How can humans unleash the power of digital technology?

We are at the intersection of technology and people in what can only be described as the human digital age — a time when unique experiences are table stakes, and the only constant is change.

How can humans unleash the power of digital technology?

While technology was once the challenge of the digital age, that challenge has shifted to a more human-centric one, with an emphasis on organizational mindset, culture and ways of working. We are at the intersection of technology and people in what can only be described as the human digital age — a time when unique customer and employee experiences are table stakes, options are endless, data is the new currency and the only constant is change.

Embracing digital to its fullest extent requires more than implementing new systems or adding the hottest new technology. As HBR describes, “digital technologies provide possibilities for efficiency gains and customer intimacy. But if people lack the right mindset to change and the current organizational practices are flawed, digital transformation will simply magnify those flaws.”¹

A technology-only approach will not drive value or significantly different outcomes. Transformation is a broader undertaking and must include a people focus for success.

In part 1 of this series, we highlighted the importance of putting humans at the centre of your transformation. This theme continues as we discuss how to build a successful transformation through embracing digital technology with a human focus.

Innovating for the sake of innovating is not going to drive the outcomes most organizations seek to achieve in their transformations. Thinking about technological potential in terms of discrete one-off projects or as the latest new technology is a symptom of “doing digital” — it will be costly and will not unlock organizational potential.

“Digital” is not a widget; it is pervasive across the organization in ways teams work, learn and lead. An organization can have great technology, but if it isn’t coupled with high-performing teams, it will likely achieve less than an organization with mediocre technology and a high-performing team.

As noted by Professor Linda Hill, "the challenges that executives face today aren’t issues of technology but a question of ‘how to create an organization that can actually utilize digital tools and data to drive decision-making and foster agility".² To fully realize the benefits of digital technology, organizations need to see, do and be different.

• Seeing differently is the starting point. An organization needs to take a future-view approach and define strategic choices today with an understanding of tomorrow’s potential. Organizations need to orient to evolving customer needs and market conditions to reimagine the business across many horizons, focusing on value creation for customers, employees and stakeholders.

Constantly evolving priorities requires agility from leaders and teams that must be enabled by focusing on priorities through the lens of value. Digital technologies should enhance experiences and interconnections across user groups. Leaders need to understand the pain points rather than design a system that “should” meet their customers’, employees’ or stakeholders’ needs.

Be provocative in the possibilities of what the future could hold but surgical in how the options are assessed, prioritized and activated. Increasingly, organizations are looking outside their boundaries and even outside their industries for examples and inspiration. Most industries that have significantly transformed have been disrupted by non-traditional competitors.

• Doing differently involves fundamentally changing the way teams work. This involves embracing human-centred design principles to better understand unmet needs and challenges. It requires innovation and disrupting the status quo. Innovation is not just the big “I” Innovation of reinventing the business; just as important it is little “i“ innovation.

At EY, we define “i” as being comfortable challenging the status quo, questioning orthodoxy and defining a new normal in daily processes to quickly adapt to changing conditions.

Doing differently also requires adopting an agile mindset. This goes beyond ‘Agile methodology’ (although a useful tool), but rather anchors in the original values and principles of the Agile Manifesto³ empowering team members to collaborate, focus on value, deliver at speed, learn from experiences and test and iterate quickly. As a leader, this means having the ability to clearly articulate the direction and outcome, while enabling team members with the right tools and a collaborative culture to achieve the best results. Examples of doing differently are abundant - if you look at some of the most renowned companies of the last ten years, many were founded on the basis of challenging orthodoxies. Take Uber – who would have thought people would readily get into a stranger’s car? Or that a customer would ever purchase clothing online before trying it on?

• Being different – it’s not enough to do digital. An organization must be digital. Being digital starts at the top with leaders who exemplify a new style of servant leadership with a growth mindset. Organizations need to be explicit about their ambition, defining a north star that is bright enough to inspire with purpose and meaning, but also clear enough to help guide decision-making.

Leadership should cultivate a culture that feels safe so team members can innovate, incubate new ideas and fail — all of which will drive better outcomes. A digital culture supports lifelong learning that is embedded into the flow of teams’ everyday work. Stay tuned for the next series, which will take a deeper dive into this.

Many organizations will swirl in an endless loop of doing digital things — an illusion of being digital — rather than making changes to their digital mindset and their business, culture, operating and customer models. This mindset shift is hard, and organizations can often be fooled by the mythical importance of creativity. Instead, it requires a laser focus and discipline. Diving into pain points and future possibilities, ideating on solutions that include, but are not solely defined by, technology, and determining how the team will evaluate and prioritize are critical. Good ideas hit the sweet spot when they are desired by a user group, technologically feasible and economically viable.

In some ways, it’s ironic: to unlock the greatest power of digital technology, organizations need to embed humans at the centre of their efforts. This requires fundamentally changing the way they operate, moving from “doing digital” to “being digital” and defining the future with this in mind.

So how do you build teams who can think outside the box, build the future with you, and are up for the challenge that digital transformation presents? Stay tuned for the next chapter of this series on the importance of upskilling, reskilling and learning when it comes to achieving transformative outcomes.