Stop Transforming, Start Being Digital

Digital transformation has been around for over 20 years, and the idea has aged badly. Digital is a way of being rather than a job to be done.

Digital transformations happen to you. They are driven by others, using outside resources, vendors, advisors, new teams and new structures. They occur separately from business-as-usual, with the BAU team over here and the transformation team over there.

Accountability gaps, conflicts and competing priorities emerge. Transformations bring a fixed mindset, with big plans, big teams and promises of amazing benefits at the end. Transformation also implies a beginning, a middle and an end. There is no end for digital.

Digital as a way of being

Digital is a way of being, thinking and operating. It is not a destination but a commitment from top to bottom involving big decisions and many small ones. Digital requires different thinking: new ways to solve old problems, rather than old solutions with digital bolted on.

Digital is exponential, not linear. Digital is modular, like LEGO blocks, assembled in interdependent parts, building momentum and lifting performance over time.

What digital leaders do differently

Digital leaders embrace experimentation and adapt from outside in and inside out. They empower teams to experiment, learn new tools and own outcomes. They recognise improvements from smart investments and innovative approaches, acting as corporate mechanics, tinkering, improving and solving.

They see the cost of inaction, resist playing it safe and avoid hiding behind indecision or imagined risks. They focus on required actions, intended outcomes and, above all, for whom and why. They accept occasional failure as part of pursuing big results.

Digital leaders understand that digital creates asymmetric rewards. They hold a clear vision, commit with discipline, accountability and continual improvement. They trust their teams to execute and bring a growth mindset, learning by doing while remaining open to new ideas and investing in their people.

The sports team analogy

World-class sports teams succeed through leadership, mindset, courage, skill, accountability, commitment and discipline, never through a transformation programme. Digital organisations operate the same way.

Stop transforming. Start being digital.