Summary: "Digital Transformation Is About Talent, Not Technology"

“The most brilliant innovation is irrelevant if we are not skilled enough to use it; and even the most impressive human minds will become less useful if they don’t team up with technology,” according to Becky Frankiewicz and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, in the Harvard Business Review article, “Digital Transformation is About Talent, Not Technology.” Many digital transformation articles emphasize this synergy between people and technology to propel true transformation.

The article provides recommendations for preparing an organization to focus on upskilling its workforce for a digital future. In summary, this includes:

• Put people first
  
  While technological advances have generally led to automation and the elimination of jobs, it has also created new jobs, called “creative destruction.” There is a creative element to innovation that companies should leverage to reskill and upskill their workforce.

• Focus on soft skills
  
  Ironically, higher education prepares people for current technology skills but companies need people who have the soft skills of adaptability, curiosity, and flexibility to prepare for the next wave of technological advancement. “Technical competence is temporary, but intellectual curiosity must be permanent.”

• Drive change from the top
  
  Leaders are more likely to drive change and make it happen than a bottom-up organization. This isn’t counter to empowered teams or embracing a hierarchical structure. The reality is leadership, whether good or bad, can impact as much as 50% of the variability in team performance. The “mindset, values, integrity, and above all, competence of the most senior leaders will stand out and be the main differentiator” for high-performing organizations.

• Act on data insights
  
  While Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, natural language processing, etc., are powerful technological advances, a much larger competitive advance can be gained from harnessing valuable data and then translating that data into meaningful insights and then acting on those insights.

• If you can’t fail fast, succeed slowly
  
  “Few things breed stagnation and a false sense of security like an obsession with success.” Organizations should push for failing fast, so they can learn the lessons needed to make them stronger and smarter. But if the toleration for failure is absent, the backup should be to succeed slowly, build stability and operate at a pace that is sustainable and ensures success.

Learn more recommendations about preparing for a digital future by focusing on talent, not technology.