May 2021
The Digital Mindset – Harness the Digital Pragmatists in your Business
Originally published in the London Business Matters magazine (LCCI). Read our recent column on the digital mindset...
Senior Principal - Manufacturing
It’s been a rollercoaster of a year and we’ve all learnt to do things differently, both at home and at work. We’ve adjusted to our new surroundings using our creativity and the things that were readily available to solve our problems.
People have embraced digital enablers at a faster rate than ever before. There’s been lots of talk about technology that’s on the up in the hype cycle, for example, blockchain and AI but the global pandemic has mainly swept that aside in favour of Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Office 365, and even Excel (though maybe not for important government datasets).
When speed was of the essence, we needed to give the people in our organisations the tools that would allow them to make good decisions and to test ideas out quickly and effectively. We weren’t looking for perfect solutions, just incremental changes addressing a pressing need.
These tools allowed our people to solve team and organisational problems in a short space of time. Those who could embrace this fast pace of change and who were happy trying new tools thrived.
This approach of a business-first focus underpinned by pragmatic technology know-how was key to success in this new world. The ‘digital pragmatists’ that understood your business but wanted to use technology to improve it were innovating quickly and putting solutions in place and everyone was benefitting from that. So how can you continue to support the digital pragmatists in your organisation?
- Identify them in your organisation, at all levels – those closest to the problem often have the best solutions.
- Give them the access to tools and training – maximise the chances of success and minimise the risk to your organisation by ensuring they’re security aware. Give them options and training in the tools they can use and then let them loose on the problems!
- Trust them – people will only feel able to implement something new if they feel they’re in a safe environment and there will not be recriminations if something doesn’t go quite right. Innovation needs space to learn from the hiccups on the way not only successes.
If you’d like to talk to us about supporting the digital pragmatists in your organisation with the right tools and culture get in touch.