The Change Report

Is your organization adapting to the speed of digitization? In our first article, Digitization and Change Management: The Need for Speed we discuss tactics to keep in mind with digitization. And in our second article, Technology: 25 Years of Change, we talk about how technology has evolved over the years.


Enjoy the articles below, and as always let us know what you think. Email us at guides@changeguidesllc.com.

Digitization and Change Management:

The Need for Speed

It often feels like technology has taken over our world. Many of us can think back to the “good old days” when paper and pencil were the norm and a fancy calculator and phone on your desk were high tech.


The world is faster, people are busier and digital transformation is changing the way companies do business. The need for speed is essential in giving us a competitive edge in many areas of our life. To grow and stay competitive in today’s marketplace, digitizing manual tasks and processes and introducing new technologies is critical. But, with digitization comes change. These changes are complete culture shifts. According to Zippia, 97% of executives say that the COVID-19 pandemic sped up digital transformation efforts. Many employees in the current workforce have not only adjusted to the rapid speed of technology, but changes in the way they have always done their job and conducted business.


Digital transformation needs change management to succeed. Installing new software and developing new technologies won't improve the business if they are not being used. It is more important than ever for leadership to engage and include all levels of employees in the changes within an organization if they want long term success. Technology change is accelerating, which means customers expect more and expect it faster. But new technologies can introduce complexity. Understanding the benefits, how they work and how to utilize them is instrumental for both employee and business success. Research done by Brookings shows 90 percent of the U.S. workforce as needing digital skills to perform their job. Many workers who have serious digital skill gaps are nevertheless employed in jobs that require them to use computers. Research done by National Skills Coalition indicates nearly 1 in 3 workers lack those foundational digital skills needed. 


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Technology: 25 Years of Change

When I began my career almost 25 years ago, I could not have imagined how the world of today would look. I remember schlepping to the computer lab on my university campus on cold Chicago nights to check my email and type out papers using Microsoft on the desktop computers or use the common printer. I got my first email address in college and the only people I knew that had email addresses at the time were other students. My mom still used a typewriter at work and my dad had 8 feet tall metal file cabinets against the walls of his office filled with shipping and receiving orders and a desk piled with papers, a corded phone, and an adding machine. I remember in the late 80’s, when my dad got his car phone, corded and factory wired into the car, and the other kids being impressed as he took calls at school drop off. That was advanced. In the 1990s, people witnessed an explosion of technology which has increasingly led to a change in how and where people work.


How times have changed. According to the World Economic Forum, in 2000, just half of Americans had internet access at home. Today, that number sits at more than 90%. On a global scale, less than 7% of the world was online in 2000, today over half the global population has access to the internet. The iPhone was not far behind; Apple introduced the first one in 2001. At the start of the 2000s, there were 740 million cellphone subscriptions worldwide. Two decades later, that number has surpassed 8 billion, meaning there are now more cellphones in the world than people.


Today, technology has changed every facet of our lives at increasing speed. Technology is in the air, water, electricity, food, education, work, communication, shopping, travel, and our money. It’s almost everywhere and in everything in our daily life. One of the biggest ways technologies has changed our daily lives is in how we communicate. Communication is at the core of change and as technology has quickened, so has the pace of change. Traditional methodologies of change no longer are sufficient and faster methodologies like Agile are being used across the business landscape on all change projects and are no longer limited to technology and new software implementation projects. 


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Online 2022 Events


Managing Change in an Agile World Online Training

To book a 3 hour Managing Change in an Agile World class, contact

Sheri Schweppe at sheri.schweppe@changeguidesllc.com


Agile Change Management Online Certification

March 14-15, 2023, 9-2 pm EST each day

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