Digital transformation is less about technology and more about people.
You can buy any technology but you have to develop the next generation of skills, adapt to the digital future. You have to future proof your potential. It is a fact that we are in jobs due to some compulsions and rarely as a challenge to our capabilities thereby improving our mastery over that skill.
Every job requires some learning but we end up learning less on the job, the more time we spend on the job. It is counterproductive in the long run because we tend to miss out on new learning opportunities. We may go through our entire working life without ever knowing our true potential. This pandemic is a golden opportunity to rethink our potential and ensure we gain capability for future challenges. In the long term, people would end up in better careers.
The future is more ambivalent and uncertain than ever but if you focus on reskilling and upskilling you would be better equipped to adjust to change. A bigger proportion of jobs, tasks, activities will coexist in the digital world. A few pointers to be prepared for this
- Put people first: Technology is effective only if humans have the appropriate skills to use it. Technological disruption leads to automation and the creation of new jobs with new skill sets. We need to reskill & upskill the workforce to augment a skilful pool of resources. The most brilliant technology is useless unless we have the skill set to use it. When you invest in technology, you should pay equal attention to invest in people who can use them skillfully.
- Focus on soft skills: The key technological skills are soft skills and not harrd skills. Since nobody knows what the key future hard skills will be, it makes sense to selectively invest in those who are most adaptable, curious, and flexible in the first place. Also, focus on the potential for soft skills and knowledge for hard skills. Select people with high learning ability, with a hungry mind and match their interest to in-demand skills and ensure their curiosity remains intact. Technical competence is temporary, but intellectual curiosity must be permanent.
- Drive change from the top: Change is more likely to happen if you drive it from the top. In the case of digital transformations, you cannot expect big changes unless you select and develop top leaders. the mindset, values, integrity and competence of senior leaders will be the main differentiator. Everything in business can be copied, except talent. Invest in top talent to get the most value.
- Make sure that you are acting on data insights: A huge competitive advantage would be to harness data and have the necessary skill sets to translate it into meaningful insights. You must have people who live, breathe and act according to data. You cultivate them, nurture and harness it with time and with leadership.
- If you can't fail fast, make sure you succeed slowly: If you do not have a culture that tolerates quick experiments with a view that lessons learned will make you stronger then you have to make sure that your long term plans are working out. Failure is only a strategy to succeed in the long run and if you can't fail fast make sure you succeed slowly.
We are agile as a global community, led by people and supported by technology. The key is to nurture curiosity so we have options even outside of a crisis.
HBR - 5 May 2020
by Becky Frankiewicz and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
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