APQC’s latest productivity research shows that about 30% of respondents’ time is spent on unproductive tasks—searching for information, recreating work, and managing excessive communication and meetings. The barriers aren’t about effort or capability; they’re structural, including siloed teams, inefficient systems, lack of process clarity, and poor knowledge sharing.
Enter digital transformation: new tools, automation, and AI. In our annual priorities survey, 30% of organizations report that digital tools are partially integrated across functions, 30% say mostly integrated, and only 18% say fully integrated.
The question is no longer whether organizations are adopting digital solutions—it’s whether those changes will be sustainable. What makes adoption stick? And what signals that it won’t?
What Makes Digital Transformation Sustainable?
Simply put: project leadership.
Project management is the norm; project leadership is what drives transformation. It requires stepping above tasks to guide teams toward outcomes and business results, connecting project outputs to strategy, anticipating shifts, and adjusting course as new information emerges.
Despite heavy investment in digital tools, AI, and automation, many organizations still struggle to achieve meaningful transformation. The issue is rarely the technology itself. Digital initiatives fall short when leaders focus on implementation rather than on reshaping how work actually gets done.
As AI and automation become embedded in core workflows, project managers must move beyond coordinating timelines and managing scope. They must lead conversations about future-state processes, clarify ownership after go-live, and define success in operational terms—not just delivery milestones.
Before exploring how to lead successful digital transformation, it’s important to understand where these efforts most often break down. In Part 2, we take a closer look at the common pitfalls that emerge after go-live—and what it takes to make change actually stick.
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