Why Technology Isn’t the Only Piece of the Digital Transformation Puzzle
Too much focus on technology, and not on people
Technology is a people-business. It’s built by people, used by people — and it solves problems only people face.
Yet discussions of innovation, tech-enablement and digitisation all too often fixate on software features rather than the teams who adopt them.
There’s no great organisation without great teams, and even the best tech is only as useful as the professionals who leverage them. So, if your organisation’s digital transformation strategy isn’t delivering the results you hoped it would, it may be time to take a closer look at your teams.
Join us as we explore the pivotal roles of tech talent, organisational agility and company culture in digital transformation, and unlock your teams’ full potential.
Missing the Human Side of Digital Transformation
CTOs and CEOs in every industry face enormous pressure to keep up with the latest innovations to maintain their competitive edge. But without teams encouraged to imagine, experiment, and lead — that is, without an innovation culture — organisations fail to capitalise on even the most scalable advancements.
The last decade has seen a proliferation of high-potential technologies, including mobile, big data, cloud computing, automation, AI, predictive analytics and the internet of things (IoT). But change-averse teams and long-turnover project frameworks fail to make the most innovation opportunities, preventing digital transformation success.
Unlike other assets, people aren’t merely ‘resources’ — but organic learners who can make or break the company product, reputation, and operational viability. As such, far from being minor HR concerns, critical factors like talent, culture and agility are integral to the business strategy itself, without which organisations quickly collapse.
Understanding the People-Powered Parts of Digital Transformation
It’s More Than Just Hiring Tech Experts
It’s Not Just About Coding
In an ever-digitising economy, demand for technical skills continues to soar. Proficiencies in data science, machine learning tools, cybersecurity and other high-leverage technologies place professionals at the forefront of the modern labour market. Companies able to attract and retain tech talent enjoy outsized returns.
But so-called ‘soft skills’ remain equally essential, despite appearing less glamorous on a résumé. These include but are not limited to:
- Strategic analysis, critical thinking and creativity
- Learning, adaptability and decision-making
- Resilience, emotional regulation and self-motivation
- Leadership, communication and collaboration
This makes talent management all the more critical for digital transformation. Adopting new tech is considerably easier than recruiting and keeping linchpin professionals who can navigate both technical infrastructures and challenging social scenarios.
Turning Skill Gaps into a Strength for Your Company
Remarkable projects are never delivered by mediocre teams, because the value of the results begins at the source — people.
Companies who invest in their people invest in their future. By encouraging, training, recognising and rewarding employees, the world’s leading organisations foster a culture of experimentation and creativity, where professionals are nurtured to solve problems and deliver on digital plans.
The Importance of Company Culture
When Old Ways of Working Hold You Back
It’s no exaggeration to say that the ideas, values and norms which shape your organisation determine its long-term viability.
Toxic workplace cultures over-work, under-recognise and miscommunicate, while impeding innovation, reducing resilience, and pandering to an unaccountable leadership style.
Under such conditions, change-resistant teams cling to the familiar out of fear of failure, siloing themselves within their departments and overlooking important opportunities to optimise, innovate and adapt.
While caution is necessary in any decision-making process, hyper-aversion to risk causes companies to stagnate and fall behind. In future-proofing their businesses in the modern era, teams need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, finding joy in continuous learning and improvement.
Building a Company Culture That Thrives on Digital
Leaders are the engines of company culture. Their vision, conduct and decisions provide a template for partners and employees, demonstrating the attitude and energy they wish to see in their teams.
Tech-ready cultures ensure teams are safe to experiment. Their employees feel comfortable with ‘failing forward, failing fast, and learning faster’; embracing mistakes as the vital path toward their next breakthrough.
Great leaders encourage teams to take tactical risks and iterate rapidly, allowing businesses to deliver improved products more efficiently. By welcoming frequent open discussions, leaders can promote collaboration and alignment, with the customer’s experience front and centre.
How to Handle Organisational Changes Quickly and Smartly
What Does Being an Agile Organisation Really Mean?
While popular in software development, agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban and others have broad applicability in many aspects of business, whether for strategic planning, marketing materials, or employee programs.
In all cases, the essence of agility is responsiveness. Teams build projects incrementally, feature by feature, rather than defer to a slower, more rigid structure, in which the entire deliverable is produced in full before release.
By iterating through successive versions rapidly, teams can engage stakeholders throughout the production process, incorporating feedback and adapting to real-time changes in brief, demand or regulation.
This gives agile organisations a major competitive advantage, avoiding the constraints of traditional project management which block innovations and slow down production.
Why Being Agile is Essential in Today’s Digital World
The rate of technological innovation makes adaptability a survival necessity for the modern corporation. Networked technologies, for example, enable seamless onboarding and exponential value curves, meaning early adopters have the potential to capture massive market share in short order.
As such, to effectively address sudden changes in customer preferences, companies need to pivot fast and roll out quickly, staying ahead of the competition by minimising the time gap between new demand and ready supply.
Agile frameworks provide the methods and skills for teams to rapidly deliver greater value, and ride the waves of the modern market — without sinking.
Building a People-Focused Plan for Digital Success.
Finding, Developing, and Keeping Top Digital Talent
Attracting and retaining high-impact tech professionals means offering more than comfortable salaries.
Nurturing their abilities with field-ready digital onboarding and continuous learning opportunities, especially in technical skills, provides employees with increasingly rewarding career paths, while empowering them to bring their maximal value to your organisation.
Creating a Culture of New Ideas and Adaptability
People instinctively cling to the familiar. Teams resist change when they fear it will make their work harder, less fulfilling, less respected or redundant. This makes it crucial for leaders to help teams overcome these worries in three important ways:
- By demonstrating the value of the new ideas, technologies and methods for the employees themselves.
- Everyone in the organisation should understand the transformative impact of the innovations for the business overall and their personal careers.
- By providing abundant onboarding and ongoing support, both at the level of training (e.g. video tutorials, software manuals and on-call IT professionals) as well as professional development consultations or coaching.
- Team members should be able to find specialist guidance for getting the most out of new digital and operational systems, as well as for how to navigate the changing business landscape in the digital age.
- By scheduling regular cross-department collaborations, and building hybrid task teams with diverse perspectives.
- Siloed teams stagnate, growing dogmatic and rigid in their echo chambers. Exposing teams to new and valuable perspectives requires that leaders create the conditions for team members to routinely have their bubbles burst, especially by placing diverse professionals with different skills in frequent contact.
Making Agility a Core Part of Your Business
Though historically the preference of IT departments, Agile methodologies in business provide major benefits for functions beyond software development.
Marketing teams, operations managers and executive-level strategists can radically expand the freedom with which they work — enjoying the latitude and incentive to experiment, while responding creatively and adaptively to brief or market changes.
With the right Agile-ready digital tools and platforms, teams at all levels can more easily adopt Agile tactics into their workflows. These can include regular customer feedback, cross-functional team collaborations, sprint-based project frameworks, and visual project displays for tasks, stages and bottlenecks.
Partnering for People-Powered Transformation How JustSolve Can Help
At JustSolve, we understand that the path to successful digital transformation begins with people, culture and agility.
That’s why we go beyond custom software development, ensuring employees have the attitude and abilities to leverage new tech for maximum impact.
Every client receives a full tech-enablement plan for filling skill gaps, invigorating company cultures with a hunger for constant improvement, and streamlining operations and projects for optimal responsiveness.
Your People Are Your Most Powerful Digital Asset
Leveraging the power of tech requires more than investing in the right software.
As businesses arm themselves with increasingly powerful digital tools, critically overlooked forces like talent, culture and agility will continue to play a decisive role in digital transformation success.
If it’s worth investing for your company’s future, it’s worth investing in tech. And if it’s worth investing in tech, it’s worth investing in the people and processes that will unleash tech’s full potential.
