Successful Digital Transformation: What does it take?

We are living in an era which is continuously undergoing digital disruptions, encouraging organizations to transform and push their boundaries to remain agile and ahead in the competition. However, the question remains-

• Are organizations ‘digitally dexterous’ to handle these disruptions? 
  
  
• Do organizations have the critical skills needed to smoothly navigate this era of digitization? 
  
  
• Are organizational leaders digitally savvy to drive this transformation? 
  
  
• How will the organization’s business and talent strategy support the ongoing transformation? 
  
  

Organizations experience gaps in terms of their existing leadership capability growth mindset, operating models and skill set.

A recent research by Bersin, 2017 reveals that almost 90% organizations surveyed, agreed that they are undergoing digital disruption, however, 70% of the organizations felt that they are not fully ready to address this digital transformation. Organizations felt voids in terms of their existing leadership capability, the digital mindset, operating models and skill set which should be essentially possessed by the leaders and employees alike. Tara O’ Sullivan, Chief Marketing Officer, Skillsoft, in her talk, shed some light on the critical skills and mindset required to successfully drive the digital transformation. Let’s take a look:

Mindset and Critical Skills to drive Digital Transformation

1. Collaboration between teams: With the rise in people working virtually and remotely- the need is to work as collaboratively as possible to ensure maximum support and productivity.
   
   
2. Growth mindset:  Instilling the belief in people that they can learn something new! There should ideally be a session on this before any formal learning starts so that people internalize it better.
   
   
3. Technology adaptive or digital dexterity: It is one of the most critical aspects which focuses on how learners learn and understand technology and more importantly, how do they apply it for better.
   
   
4. Data literacy/algorithmic mindset: Data is king and it’s in enormity! The need is to make better use of data to place our decisions, more accurately and objectively. 
   
   
5. Complex problem solving and critical thinking mindset: In today’s context, the only constant is change! The need is to remain agile and adapt to these changes fast so that people can address and solve complex problems of the real world.
   
   

Having these skills and mindset would be great, however, the question comes where organizations can find these skills and mindset? The answer is simple- through constantly reskilling and upskilling their own people, organizations can instill a digital mindset. Tara, however, admitted the fact that driving digital dexterity at scale would be tough and challenging- organizations cannot teach everyone to speak the same ‘digital language’ be it design thinking or IoT or agile. However, what organizations can do is recognizing opportunities to use more and more technology to generate more revenue or encouraging people to digitally disrupt the existing operating models. In this respect, organizations need to be more innovative and provide more chances to its people to make a generous use of technology.

Through constantly reskilling and upskilling their own people, organizations can instill a digital mindset

Women and digital AI and machine learning 

Tara further spoke about the future of work and impact of AI and machine learning over the next five to ten years. It is being realized that lot of jobs will be wiped out as a result of automation- some of the top careers that might get wiped out by AI include that of telemarketers, clerks, compensation and benefits personnel, receptionist, proofreaders, retail salespeople etc. She went on to make a startling revelation that majority of these jobs are done by women. A recent research corroborates the observation and states that “of the 1.4 million jobs expected to be disrupted between now and 2026, the majority belong to women”. To address this challenge, it is critical that organizations spend time on supporting women at work by constantly reskilling and upskilling them.