Talking with Claire Renaud about Digital Transformation
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Talking with Claire Renaud about Digital Transformation
Talking with Claire Renaud about Digital Transformation
Monday, 31 august 2020 | Brenda Rodríguez López
<<The transformation is already taking place, but it will be achieved more or less quickly depending on whether everyone makes it as their own>>
Within the framework of the Digital Human Resources Collaborative Hub (DHR COL-HUB), the CEU IAM Business School, together with a remarkable group of Human Resources Managers from leading companies, is working on a new edition of the DHR Index: a report that analyzes the level of Digital Transformation in the Spanish companies and the role that Human Resources Departments have on it.
To talk about the results of this study’s last edition and assess to what extent Spanish companies are making progress in this transformation, we have the help of one of the professionals who is taking part in this initiative.
Claire Renaud is the Global Leadership Consulting Director at Dell Technologies and one of the professors of our Executive Master’s Degree in Human Resources 4.0.
Let’s talk about the DHR Index 2019. What were your overall impressions concerning the results of the past edition?
The last edition was the first edition, and in this sense, it has been a success thanks to the participation of more than 200 executives from large and medium-sized companies. We collected very relevant data on the current situation of companies in terms of digitization: most companies acknowledged that they were on the way, but that there was still a long way ahead.
It was interesting to see the convergence in identifying key digital skills and competencies. There are many companies that identified the same competencies, although 78% admit that they still do not have a clear and consistent list of them for the entire organization.
I also found the key role of the People Department in this transformation noteworthy and the very positive attitude that it is showing. Only 6% of the surveyed have identified the fear of digital complexity as a force that could obstruct this transformation.
You have mentioned several percentages, is there any data in this report that has particularly surprised you?
I think the data that surprised me the most is that 61% of organizations still do not have a clear and shared concept of what it means to be digital, and this is linked to 70% declaring that they do not have a consistent list of digital capabilities. If we consider skills versus abilities, the figure rises to 78%. It is interesting to see the initiatives that have been introduced in different areas of the organization, but there is a lack of a clear and uniform vision for the entire company.
Another piece of information that caught my attention is the one related to the term agility. 25% of managers identify agility as a project management methodology and 62% affirm that their organizations have implemented agile methodologies or practices. However, there is less emphasis on the concepts of agile mindset and digital mindset. I am making reference to the cultural and behavioral changes based on agility and flexibility. However, these changes have been accelerated due to everything we have experienced in the last six months.
It is almost impossible not to mention this exceptional situation that we are facing. What impact do you think this COVID-19 experience will have in terms of Digital Transformation?
First, we need to be aware that we live in a "VUCA" environment (with high levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), and this requires being able to adapt quickly, improving our analytical capacity to make decisions, being more creative to find new solutions and building our resilience.
A second aspect is the acceleration in the adoption of an agile mindset which is characterized by more flexibility, a greater focus on risk assessment and risk taking and the capacity for lifelong learning: an approach more focused on evaluating opportunities based on data analysis, making decisions faster and changing the course according to what we have learned.
Finally, the great revolution has been testing teleworking and leadership in virtual environments on a large scale. I think that the experience gained during the lockdown has been very positive and has highlighted that it may work. To continue taking advantage of it, we need to work on the areas of trust and inclusion. It has also underlined the importance of a digital competence that we had already identified in the first edition of the DHR Index: social and emotional intelligence. Leadership with optimism and empathy and resilience has become more relevant, as well as other aspects that are related to this competence.
Then, do you think that this openness of companies to remote working caused by the exceptional situation of the lockdown is going to have a positive impact?
I think so. A dynamic has been created that will continue. There were already many companies on their way; what happens is they still had some doubts, or they did not feel completely prepared to move to the next step from a technological and cultural point of view. This crisis has forced them to take this next step and they have realized that it works. It is a lesson learned.
I believe that to take advantage of it, we must continue to capitalize on the trust that has been built during the lockdown period and continue to offer more flexibility. To me, flexibility has become a key element of competitiveness, and it is obviously an element of motivation too.
We should continue to develop corporate culture and leadership styles to respond to new challenges such as motivating and maintaining cohesive teams that will work partially at the office and partially at home.
What do you consider to be the main challenges that Spanish companies must now face in order to achieve their digital maturity?
The first challenge has to do with their culture and is also closely related to what we have just discussed: making sure we have a culture and corporate habits that are more focused on concepts like flexibility, agility and innovation. Working on leadership at all levels of the organization, because it must be an attitude which is shared by all the people who make up the organization. In this sense, the People Area has a key role to play in promoting and accompanying this cultural transformation.
We also have another challenge, which is to promote a more flexible framework and make sure that we accompany people on this path. At Dell Technologies, we are used to doing it, since we have been working remotely for ten years now. Many people in our company work in this way and with great freedom, but it is true that it is a continuous learning process. We have also had our challenges with some teams that were not very used to it.
Another challenge is that of virtual leadership: How do you motivate your team when you do not see it? How do you make sure that there is inclusion and that everyone can have their say and contribute ideas? How do you identify when there are some people who are having more difficulties than others from an emotional standpoint? How do you accompany them in the management of their emotions? There are many areas to contribute to.
Together with the CEO, it is also necessary to make the organizational structure evolve. Again, there are some companies that have already embarked on this path of making the organization much more flexible, having fewer hierarchical levels, and a more shared decision-making process. It is also about creating structures in parallel to the traditional one that makes it possible to accelerate innovation and adopt agile practices. It is a long-term project and also a field to which the People Department has obviously a lot to contribute.
Incidentally, I wanted to discuss this aspect in particular. How should this transformation be supported or promoted by the HR Department?
We are the ones who must serve as a role model and, to achieve this, we have to transform ourselves first. In other words, we should invest in technology and in this cultural transformation. It is fundamentally about accelerating the digitization and automation of all our administrative tasks and part of our shared services -those aspects which do not call for so much creativity or human interaction-.
It also requires developing our skills for the future. At Dell Technologies, we have identified four key skills within the People Area: the data-focused digital mindset, the emotional and social intelligence, strategic and operational agility, and what we call “Design Ethos”, which is like Design Thinking that goes further. Actually, it involves applying this Design Thinking mindset to everything we touch and focusing on innovation, listening to customers and experimenting through an iterative process of trial and error.
What role does organizational agility play in this process of change?
We can differentiate organizational agility as such from the agile mindset. I think that probably the main focus, right now, should be on developing this agile mindset. By drawing on the agile methodologies coming from the software environment, we should take these concepts, values and principles and see how we can apply them on a daily basis through corporate culture and leadership habits within the organization. That is the great challenge for me.
We have all started on this path, but it is true that we can do much more. First, everyone within the organization should know what “agile” is and what the principles and values that characterize it are, and everyone needs to have the freedom to participate in defining how to apply it in their daily routine and in their own responsibility area. I believe that it is not only the responsibility of the Management Committee, but everybody that makes up the organization. To do this, they should be educated in this concept and there ought to be a lot of dialogue at all levels to reach a common interpretation, and also flexibility when applying it to each area.
According the last edition’s data, the CEO is the main driver behind the digital transformation strategy in Spanish companies, followed by the CHR and the COO. Who should this role primarily fall on?
Without a doubt, if the CEO is not there for this job, nothing will happen. The CEO is key, but I would say that it is more about a team effort. The CEO is the one who conveys this kind of messages, the one who clarifies whether they are important or not and the one that points out where they want to go, but the CEO cannot make all the decisions alone. It must be collaborative work within the Management Committee. I think there are also important roles such as those performed by the CTO (or the CIO), the CHR or the Facility Manager. Facility management is becoming increasingly important due to COVID and teleworking. New work environments and new offices must be adapted to security measures, but also to this new mindset.
In my opinion, it is collaborative work in which everybody should participate. The most important thing is for the Management Committee to focus on this culture, mindset and leadership so that we can let the entire organization soak up these notions and also give people the freedom to incorporate them into their day to day. The transformation is already happening, but it will be made more or less quickly depending on whether everyone makes it their own.
I am aware that it is still too early to anticipate the results of the report’s new edition, but would you venture to make a forecast?
I think that we are going to see a reinforcement of the digital skills that had already been identified in the first edition, such as agility, constant learning, adaptive thinking, emotional and social intelligence, etc. I suspect that they will continue to appear in this new edition and that it is likely that they will do so with a higher percentage.
Perhaps we will also see a better definition of this list of digital skills and abilities. I think that because of everything that has happened, companies have realized the importance of focusing on them.
We may see greater recognition of “Agile” not just as a methodology or a pilot project that is only reserved for a few departments, but an agile mindset to develop in the whole organization.
Lastly, I think we will start to see signs of progress towards more flexibility in all areas. Flexibility and agility are key aspects of the digital revolution that we are leading together.
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