Peter Bendor-Samuel, the CEO of Everest Group—a management consulting and research firm headquartered in Dallas, wrote an article in Forbes about how to avoid a pitfall in data-driven digital transformation. Many organizations are going through changes in their business models, but when they start looking at their business through a data lens instead of a business process lens, serious issues will arise.

It’s important to develop a plan for change management within your organization to control how the people in a company use the data and make decisions about data issues. Accepting change should start at the top of your organization. If the executives manage change well, your managers and employees will be more likely to as well.

Peter explained that companies typically go through one of two outcomes when going through a data-driven digital transformation in their organization. To put it in perspective, the article explored the example of a cement-mixing plant that used data from IoT sensors that were implemented to help improve productivity and efficiency. The weekly management report that the CEO already received showed different results than the information from the sensor data that was collected.

• Pitfall Outcome: With this approach, the company would focus on why the plant manager’s reported metrics were wrong. Confronting him would embarrass the manager and lead him to become defensive. This would only make the manager find ways to disguise his future actions and become passive-aggressive. Ultimately, this would be a bad outcome for the entire organization, especially as word of the situation spread to other plant managers.
• Mature Outcome: Instead of confronting or blaming the plant manager, it’s better to start a conversation about how to improve within the organization. Collaborate with your team and focus on becoming better instead of pointing the finger. The data from new technology should allow your company to understand what was happening and why, so use that information to develop a new plan that allows you to be more productive and efficient.

The people in your company will be crucial during your data-driven digital transformation, here are 8 Ways to Attract & Retain Digital Transformation Talent.

To learn more about avoiding the pitfall outcome and how to handle change management when going through a business model change, check out the full Forbes article attached below on data-driven digital transformation.