This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.
You know a term has hit buzzword status when nearly every article about that topic begins by claiming a) itโs really very important and b) itโs not just a buzzword. That has definitely happened with the term โdigital transformation.โ A wide variety of industries are tackling it, and it seems to be as relevant to huge commercial enterprises as it is to small nonprofits. Maddie Grant and I wrote about โdigitalโ four years ago in our book, When Millennials Take Over, as one of four capacities organizations must develop to flourish in the millennial era. And like many of the writers in todayโs digital transformation conversations, we argued then that it is only partially about the technology โ itโs also about a new mindset, including being more focused on the โuserโ (both internally and externally), providing broader opportunities for customization and building the capacity for continuous innovation.
When youโre talking about โmindset,โ youโre talking about workplace culture, and most advocates of digital transformation have not shied away from that part of this conversation. For example, Jim Swanson wrote about his digital transformation efforts when he was CIO at Monsanto. Swanson strongly emphasized the role of culture, urging companies to understand what digital means for their objectives.
As a consultant who works on culture, youโd think I would welcome this inclusion of culture in the digital transformation conversation, but I think thereโs a fatal flaw in how CIOs and other technology-centered advocates understand cultureโs role in digital transformation. That is, they put digital first โ not culture.
I see that theme consistently in the writing of the tech sector on this topic. Some argue that successful digital transformation requires a โdigital culture,โ one where both technology and the tech mindset are central (rather than merely the domain of IT). They want things like experimentation, failing fast, prototyping, and innovation to be the pillars of the new culture. Why? Because thatโs how the tech people work, and they view digital transformation as integrating technology into every part of the business, so obviously those components need to be central in the culture.
Thereโs just one problemโฆ
Photo by Alex Knight