Digital transformation in organisations

von

Paolo

|

April 2024

Digitalisation and AI offer the opportunity to anchor transformational leadership and New Work

Navigating permanent change – a new approach to team empowerment – 


We live in a time of high speed and change. Customers are demanding, business environments change frequently and established alliances are fragile. The success of the past decade is no guarantee of prosperity in the future. Company managers are wrestling with the implications.

Change comes under many names – agile, empowered, customer-centric. Organisations are realising that they should not just reactively deal with change, but actively find ways to ensure their competitiveness and sustainability. At the heart of this search is the empowerment of teams – a central idea in today’s business environment.

Empowerment in this sense goes beyond simply delegating tasks or granting decision-making authority. It is about enabling teams to shape their roles and ways of working according to requirements and to utilise the collective strengths, creativity and insights of its members. The modern organisational challenge is no longer the efficient management of resources within a stable set of tasks and roles; it is about fostering an environment in which teams can fluidly and dynamically reconfigure themselves around goals, projects and challenges. This shift requires a move away from ‘magical’ management decisions, which may not always be the most effective strategy in permanent change.

To navigate this shift, teams need access to tools and methodologies that support self-organisation, flexibility and rapid adaptation to new information or goals. Such tools empower teams to manage their roles and ways of working, capitalising on each member’s strengths and adapting team logics as tasks or priorities change. This approach does not seek to replace traditional management structures, but to complement them with strategies that prioritise responsiveness and collaborative problem solving. By providing teams with the means to self-organise, organisations can target efficiency, innovation and resilience even in times of change and give teams the tools for an ever-changing world.

The shift towards team empowerment –


We recognised this shift and developed the “Instant High-Performing Teaming” (iHPT) approach to give teams tools for self-coordination. This concept is all about optimising team performance by cultivating a state of flow and shared responsibility for collaboration. It is about creating an environment where team members know each other and work together based on each individual’s unique strength. The iHPT approach helps teams find their best mode. It gives them a logic not only in achieving goals, but gives them basic tools for playing together and thus for team satisfaction.

Integral to iHPT is the notion of “Preferred Performance Contributions” (PPCs). These six unique ways of working in teams correspond to the natural personality tendencies of team members, reflect their strengths and preferences and create a dynamic and self-organised process of team development. Unlike traditional management tools, the iHPT approach offers something for the team itself, not just for the leader. It brings relevant personal knowledge into the discussion and empowers teams and individual members to self-manage.

In contrast to traditional personality assessments, the idea of “Preferred Performance Contributions” (PPCs) focuses on the natural inclinations and inclinations of team members. This approach is based on the fact that individual differences are not only inherent, but immensely valuable in a team context. Recognising and harnessing these differences enables teams to work in a more human way, increasing both individual satisfaction and collective efficiency.

PPCs identify specific tendencies of how individuals prefer to contribute in a team context. It is not about categorising personalities, but about understanding the unique ways in which each team member can best contribute to a common goal. These six PPCs are distinguished:
  • Vision & Ideation
  • Networking & Promotion
  • Creation & Prototyping
  • Structuring & Facilitation
  • Analysis & Criticism
  • Scaling & Production

By recognising these diverse inclinations, teams can align tasks and roles more effectively and engage each member in a way that is both natural and comfortable for them. This alignment goes beyond the mere distribution of static stereotypes of traditional role models. In the PPC model, the six different preferences are prioritised in a personal order. Accordingly, each team member has two or more preferences in which they can contribute to the team’s success. The type of task and the team constellation are taken into account so that, overall, it is possible to work on common challenges in a much more dynamic and non-stigmatising way.

The PPCs are determined in three ways: Self-assessment, colleague feedback and personality test. The company Zortify has developed a personality test that uses an algorithm to determine relevant personality traits of the respondent from answers to open text questions and makes an AI-supported prediction of the preferred performance contributors (PPCs) based on these results. The similarities and differences between the three measurement methods have the character of a challenge and inspire a very open exchange about the preferences and possible performance contributions of the individual team members. On this basis, psychological safety in the team is promoted and feedback qualities are trained.

The impact of PPCs on team performance is profound. Teams that adopt this approach tend to be more adaptable, creative and resilient. They are better positioned to respond to challenges and capitalise on opportunities as each member brings their unique strengths to the table. This appreciation of diversity not only makes the team stronger, but also more people-centred and fosters an environment where everyone feels valued and empowered.

Watling, Marlin. Heidelberg. Co-founder and partner of Lumen. Heidbrink, Marcus. Cologne. Co-founder and board member of Zortify. Ritsch, Tom. Zurich. Co-founder and partner of AOAIO

Empowered Teaming in action –


The practical application of iHPT and PPCs in various industries offers an insight into how empowerment in teams can succeed in operational practice. We present three case studies from different sectors to illustrate the iHPT approach in practice.

Swiss regional bank –

Based on a SharedWhy workshop as part of an overall transformation of the bank, the topic of teaming came up in bank management.The bank’s management initiated the transformation of the bank, but was not prepared to implement all aspects of this change itself. However, this was the basis for the success of the overall project. The transformation can only succeed if the management follows suit and sets an example.

The approach –

After individual one-to-one meetings with the entire management team and an introduction to the Zortify iHPT process, all participants completed the Zortify analysis. Based on the individual results, there was an individual coaching session with the members of the bank management team to reflect on the results and position themselves for the joint follow-up workshop.

This phase was extremely challenging as the managers had very high expectations of the Zortify analysis. As soon as something like AI/NLP is involved, you think all the results are generated and ready-made results are produced. Of course, this is not the case. The reflection of the AI shows options and is the basis for an intensive dialogue to deal with your PPCs. In the individual feedback discussions, we repeatedly faced the challenge of getting managers to the right level so that they didn’t look for a ready-made analysis and get lost in the details.

→ Of course, these “interviews” could also have been conducted on the basis of a different personality analysis, or even without such a basis. A classic interview provides answers to many questions. However, it has been shown time and again that the presentation of personality through the assessment of a “neutral” body (in this case the AI) provides an excellent basis for questions and new positions.

The workshop with all members of the bank management took place just a few days after the individual meetings. We followed a generic approach that has proven its worth in the past.
      • Where to play
      • Who is in the Team
      • How to Win

The first part was about jointly defining what tasks the bank management has in the transformation and how it should position itself. It was not clear from the outset – at least not for the managers – how they should behave, where they should intervene and where they should be given a free hand. Clear issues were therefore defined here. A positive side effect was that you defined a new level for your own management meetings. The point was that you kept finding yourself getting bogged down in details, and that should be a thing of the past for the future. → The team achieved this and they are very proud of the efficiency of their current meetings.

The Who is in the Team part is the crucial part. Now it’s about all participants presenting their personal report and “exposing” themselves, so to speak. This involves statements such as “That surprised me, I don’t see it that way, why do you see me that way, what does the AI mean by that, etc…. Everyone has to understand what makes the others tick and this gives you the opportunity to reposition your strengths. A very exciting process. The current iHPT report offers a kind of summary. A picture of the team’s PPCs and therefore their balance. This presentation caused a great deal of discussion, as it is not meaningful enough in its current form and therefore tends to cause confusion. Based on this experience, this summary will also be revised, as it does not support the process enough as it is; a clear statement of what we are missing in the team would be ideal – perhaps even in relation to the current situation in which the company finds itself – this is the future of team analysis.

The third and final part is about defining together what we need to do now in order to be successful together. What do we need to change, what principles do we follow, how do we need to adapt things based on the discussions? For this team in particular, the following elementary findings emerged as a result:

      • The CEO will no longer be the communicator during the transformation
      • A level of discussion is defined in the management meetings that will not be abandoned (macro vs. micro)
      • The Executive Board launches a project called GL Mindset and provides regular updates on activities and topics

     

 

The biggest difficulty was convincing these people of the topic and the approach. To convince them to break new ground and try something new. Once they got involved, the difficulty was to dissuade them from the idea/vision: “We now have a tool that tells us how we are and what we have to do”. We should make it clear to managers that this AI is also there to support us and that we can’t avoid thinking and developing solutions ourselves.

Conclusion

An organisation with good teams wins. Empowerment is the limit to how quickly an organisation can move and how diverse the problems that can be solved at the same time can be. In order to transfer authority and competence to employees, teams need to be empowered; modern tools such as the iHPT approach presented help with self-organisation and make true empowerment possible.

In essence, the journey towards empowering teams is a multi-layered one that requires commitment, adaptability and the right set of tools. Organisations should commit to providing these tools to help leaders and teams navigate this journey successfully.