pragmatically focus on a critical few activities to operationalise the strategy.

Corrina
And make it simple?

Jamie
And make it simple, yes. I coined an acronym called SIMPLE™—Simplify, Incentivise, Mindset, Prioritise, Learn, and Execute. In my mind, those are the critical words and activities that a leader and an organisation need to focus on to start changing everything from failure mode to success mode.

Corrina
That sounds absolutely fascinating, and I’m sure any leader that we discuss it with—anything that we can do to help make their life simpler and help them to really, fundamentally appreciate the work that needs to be done to operationalise that strategy—is going to be music to their ears.

Jamie
Yes, I think because so often consultants come in and have these complex algorithms and concepts and decks, describing in 28 pages, ‘this is how you change and improve a transformation.’ But if you use even the words Simplify and Prioritise, that just means, what is the scope of your digital transformation?

Studies and practice have shown that less is more. You may only have two or three key initiatives that you’re focusing on first and stage them. Most organisations I’ve been at, I see 20, 40, 60 different initiatives across the organisation. So, even just the words and focus on simplification of the scope and prioritising the initiatives for the people has a huge impact on the success of the transformation.

Corrina
So it’s really incorporating lots of great stuff from a quality aspect, focusing on what matters most.

Jamie
Exactly. And in addition to that, it’s also having the mindset and learning of focusing on what’s right, but then also understanding what’s working and what’s not. How you lead that digital change is super important, and leading a digital change versus a business change is very different. Now the two are combined together, so leaders have to have the right mindset and have to be learning in order for the organisation to be learning in parallel and alongside that leader.

Corrina
And so much of it is around experimenting and using learnings and having the courage to say, ‘it’s okay, we don’t know everything right now,’ and learning together.

Jamie
Exactly. That’s the name of the game in this digital world. And it’s daunting because you can’t control it necessarily fully. But that’s a successful digital strategy in my mind—when you’re really seeing tangible learnings and gains in value, ultimately. And as our vision states, doubling the value is critical.

Corrina
Great, well I’ll look forward to discussing it more.

Jamie
Thanks, Corrina.