Digital technology was supposed to simplify things. But in many organisations, it has actually accelerated... chaos. What if the real transformation was to slow down?
When everything keeps moving
For some years now, companies have been living in a constant din of notifications, meetings, dashboards and parallel projects. They're always moving forward, but where are they heading?
When you dig deeper, you discover that most “transformation plans” don't actually transform anything. They keep teams busy, mobilise management and reassure investors, but the reality on the ground remains the same: rigid processes, slow decision-making and duplicative tools.
The problem is that the agitation gives the impression of progress. It becomes a performance in itself: «We have a digital committee meeting every Tuesday. We've just installed a new monitoring tool. We're launching a POC on generative AI.” The energy expended is real, but the direction remains unclear.
When “doing” takes over from “why”...”
Digital transformation is often approached as a technical project: installation, deployment and training. Organisations love tools because they give an impression of control: software is concrete, a dashboard is measurable. We rarely ask ourselves why we're doing all this.
There's a phrase I often hear: “We haven't found the right tool yet», but the truth is that the tool has never replaced the clarity of the need. As long as we don't know what we want culture to evolve into, digital technology will only add layers of complexity.
Slowing down for better transformation
So is transformation about going faster? Perhaps it's about going better, in a direction we've taken on board.
The most mature companies are not those that launch the most projects, but those that know how to stop them. Those that dare to say «this project no longer makes sense», those that favour consistency over speed.
In today's digital world, slowing down doesn't mean being late, it means rediscovering the ability to choose, to prioritise and to say "no". By trying to transform everything at once, we end up transforming nothing at all. Restlessness reassures, transformation disturbs, but it is in this disturbance that real progress is born.