Digital Transformation at Scale

It takes surprisingly few individuals to completely gum up a huge government machine. Not many people are obstructive for the sheer hell of it. In most cases they will have very good personal or professional reasons to maintain the status quo. When your digital team turns up to upend their position, they will hide, delay or fight. Faced with this, influence, charm and friendly wheedling may only get you so far. Teams trying to start digital institutions (especially in governments) therefore shouldn’t underestimate the value of acquiring hard powers. You don’t get many chances to ask for them, and they are much more easily removed than conferred.