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Digital Transformation Is Not What You Think It Is

Forbes Coaches Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Jamie Notter

You know a term has hit buzzword status when nearly every article about that topic begins by claiming a) it’s really very important and b) it’s not just a buzzword. That has definitely happened with the term “digital transformation.” A wide variety of industries are tackling it, and it seems to be as relevant to huge commercial enterprises as it is to small nonprofits. Maddie Grant and I wrote about “digital” four years ago in our book, When Millennials Take Over, as one of four capacities organizations must develop to flourish in the millennial era. And like many of the writers in today’s digital transformation conversations, we argued then that it is only partially about the technology — it’s also about a new mindset, including being more focused on the “user” (both internally and externally), providing broader opportunities for customization and building the capacity for continuous innovation.

When you’re talking about “mindset,” you’re talking about workplace culture, and most advocates of digital transformation have not shied away from that part of this conversation. For example, Jim Swanson wrote about his digital transformation efforts when he was CIO at Monsanto. Swanson strongly emphasized the role of culture, urging companies to understand what digital means for their objectives.

As a consultant who works on culture, you’d think I would welcome this inclusion of culture in the digital transformation conversation, but I think theres a fatal flaw in how CIOs and other technology-centered advocates understand culture’s role in digital transformation. That is, they put digital first — not culture.

I see that theme consistently in the writing of the tech sector on this topic. Some argue that successful digital transformation requires a “digital culture,” one where both technology and the tech mindset are central (rather than merely the domain of IT). They want things like experimentation, failing fast, prototyping, and innovation to be the pillars of the new culture. Why? Because that’s how the tech people work, and they view digital transformation as integrating technology into every part of the business, so obviously those components need to be central in the culture.

There’s just one problem: What if you’re a nuclear power plant?

Do you really want to see experimentation and risk-taking at a nuclear power plant? I sure don’t, and the people who run them don’t either, because they know that lives are on the line, therefore a culture of risk-taking and innovation does not make sense in their context. That’s not to say that nuclear power plants don’t face digital transformation challenges — I am sure they do — but the culture that they need to develop to best address those challenges doesn’t necessarily need to be “digital.” Their culture will look very different than the cultures of organizations in different contexts and, more importantly, with different drivers of their success.

When you start down the path of digital transformation, don’t let the tail wag the dog. Figure out what kind of culture you need to be successful, and then make the important changes necessary to adapt to today’s digital environment. Yes, there will be technology changes to be made (digital transformation is definitely real), but the fundamental work here is on culture, not digital.

Heres what that looks like in practice. We’re working with an organization that realized it needed to diversify its revenue sources in the face of potential market disruption. This is not an unusual challenge, and the organization brought in consultants to help them generate ideas for several new services and content products. They quickly realized, however, that the value of the specific products they developed paled in comparison to the potential value they could generate if they could tap into the power of their broader community of customers in the ideation, co-creation and testing of products like these.

That, of course, would require a digital infrastructure (in this case, an online community) which would, in turn, require the staff to learn to work differently, more collaboratively, with a community mindset. They would have to change from a “broadcast,” publishing business model to a community-driven, grassroots model. There were major technology decisions and new platforms to be implemented, but at the core, they knew they would have to fundamentally change the way they work and the way they interact with their stakeholders. Their move to digital was the result of realigning their culture with success.

So let’s continue this push for digital transformation, but for all the technology people out there, please remember: digital transformation does not start with you — it ends with you. The biggest challenge in digital transformation is understanding how your culture needs to change, not to enable “digital,” necessarily, but to enable deep organizational success. When the technology community can become partners in that kind of culture change, the digital transformation movement will start to achieve its real potential.

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