It is the systems of your business that drives everything that your organisation does. The more effective and scalable your systems, the bigger your impact. The key to transforming your business systems, begins with recognising that your systems operate within the Triangle of Digital Transformation.
A system is an abstract concept that describes the interactions between various elements that work together to achieve a common purpose. Systems make our world go around. Everything we do in our organised human lives at work operate within a system of the same kind. There is nothing inside of what a human organisation does that we cannot describe as some form of system.
Inputs into Outputs again and again
The Britannica Dictionary describes a system as “a group of related parts that move or work together”. The part or component of the system work together to turn a set of inputs into a set of outputs. The outputs have a purpose: To create valuable input for the next system.
The components (or elements) can be anything in the real world that contributes to the system’s overall functioning. People and Processes are both forms of components. Our Technology, such as computers, software, property and machines, are all forms of the system platform within which the inputs and outputs of the system are managed, transformed, and maintained.
Let's Go for Coffee
Let’s consider a system everyone will be familiar with – enjoying coffee at your local café. The café is a system of systems created to provide you, the customer, with your cup of daily brew.
For convenience, let’s limit the scope of our analysis and begin this process scope with the customer entering the coffeeshoby purchasing coffee beans from a coffee supplier. Each bag of coffee contains coffee beans that are the input of the coffee production process.
The next step in the process is that the Barista (a Person) will take the coffee beans and grind them (Process) using the coffee grinder machine (Platform). The coffee grind gets packed into the Portafilter of the Coffee machine (Platform). The machine then produces a shot or two of coffee based on your order (output).
The Barista will use the machine’s steam wand to heat the milk (input). They will then combine the coffee and milk to produce your coffee (output).
The café service staff (people) will deliver the coffee (process) to you at your table for you to enjoy (output).
In this example, you can imagine the coffee beans as an input into a system of People, Processes and Platforms to produce an output of your experience enjoying the coffee. From the perspective of the Barista, the coffee is an output of the process. From your perspective as a customer, coffee is an input into your daily energy needs.
The Axiom of Transformation
Within the café’s coffee production system, we have a combination of processes, such as ordering coffee beans from the supplier and accepting customer orders. There are distribution processes from the coffee beans delivery to the café to the coffee delivery to the table where you await. There is the process of coffee brewing.
Of course, running a successful café involves many other processes, but this isn’t an article about how to run a café.
You can also imagine the many technology platforms involved in this example. Each of these technologies must work together to facilitate the coffee experience. These include the café building, the tables, the cups, the barista espresso machine, the point of sales system, and many other platforms that make up a modern-day coffee shop experience.
The third component of the café system of systems is People. The Barista, service staff, café owner, manager and you, the customer. Each person working within the Café must receive training and skills to fulfil their role in the overall customer experience of enjoying coffee at the café. Each person is critical to the overall functioning of the system of coffee production in your local café.
Outputs must become inputs
Don’t forget that you, the café customer, are also a critical part of the overall process. That’s because a system’s output must be another system’s input to be valuable. In the case of your morning coffee, your body is the system for which you input the coffee. If coffee weren’t a valuable input for people, the global industry of coffee and cafés wouldn’t exist.
The key to notice here is that the system of coffee production at your local café operates within a specific and unique construct of platforms, processes and purpose. The production process can only exist and be maintained when aligned with the purpose to provide you with your daily coffee input.
If any of these platforms, processes and purpose components within the café’s coffee production system fails, you don’t get your morning coffee, and your day feels ruined.
In this example, we can see how systems theory gives rise to the Axiom of Transformation.
Platforms, Process and People aligned with Purpose.
The Iron Triangle of Digital Transformation
The Axiom of Transformation should clarify that no organised human system can exist within and of itself. It always confines within a unique construct of the Axiom. We can consider any given example of platforms, processes and people aligned with purpose as an instance of the Iron Triangle of Digital Transformation.
We must describe a system in any human organisation of any scale or size with a combination of people, platforms and processes aligned with Purpose. There are no exceptions. The Axiom and the Triangle of Digital Transformation are the foundation of success for any digital transformation initiative.
The Triangle of Digital Transformation means that if you change one element of any given instance of the Triangle in your organisation and do not adjust the others, your systems will fall out of alignment, and you will break the information flow that is the source of your production and value. In practice, this means that the system’s quality will decrease, costs will increase, or the system will stop altogether.
No coffee for you!
If you upgrade the espresso machine but do not retrain the Barista, the coffee quality of your café will go down, and your customers will go elsewhere. If your customer service staff don’t receive practical training in the processes of your café, your customer experience will go down, and your customers will go elsewhere.
And so on, as is the case for every single system and business in any given context.
Digital transformation is not about Technology
The Triangle of Digital Transformation means you can only fundamentally upgrade your technology platforms by changing your Process and People. In many cases, the Purpose of the system will also need to update, which is why the digital transformation of your business is not achievable by focusing on the Technology but instead by focusing on the Iron Triangle that the system of focus exists within.
If your sole focus in your initiative is upgrading your Technology without changing your people and processes, you will break the system’s information flow. Instead, it would be best to focus on transforming the Platform, Process, People and Purpose of the entire information flow or production process you seek to transform.
If you try and do one without the other, your transformation initiative will fail to deliver the desired outcomes. This is guaranteed. There are no exceptions to this rule.
A Triangle of Digital Transformation Is Always Present
The Triangle will always exist for every system, regardless of whether the managers or others recognise it. Suppose the system is working and exists in the real world. In that case, it will be maintained by a unique combination of the Axiom of Transformation: Platforms, Processes and People aligned with Purpose.
Through the Axiom and Triangle of Transformation, you can consistently and reliably activate 10x or better outcomes for your organisation through every digital transformation initiative you undertake.
Master Your Transformation Strategy
The Iron Triangle of Digital Transformation is the foundation of any digital transformation initiative. You can learn how to use the Triangle to transform and uplift the digital maturity of your organising with the AGContext Enlighten Digital Transformation Masterclass.
