Imagine your enterprise as a high-speed train rushing towards innovation. But what if I told you the real power lies not in the engine, but in the hands of those conducting it?

Frictionless Enterprises know that in order to shed tech baggage and eliminate innovation bottlenecks, they must have processes for onboarding and upskilling their people. After all, hitting the pinnacle of sustained innovation — the very top of the Frictionless Enterprise pyramid — doesn’t happen without eager employees who know exactly how to conduct the train.

It’s easy to say, “We can just bring in the change management consultants,” or “People will just adjust to the change,” but that sounds so robotic. These are people we’re talking about, who don’t just bring robotic-like skills to work every day, but also emotions that have a huge impact on their daily work — and, thus, your organization’s success. That’s why the “people path” to products is just as important as your tech stack.

In psychology, there’s a phenomenon called The Familiarity Effect. As humans, we tend to develop a preference for things that are familiar to us. Repeated exposure to something increases our affinity for it, even if we’re not consciously aware that it’s happening. Ever wonder why you see ads for the same company over and over across a variety of channels? Because the company is trying to give you as much exposure to their brand as possible so that The Familiarity Effect kicks in, and you’re more likely to do business with them!

Here at Launch by NTT DATA, we like to call this Organizational Muscle Memory. Whatever you choose to call it, you have to address your employees’ subconscious urge to use the same old processes and tools over and over again. Organizations that don’t address the people path to products end up with a team that’s not only resistant to change, but creating a massive roadblock for your new and improved way of doing things. It’s not their fault — a new tool or workflow brings uncomfortable unfamiliarity, and they want to eliminate that discomfort by reverting back to the way they’ve always done it. All of a sudden, tradition becomes a trap.

You can’t become a truly Frictionless Enterprise until you overcome this phenomenon. Fortunately, we have some advice to help you do it:

1. Provide on-ramps for the most impacted groups

Give developers and operations employees things they can use out of the box, ideally with self-service. Maybe it’s a developer portal with specific examples and documentation. Maybe it’s pre-built dashboards. Maybe it’s automated scans that are easy to run, that replace tedious manual work. However you carry it out, start with the lowest-hanging fruit. Save the more complex tech additions — the ones that come with a massive learning curve — for later. 

2. Remember that developer experience is customer experience

It’s not just about happy end users. Frictionless Enterprises also have happy developers. Once you’ve given your developers an on-ramp, work on the next phase of implementation together. This gives them a sense of ownership, which will lead to better work and stronger outputs. Remember, that swell of pride doesn’t happen when you simply hand them a tool and mandate them to use it.

3. Make upskilling a no-frustration zone

When people first try to acquire a new skill, they have a habit of trying too hard. Think about the last time you played golf — odds are you got tense and frustrated every time you saw someone else hit the green with ease, while your ball kept sailing into the woods. The more tension and frustration that bubbled up, the more your ball crash-landed next to a tree. You can thank your subconscious mind for that. It nags at you, telling you should be better at this, and in the process, prevents you from actually getting better!It’s no different in a Frictionless Enterprise. Becoming frictionless requires everyone to learn new skills, but you need a zen-like approach to help them do it. Encourage them to acknowledge that they won’t be perfect on the first try. Tell them the most valuable thing they can give you in the beginning is a set of fresh eyes. That simple mental shift gets their subconscious mind out of the way and allows them to submerge themselves in the simple act of learning.

Breaking organizational muscle memory isn’t easy — and the bigger and more established your enterprise is, the harder it is to do. Your organization hasn’t acted with the nimbleness of a startup in a very long time (if ever). But change is the very thing you need to become more innovative and disruptive. Ready to steer your enterprise towards sustained innovation? Discover how to create perpetual momentum across your team and your technology by downloading our Frictionless Enterprise book.