This is a guest blog by Alexander Clark of Smart Insights. Follow them on Twitter @SmartInsights.
I recently stumbled across a post by a chap called Clayton d’Arnault, who states that “Humans are using modern technology to enhance or alter the quality of living, to accommodate our changing environment and human needs”. And it got me thinking; not just about how we use tech in our day to day lives, but how we use technology in the workplace.
Are we really enhancing the quality of living or are we just inducing more stress upon ourselves?
Why does everything need updating every week?
Is it worth all the expense?
Why hasn’t someone created a CTRL+Z applicable for real life yet?
But the most pertinent question that jumped into my mind was…
Is it necessary?
In short, yes.
In just a couple of decades the internet has very much shifted from being at the forefront of a new frontier for communication technology, to being for most people an incredibly unremarkable part of our culture and daily life. We expect it to be there, as a crutch to get us through our daily tasks and don’t quite take into consideration how important it is to us. We need to embrace digital and make the most of it, not only on a personal level; but throughout our organisations too.
Many nonprofits do a stellar job, with absolutely minimal resources, using tried and tested techniques; and for that I commend you. But having read COGAPP’s Leading Digital Transformation report, it came to my attention just how behind the curve as industry nonprofits sometimes are, when it comes to embracing a Digital Culture.
I’d quite like to point out, that it’s not just just nonprofits which are struggling. We recently conducted a survey and discovered that only 32% of companies have actually began to implement a Digital Transformation strategy, with only 9% of those having been implementing it for 2+ years.
By definition
So, what is a ‘digital culture”?
The digital capability is a cross-functional proficiency in the processes, practices, and customer connections enabled by digital media and infrastructure. This might include, for instance, the ability to convert data from online sales into responsive individually targeted offers that generate more sales; or the ability to provide robust online customer service that answers consumer questions in a compelling way.
As this becomes ingrained in the company, it starts to shape an organisation’s culture, which is composed by its own self-sustaining patterns of behaving, feeling, thinking, and believing. It basically determines how things are done.
It gives an organisation its personality and shapes both its internal processes and the way it is seen by the outside world. PricewaterhouseCoopers developed this chart, which helps to explain the difference between an Analog and Digital Culture.
What is stopping organisations from implementing a digital culture?
Whether it is intentional, or as a result of a lack resources, embracing digital culture is something which needs to be addressed and it starts from the top. As Chris Askew mentions in the COGAPP report, “The challenge for those in leadership roles is to steer their organisations to a digitally-enabled future.”
He states that some leaders feel ill-equipped to make the crucial decisions involved; they believe that they lack digital skills and knowledge and an understanding of the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
What leaders need, is not necessarily specific digital skills, but is at very least, an understanding of the broad shifts and trends that influence business decisions. But also the confidence to apply existing leadership skills to driving digital transformation*. Which is a very pertinent point. If your leader doesn’t have the faith nor conviction in what he/she is doing, it will very likely fail.
*Just as a quick side note Zoe did a great job of explaining the intricacies of the term “Digital Transformation” in a recent post of hers. If you’re still struggling to come to terms with this new buzzword we recently put together a very simple introduction to the concept, as well as some more complex posts if you want to delve a little deeper.
This is just one of the barriers to getting a successful digital culture implemented in your organisation. There are many, many more, which I’ll just list below. As if I wrote about each and everyone of them, it would be an unbearably long list!
- Functional Silos Compete for Scarce Resources: Departments competing instead or working cohesively together
- Technical Budgets in Downward Spiral: When companies face pressures to cut costs in technical budgets, they often turn to using cloud or stretching their technical teams thin.
- Pushing Products, Not Outcomes.
- Gaps Between IT and the Business: Keeping a wall between the IT and business side can, for instance, result in problems scaling and maintaining customer-facing applications.
- Cost of innovation.
What do I need to change a digital culture?
A company’s culture doesn’t just change over night. It needs a long term vision, that requires little incremental nudges and precise targeting of new behaviours to implement. In some instances, only a few small changes can incite a ripple effect throughout entire organisations.
PwC have identified “Six key levers of change” that help companies develop a culture that delivers the multichannel experience our digital audience now expects.
- Leadership policies: One hundred percent buy-in from the top of the company is demonstrated in words and deeds.
- Role definitions: Job descriptions detail what people do, and thus give staffers a clear career path that validates both the analog and digital worlds.
- People processes: The human resources department understands the need to hire, train, and reward people based on the corporate goal of delivering the multichannel experience.
- Key behaviors: Decision makers pick just a few incremental changes in everyday practice to make a difference in introducing digitization.
- Role models: Executives identify (or hire) people who epitomize the key behaviors and promote them throughout the company.
- Networks: People throughout the company take part in informal networks, such as clubs and social groups, to spread the word.