Curiosity is not enough to thrive digitally. Nice idea, but it needs 2 or 3 elements to become economically powerful.

This HBR issue is worth three Starbucks lattes

Single editions of Harvard Business Review (HBR) are expensive. In fact, they cost about three tall Starbucks lattes. But the October 2018 HBR is 100% better than the combined jolt you get from those missed caffeine infusions. That is a big promise to any coffee lover.

Here is a promise. if after buying and reading it you don’t agree, we’ll send you a digital copy of our Wall Street Journal best seller The Digital Helix as an apology.

The essence of the October HBR issue is that curiosity is a vital component for future growth, Building a backbone for it will help during periods of seismic change like right now. We don’t know what the future holds, but the idea of being curious about it sounds appealing and logical.

May/June 2018 research shows us that curiosity is just not enough for DX success

But for digital transformation (DX), the evidence in our May/June 2018 G2K research with Forbes Insights shows that the act of curiosity is not enough for success. You need at least one of both of two other dynamics to get the right ROI. The three dynamics below matter, and only 7.8% of organizations are committed to thriving around all these experimental dynamics and 40% of them are digital transformation thrivers. 

Get these three elements right and you have a 40% chance of being a thriving corporation built for now and the future.

1.    THE FORTITUDE TO EXPERIMENT. Does your organization have the ability and fortitude to digitally experiment and hang in there even during and after failures?

2.    LEADERS WHO CAN LEAN IN DIGITALLY. Do your leaders know how to lean in digitally in the way they think and act in order to help drive change?

3.    DIGITAL AND ADAPTIVE STRATEGY. Has your organization developed an adaptive strategy model that allows you to stay one step ahead even as the world evolves? 

In fact, organizations need a deep commitment to one or two other associated dynamics to see real returns. Just look at these facts from our recent research with Forbes Insights in the behavior of the G2k around experimentation, digital leadership that leans into the process and a revised strategic viewpoint that is a much about adaptability as it about getting it right.

4 in 10 G2K corporations are utterly terrible at this.

98% of corporations are curious or try experimentation with their DX efforts. However, 44.6% of the Global 2000 don’t get the need for any of the three big experimentation dynamics (fortitude for experimentation, executives that lean in digitally and or a revised view of strategy in the digital world). This is incredibly shocking. These corporations and their leaders are not capable or interested in building an environment where success (of any degree) has a chance.

Leaders who lean in hard increase success rates by 25% - 32% because of a better leadership model around the power of experimentation

If you have an executive or leader that really focuses the organization into using new digital thinking to work and/or to be more agile, the chances of becoming economically successful from experimentation increases between 25% to 32%. You can see the ripple effect of strong digital leaders across functional needs for survival in the digital age.

Certain sectors show disproportionate upsides for getting experimentation right

In some sectors, the rewards of getting experimentation right are more extreme than others, including industrial products, consumer packaged goods, construction and banking/insurance and finance. Getting this right has disproportionate power (1.75 to 3.5 times more economic returns) for leaders so in the above sectors you need to pay very special attention to this. Go to the compare tool on our site. Invest 12 minutes and we will tell you if you have that chance in your sector.

The good news is that 48% of corporations get some of it right

There is a vast field of opportunity here. 7.8% get all the three components right and 48% get at least one or two of the experimentation dynamics right. So, the good news is we are moving there but the heart and soul is about being in the very epicenter of these three dynamics. 

“I never allow myself to become discouraged under any circumstances... After we had conducted thousands of experiments on a certain project without solving the problem, we had learned something. For we learned for a certainty that the thing couldn’t be done that way. And that we would have to try some other way. We sometimes learn a lot from our failures if we have put into the effort the best thought and work we are capable of.” —Thomas Edison

Does your organization have what it takes to follow his mantra in a results now digital world?

How many of you:

1. Have been open to experimenting just to learn and not to just get immediate results?
2. Have adjusted your strategy models to take in the need to rent, buy or partner for a more space or time to be flexible and not for a specific end game?
3. Have seen your leaders lean in (language, strategy, actions) to force the corporation to become more digital? 

44.6% of the G2K don’t do any of the three at any real level. That is 880 corporations from the G2K that are basically un able or unwilling to lead digitally. They have little to no curiosity about the future and should you be investing or working with them?

“CEOs either ‘go with their gut’ or push people to be more ‘data driven.’ This tends to be very crude. A more effective heuristic is when people in the organization interact with their leaders, do they feel smarter or do they feel stupider? The answers will show if the team as a whole is there to be servants to a vision or empowered by the vision to collaborate, share, and explore and experiment in different ways. Transformational leaders seek the latter and are constantly looking for the new to explore.” —Michael Schrage, research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, oversees research on digital experimentation and network effects, and is author of The Innovator’s Hypothesis

What does this mean for leaders in digitally transforming corporations?

Curiosity is not enough. Your organization needs to build one, two or all three of dynamics described here. All the research shows that currency you will create far out strips the downsides. Fortitude to handle inevitable failures, executives that lean into the future and a revised lens around what strategy really means for the organization constitute far more than just being curious. They are the unique but powerful digital DNA for success.

Ask about what we learned, not what we achieved.

You need have fortitude to experiment and keep at it. This is a trainable skill across the organization. The old idea of one or two ways to thrive is no longer the case. You must break this old world thinking. Leaders need to ask more about what was learned than what was achieved. Imagine playing with data across various marketing functions and the whole investment is about learning.

Leaders must live this before they ask others

You need leaders who are open to leaning in digitally themselves. When they do, it sends a signal to the organization that we are committed to looking forward and finding new possibilities. Imagine the power of an executive saying, “Remember that experiment from last year? There are some insights that could easily apply to this new idea.”

To heads of strategy re-align towards adaptability as a measure of success

Your strategy model has to change in order to deliver real agility over time. Organizations need to be adaptive in order get away from old world assumptions with new digital data or insights.

If you are not even thinking about these three dynamics as an organization and as a leader, then your chances of seeing real economic returns just shrunk by a scary 92%.

This all begs one simple question:

Why spend anything on digital transformation if you’re not experimenting in the right ways? All of your DX resources, time and energy are at best suboptimal without developing an experimentation framework and mindset for true success.