As digital disruptions continue to change business environments across industries, the future belongs to organizations that are agile, open & willing-to-transform. Agility & adaptability are the new mantras to leverage & transform businesses. The key to the change is not a top-down approach but rather a companywide approach, keeping employees at the core of the digital transformation.
Enabling a Digital Empowered Team: Building blocks
There is enough research done, & any CXO worth his salt understands where technology & society evolves faster than the ability to adapt & Lead. Digital Darwinism is already changing the landscape of business & the paradigm shift needs to be well-knitted & channelized. A digital-all culture hence needs to start with education ensuring each building block is adequately addressed
1. Building Digital-Savvy Leaders & Workforce – For organizations to transform digitally it is crucial that the leaders are wary of the roadmap & can maneuver thru the unwinding roads, top to bottom at all key managerial positions believing in the culture embracing technology. Alongside developing the right talent, skills within the team workforce are fundamentals for digital transformation. Re-aligning roles & building the right set of KPIs in line with the desired digital transformation outcomes coupled with enabling integrators & tech-savvy managers who would help bridge the gap between traditional & the new digital is key to the business.
2. Upskill & Upgrade -Consistent training & skill enhancement needs to be extended to the workforce for empowering businesses to be digitally transformed. Up-skill & cross-skill both play a vital role in enterprises to be future- ready where leaders will need to wear different hats as they embrace digital transformational behaviors. Data analysis, coupled with functional domain knowledge are classic examples of how digital transformation will lead Managers to gain cross-skill knowledge in other areas.
3. Encouraging New Work habits – Digital transformation requires both cultural & behavioral changes. Encouraging employees through a system of rewards & recognitions that drive behavior is imperative. A growth mindset with a ‘willingness to embrace digital’ is the soft means to drive the adoption of new work habits.
4. Digital Tools – No transformation into a digital work culture is possible without the right digital tools. With the growth of the hybrid work culture, digital tools have gained immense importance, which could be as simple as the use of automated dashboards, analytic tools, HRMS, or simple automation to enhance employees’ efficiency. Digital transformation is not rapid but rather a series of small changes that drive the organization toward the ultimate goal. Several small changes in the use of technology tools as opposed to traditional tools can make a major change both culturally & digitally to the organization.
5. Communicating Assurance – Last but not least, I cannot underscore the importance of maintaining & keeping an open line of communication with every employee across the organization. Change is scary & digital change is scarier therefore resting ambiguity about the employment to our workforce needs to be addressed. Communicating the essence & criticality of digital transformation via town hall meetings, and empowering middle-level managers to message downstream are a few of the communication techniques, which must be implemented.
Conclusion – As a CXO driving the digital transformation, one must be vigilant that the key to growth has, is & will always remain with PEOPLE. While digital tools, AI & other technology enablers can help organizations leapfrog the competition & be customer-centric, at the heart lies human endeavor. Machines cannot run organizations, people do. Machines enable us to solve problems & seek solutions faster, but the chords to thoughtful decision-making still stand as a human function. Ensuring the organizations’ employees are empowered to make the right decision using technology is the key to the Digitally Empowered Enterprise of the Future.
