Despite what many people think, digital transformation is about people, not just the technologies and tools. You can have the most advanced AI models, the latest cloud platforms, and cutting-edge analytics tools, but if the people in your organization resist the change, the entire initiative risks collapsing. This “culture shock” happens when employees are suddenly thrust into unfamiliar processes, tools, and expectations without proper guidance.
Organizations need to approach digital transformation as a human-centric mission. The adjustment process for employees mirrors what Sverre Lysgaard described in 1955 as the stages of cultural adaptation: honeymoon, shock, adjustment, and eventual adaptation. If companies don’t invest in helping employees move through these stages, the shock phase becomes a bottleneck.
This is where transformation efforts typically stall, morale plummets, and innovation grinds to a halt.
The stakes couldn’t be clearer. McKinsey reports a 70% failure rate in digital transformations, which often comes down to cultural misalignment. A BCG study also found that companies prioritizing culture during transformation experienced financial success at a staggering 90% rate, compared to just 17% for those that didn’t.
The numbers speak for themselves—ignore culture, and you’re throwing away money.
Set a strong foundation with a clear vision and strategy
Digital transformation needs a clear roadmap. Employees need to know where the company is headed and, more importantly, how they fit into the bigger picture. This vision must be more than a corporate slogan, and needs to be a tangible, actionable guide that gives everyone clarity.
Personalization is key. People don’t buy into abstract concepts, they connect to ideas that resonate with their daily work and career aspirations. Leaders need to break down the vision into relatable terms. How does this transformation make an employee’s job easier? How does it benefit the team? Answer those questions, and you get engagement instead of resistance.
The numbers reinforce this. McKinsey found that organizations with clear change management strategies are six times more likely to succeed in their digital transformation efforts. That’s not luck, it’s intentionality.
When everyone understands the mission and their role in it, the transformation becomes a shared goal rather than a top-down directive.
Build engagement and career growth with employee training
Here’s where many organizations fall short. According to PwC, only 56% of companies are expanding their training programs for digital tools and processes. That’s a huge blind spot. If employees aren’t equipped with the right skills, how can they contribute meaningfully to the transformation? It’s not about teaching them to use software, it’s about preparing them for a future where their expertise and career paths evolve alongside the company’s goals.
Incentivizing training programs is a smart move. Certifications, for example, give employees tangible proof of their progress and accomplishments. It’s a win-win: employees gain confidence, and companies get a more engaged and capable workforce.
Transparency builds up trust and alignment
Transparency is the glue that holds transformation efforts together. When leaders are open about what’s working—and what isn’t—it builds trust across the organization. Employees don’t expect perfection, but they do expect honesty. If you share progress updates regularly and acknowledge challenges, people feel included and invested.
Don’t aim to deliver a polished story, aim to show the work in progress. Regular meetings that showcase integration efforts and highlight team contributions make the transformation real and relatable. It’s one thing to say a tool is improving efficiency, but it’s another to show how a specific team used it to solve a real problem.
Transparency also builds credibility here. When employees see leaders addressing setbacks openly, it reinforces the idea that it’s not another corporate initiative destined to fizzle out. Instead, it becomes a collective effort where everyone has a role to play. The result? A unified workforce that feels connected to the mission.
Embrace innovation and failure as growth tools
Failure is the price of admission for innovation. If employees are afraid of making mistakes, they’ll stick to the status quo—and that’s a surefire way to fall behind in a competitive space. A learning-focused culture shifts the narrative around failure. Stop pointing fingers and instead ask, “What can we learn from this?”
Regular retrospectives are a powerful tool for this, providing a structured way to review what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve moving forward. Avoid dwelling on the negative and work on building a feedback loop that keeps the organization adaptive and resilient.
Transparency plays a role here, too. When leaders share lessons learned from their own missteps, it normalizes the idea that failure is part of the process. Employees feel safer experimenting and taking calculated risks, which ultimately drives innovation.
The message is clear: don’t fear failure, use it as a stepping stone.
Identify champions within the organization
Change doesn’t happen in isolation, it needs advocates who believe in the mission and inspire others to join. These champions aren’t necessarily the highest-ranking people in the organization. They’re the ones who understand the transformation deeply and can communicate its value in a way that resonates with their peers.
Here’s why champions matter: transformation is inherently personal. People trust their colleagues more than corporate emails or slide decks. When a respected team member vouches for the initiative, it carries weight. Champions bridge the gap between leadership’s vision and the workforce’s reality, making change feel less like a mandate and more like a movement.
Take a fictional example. In Company A, the marketing and investor relations teams became champions after engaging directly with engineers to understand a new solution enablement platform. Their enthusiasm rippled outward, influencing both internal teams and external stakeholders, including investors.
Final thoughts
As you chart your path forward, ask yourself: Are you investing as much in your people as you are in your technology? The tools you deploy might set the stage, but it’s your team’s culture, trust, and adaptability that will decide the show’s success. How will you inspire your people to build a future they truly believe in?
