Wait, but why!
Biren Misra
Digital Transformation | People Change | Artificial Intelligence | Oxford University
I joined a panel discussion recently which discussed future talent development strategies. To my utter (not-) surprise the conversation dived into technology enablement for users. The panellists, who were leaders from corporate and academia, brought out the interesting aspects of new age technologies impacting the employee lifecycle. The moderator put forward a relevant question – “how many of you have or are undergoing digital transformation?”
The responses to the appeared to me like a red carpet where every panellist flaunted the couture. The responses spanned across Zoom, Teams, Slack, OneDrive and others! The same tools being mentioned began to sound like a broken record, coming up again and again and I began to wonder: Do people understand digital transformation and how can we get back on common understanding?
While the exalted status of Digital Transformation Guru has eluded me thus far, I have come to understand a few key elements:
- Digital transformation is not new
- Just using the term, today, appears fashionable! And,
- Digital transformation is less about technology and more about people
Simply put using a technology-enabled platform to improve an existing process or create a new process, is solely AN ELEMENT of digital transformation. Given technologies are ever changing and evolving, digital journeys will continuously unfold, and gradually.
The core remains: why leverage such technologies? If the “WHY leverage the digital journey” is not clearly established, the business may not end up realising its value. While I have come across organisations who have defined the why; broadly speaking companies are jumping into the hype of digital transformation.
In a leadership development program, we were told “Always ask the Why’s” in ones coaching session with mentees. Its about leveraging the concept to clearly articulate WHY; therefore, identifying what is the business problem you aiming to solve.
Falling prey into the hype of digital transformation is like a paradox of choice. The more unthoughtful “whys” we have, the less like we will be content with the outcome.
Senior Manager Consultant at Accenture
3 年Biren Misra is great and so important not just at the start of a project, but embedding those "why's" into our very ways of working. We have to be comfortable asking and hearing "why". Not as a challenge to our ideas, but as a conduit to deepening our thinking so changes and transformations are more impactful in the ways we want them to be.
Strategy, growth and business development for health innovators
3 年Hey Biren, that's a really well thought-out challenge to the current hype. It's really easy to list off a bunch of obvious WHYs for this type of stuff, but also need a voice in the room to check for the WHY NOTs - what are the risks, downsides, damage we need to anticipate and mitigate? I guess that's your bit!
Senior Director, Healthcare Operations at UnitedHealth Group
3 年Very well put together!