What began as an effort to adopt software and cloud technologies to drive operational efficiency, digital transformation has evolved into a high-stakes technology race defined by who can innovate fastest, modernize most effectively, and integrate AI at scale – and do it with real impact.
Amid this ever-accelerating technology race, one critical factor is often overlooked: people. Human workers sit at the center of this transformation and are responsible for delivering it. However, they are expected to navigate constantly shifting priorities, new tools, and rising – often changing – expectations from leadership, customers, and competitors.
In fact, research shows that nearly 75% of workers lack clarity around the purpose of their assigned tasks. This level of misalignment should set off alarm bells.
While the consequences can be far-reaching, the impact is often felt most by workers themselves. Persistent misalignment and lack of clarity force teams into constant context switching, rework, and slow decision-making – conditions that significantly increase stress and contribute to burnout. Data from the Society for Human Resource Management indicated that many U.S. employees are struggling with burnout (44%), emotional drain (45%), and feelings of being “used up” (51%).
These outcomes are not the result of insufficient effort or capability on the part of workers. Rather, they reflect breakdowns in the systems and processes used to plan and manage work. In many organizations, digital transformation is still being governed by planning approaches designed for a slower, more predictable operating environment – one that no longer reflects the pace or complexity of today.
Why Digital Transformation Is Straining Teams
Annual planning cycles, static roadmaps, and fragmented tools are increasingly ill-suited to the pace of change organizations face today. While task-level systems may track what teams are working on, they often fail to provide visibility into how that work connects to broader strategic objectives. And when portfolio- or project-level reviews occur, they’re typically too infrequent to reflect real-time shifts in market conditions, customer expectations, or emerging risks.
Over time, this disconnect causes strategy and execution to drift. Teams are asked to deliver more without clear direction on what matters most, leaving trade-offs unresolved and priorities open to interpretation. In practice, the responsibility for reconciling competing demands often falls to project managers and frontline teams, adding complexity and pressure to already constrained roles.
These challenges are further amplified during digital transformation, which encompasses various disparate initiatives spanning multiple business units and technologies. Without visibility across this broader portfolio of work, aligning resources, timelines, and expectations becomes increasingly difficult, making it harder for workers to execute sustainably.
Reconnecting Strategy, Work, and the People Delivering Digital Transformation
To mitigate the challenges of digital transformation, companies must treat it as a portfolio challenge rather than a collection of isolated projects. That shift, however, requires organizations – and their workers – to rethink how they plan and deliver work.
Adaptive strategic portfolio management supports this shift by connecting strategy, priorities, and execution in a holistic way that can evolve as conditions change. It enables project managers, organizational leaders, and individual team members – whether developers, designers, accountants, or marketing professionals – to continuously assess priorities, understand capacity constraints, and evaluate trade-offs in real time. For project managers, this provides greater visibility into dependencies and strategic intent. For teams more broadly, it creates clarity around what matters now and what can wait.
That transparency directly impacts the day-to-day work experience. When priorities are explicit, teams spend less time reacting and more time delivering. Capacity visibility helps prevent chronic overloading, while scenario planning enables organizations to adapt without disrupting ongoing work. Change still happens, but it happens with context and reduces the risk of burnout and emotional drain.
This approach also supports better communication. When shifts in direction are backed by data and clearly linked to outcomes, teams are far more likely to stay engaged. Agility without visibility creates chaos. Adaptability with transparency builds trust.
Digital transformation will only continue to accelerate. The organizations that succeed will not simply adopt new technologies faster, but they will create environments where people can do their best work, even as priorities evolve. By aligning strategy, portfolios, and execution through adaptive portfolio management, leaders can improve both business outcomes and the experience of the people responsible for delivering them.
Kevin Nanney is chief product officer at Tempo Software
