Want to be great at digital transformation? Play Tetris
“Human progress has always been driven by a sense of adventure and unconventional thinking.”
There are a lot of things you can learn about digital transformation from Tetris
Transformation, especially the large-scale digital transformations currently being undertaken by so many organisations, are incredibly complex. They contain many, often competing, moving parts. Unexpected events happen. Time moves quickly. Progress needs to be shown.
I like the above quote from Andre Geim. We need to be creative. To seek inspiration from different sources. To look outside of our norms and learn from elsewhere.
Which brings me to Tetris.
There are many things we can learn from Tetris.
Build upwards
Tetris involves building a stable structure by placing blocks in a way that prevents gaps and maintains balance. In delivering transformation, we build upon strong foundations to create a more solid and improved structure.
Plan strategically
Just as in Tetris, where we strategically plan where to place each falling block, delivering transformation involves strategic planning. We need to assess the situation, anticipate challenges and determine the best steps to achieve the desired outcome.
Manage resources
In Tetris, we must manage our resources (the falling blocks) effectively to achieve the best outcomes. Similarly, delivering transformation requires efficient resource allocation, whether it’s time, budget or personnel, to achieve our goals.
Adapt
In Tetris, the blocks fall at increasing speeds and in different shapes. Similarly, in the process of delivering transformation, we’ll encounter unexpected changes and challenges. Being able to adapt our strategy and plans is crucial to success.
Clear obstacles
Just as we clear lines in Tetris to prevent the screen from filling up, delivering transformation involves removing obstacles that could hinder progress. This could mean removing outdated processes or resistance to change.
Solve problems
In both Tetris and delivering transformation, we’re constantly solving problems. In Tetris, it’s about fitting the right blocks together to clear lines. In transformation, it’s about finding solutions to obstacles that arise during the change process.
Make incremental progress
Both Tetris and transformation are about making incremental progress. In Tetris, we clear lines one at a time. In transformation, we achieve milestones step by step, eventually leading to the desired end state.
Be patient
Both activities require endurance and patience. Winning at Tetris or successfully delivering transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It takes persistence and the ability to stay focused on the long-term goal.
As with Tetris, transformation is made up of many different blocks of different shapes and sizes, for example:
- Client requirements
- Regulatory impacts
- Organisational considerations
- Cost
- Time
- Technology
- People
At this point, it’s worth returning to the first rule of Tetris, build upwards. Let’s look at some data points and conclusions from an EY report published in October 2022 titled “How do you harness the power of people to double transformation success?”:
“Research suggests that 85% of senior leaders have been involved in two or more major transformations in the last five years alone. Two-thirds (67%) of those surveyed said they have experienced at least one underperforming transformation during this time.”
This alone is a staggering statistic. More staggering is that companies continue to accept this rate of failure as the price of change. In any other context, and by any other standard, this level of performance would be completely unacceptable.
“The six key drivers of above average adoption in a successful transformation are inspire, lead, care, empower, collaborate and build.”
Five out of these six drivers are people centric, strongly rooted in culture and emotion.
“Negative emotions among workers increase by 25% in successful transformations but by more than 130% during underperforming transformations.”
Another widely researched and published conclusion from McKinsey is that 70% of all transformations fail to deliver their potential.
It’s possible to draw a correlation between all these data points and uncover a common theme: people. It is widely accepted that successful transformations are people-centric transformations.
Returning to our transformation journey, it’s important to remember that, at the outset, we don’t know everything.
We set a vision (often our “North Star”). We use this vision to establish a purpose and to build confidence and trust. We build the foundations (think the bottom row in Tetris) based on those five drivers of above average adoption that were noted by EY: inspire, lead, care, empower and collaborate.
People, not technology, drive successful and sustainable transformations.
With this solid foundation in place, with our people and culture forming the foundation of our transformation, we can start to build.
Imagine looking up at the falling Tetris pieces: the client requirements, the regulatory impacts, the organisational considerations, the cost, the time, the technology.
Imagine being able to manage our resources (the falling blocks) effectively. To incorporate the Tetris skills mentioned at the start – adapt, clear obstacles and solve problems – we’re giving ourselves a better chance of success.
Without this approach, and where transformations often fail, is in their poor reaction or poor decisions to the blocks that are falling on them. When this happens, gaps appear (imagine the white spaces on your Tetris board).
So often, these gaps are plugged ‘tactically’ with people. People who are unskilled at the roles they are being asked to perform and who are being asked to undertake important roles in addition to their current responsibilities. (As an aside, isn’t it interesting that we use the word ‘tactical’ as a positive when really, in this context, ‘tactical’ means impractical or unwise.)
Remember that stat from the EY report above. “Negative emotions among workers increase by 25% in successful transformations but by more than 130% during underperforming transformations.” This is often how it starts.
Gaps appear. We plug these with people. We fail to clear obstacles or are too slow to clear them. We keep trying to shoehorn different shapes (different solutions) to plug the gaps.
It quickly becomes a Tetris lattice rather than a cohesive, planned Tetris board.
It quickly becomes GAME OVER.
Closing thoughts
If you want to be one of the 30% who delivers a successful transformation. If you want to be one of the 21% of senior leaders who have never experienced an underperforming transformation. If you want to be one of the employees who has a positive (or at least a less negative) experience with transformation. Be creative. Bring a sense of adventure and unconventional thinking. And most importantly, put people at the centre of your thinking and build a solid foundation.
And of course… learn to play Tetris.
About the author
Richard Jeffreys is the founder of CX ALL, a customer experience advisory company.
Richard has over 35 years of global leadership experience in banking and fintech, living and working in the US, Europe and Asia. He is passionate about customer and employee satisfaction and their correlation to sustainable commercial value.
Follow Richard on LinkedIn.
