Building a Guiding Coalition
Assemble a diverse alliance of enthusiastic people with power, credibility and influence to think, design and support digital transformation. This alliance is what John Kotter refers to as build a guiding coalition.
It is a Coalition and not a Team for digital transformation
A coalition is a combination or alliance, especially a temporary one between persons, factions, states, etc . This alliance has a wide representation from
- different silos/business divisions/departments
- diverse background and different expertise
- different organizational levels
The digital transformation coalition mostly starts small and becomes bigger over few months.
The coalition is to guide the digital transformation
This group should have the intellectual ability to design the digital transformation. The individuals should be able to understand the need for digital transformation. They should be able to help you create strategic vision. Members will share excitement with others and make them interested in this effort. They are the change agents that will help you enlist the volunteer army for the change.
“You win by working hard, making tough decisions and building coalitions” – John Engler
Perfect candidates for digital transformation guiding coalition
- Early Adopters: These individuals are opinion leaders who listen to new ideas and are open to trying them. They are socially connected in the organization and have credibility. They are key to adoption of digital transformation due to credibility and influence.
- Executive Stakeholders: It is critical that one of the early adopters is from the executive team. Positional strength besides credibility and influence is must for digital transformation success.
Avoid these
- Don’t engage Innovators in this group. They are the ones who are first to embrace the change, are bright, enthusiastic and open to new ideas. Unfortunately they lack social influence and credibility. Their inclusion in this step may lead to quick death of digital transformation.
- Avoid late adopters or laggards until you have created few wins.
This post is part of series of post on Digital Transformation. You can read Step #1 of Digital Transformation at https://rohitprabhakar.com/sense-urgency-digital-transformation/
