Train your Mind like a Muscle

This Article first appeared on my LinkedIn Newsletter

We hear a lot about physical resilience — how to build endurance, strength, and stamina—but that's only part of the story: Mental fitness is just as important, if not more. And, like any muscle in your body, your mind can be trained, strengthened, and fine-tuned; we can lengthen, strengthen and build flexibility mentally to thrive in this AI enabled world.

Mental fitness is what separates those who fold under pressure from those who rise, again and again, no matter the challenge. It’s the ability to stay calm when everything else is chaos, to bounce back after setbacks, and to keep pushing forward when others have given up.

Today, I want to show you how to train your mind like a muscle—and tap into the kind of mental toughness that unlocks superhuman success.

Why Mental Fitness Matters

Life throws curveballs. You know it, I know it. Whether you’re running a business, navigating personal challenges, or simply trying to stay on top of everything, the ability to bounce back is your greatest strength.

And, here is the key: Fitness isn’t something you’re born with. It’s a skill. It’s something you can build over time, just like you’d build strength in the gym.

Research shows that mentally fit people are not only better at handling stress, but they also experience greater levels of happiness and success. They take challenges in stride, learn from their failures, and emerge stronger from adversity.

How to Build Your Mental Fitness

Ready to start building that mental muscle? Here are three proven strategies to boost your mental resilience and train your brain for superhuman endurance.

1. Practice Mental Reframing

Reframing is one of the most powerful tools for building mental fitness. It’s the ability to look at a challenge and shift your perspective, seeing it not as a threat but as an opportunity for growth.

Next time something goes wrong (and it will), ask yourself: What’s the opportunity here? How can I learn from this? and if it involves another human try to visualise the situation from their perspective.

Instead of focusing on the failure, focus on the lesson. By training your mind to automatically reframe challenges, you’ll find that setbacks don’t feel nearly as overwhelming, and you’ll bounce back faster.

2. Visualise Your Future Self

Top performers use visualisation as a way to train their brain for success. By vividly imagining yourself succeeding, overcoming obstacles, and thriving despite challenges, you prepare your mind for real-world adversity. I've got many personal stories that support the power of this technique.

Spend just 5 minutes a day visualising yourself navigating difficulties with ease, staying calm under pressure, and rising stronger from every setback. This practice doesn’t just build confidence—it actually rewires your brain to respond more effectively to stress and uincertainty.

3. Build Your Emotional Flexibility

Emotional flexibility is the ability to navigate your emotions without being overwhelmed by them. It’s about recognising how you feel, accepting those feelings, and moving forward anyway.

When you face challenges, it’s natural to feel fear, frustration, or self-doubt. But there’s a secret: Emotions are temporary. The mentally fit person knows this and moves through emotions without letting them derail their progress or deepen into something unhelpful.

How to do it: The next time you face an emotional challenge, take a moment to acknowledge the emotion without judgment. Then, ask yourself: What’s my next action? Focus on the action, not the emotion. Over time, this builds emotional resilience that will carry you through even the toughest times. You see, emotions and feelings are different things. Emotion is the raw chemical response to something. This chemical response when coupled with thought creates a feeling. So becoming more flexible and resilient with our emotions will curb feelings of stress and anxiety immediately.

Mental Fitness in Action: A Real-World Example

One of my clients, a highly successful entrepreneur, was going through a rough patch with sales. His company had also just faced a major setback with a partnership deal, and he was questioning everything—his leadership, his decisions, even his ability to keep the business afloat.

Together, we created a mental fitness programme and I coached him through an intensive six week schedule focussing on his mental fitness. He started using reframing techniques, visualising his success, and focusing on emotional agility, we also created a completely new narrative for him to bring into his thinking, speaking and writing. Within a few weeks, he felt more grounded, focused, and capable than ever before. His business started to turn around, not because the external challenges disappeared, but because he became stronger internally, he was reaping the benefits of being mentally fit.

That’s the power of mental fitness —it’s not about avoiding adversity. It’s about thriving through it. Have you ever heard people talk about some of the greatest innovations coming out of the toughest of times? That's showing mental fitness in action.

Train Your Mind, Unlock Superhuman Success

There is a truth here: Mental Fitness isn’t reserved for a select few any more. It’s a skill you can develop, one mental rep at a time.

By incorporating practices and exercises into your daily routine, you can build the kind of mental fitness that allows you to face any challenge and thrive into the future. And the best part? When you train your mind like a muscle, growth never stops. You just keep getting stronger, more resilient, and more unstoppable.

Ready to take your mental resilience to the next level? Let’s connect 1:1. Together, we can create a personalised resilience-building plan that will empower you to thrive, no matter what comes your way.

And, as always, follow me on Instagram (modern.mindset.mentor) for daily insights and tips on how to become mentally unstoppable.

To your mental strength and success,

Digital Leadership or Digital Transformation: Which came first?

This Article First Appeared on LinkedIn

Last week I was lucky enough to be working with a professional colleague and all-round amazing lady Melanie Franklin MCMI ChMC on a new masterclass for Digital Leadership. During our numerous conversations and brainstorming sessions, the phrases Digital Leadership and Digital Transformation came up A LOT!

Both phrases can be quite confusing if you are new to this kind of terminology and both are subject to their somewhat unhelpful origin stories (if you can call it that because it's quite hard to nail down their true origins).

Digital Leadership according to one view has its origins in the 4th Industrial Revolution defined as the digitalisation of business and society. See the quote below from the research titled: The Development and Evolution of Digital Leadership: A Bibliometric Mapping Approach-Based Study.

Digital leadership is a new leadership style associated with Industry 4.0

I guess the whole thing started with e-leadership back in the early 2000s.

In my opinion, Digital Leadership is dynamic and should be used to describe what effective, successful leadership looks like today (the digital age or the AI age). It's more than style though, it is the mental model, behaviour, actions and words of an effective, successful leader today. Which is supported by .....

Digital leadership is a way of thinking and behaving in a complex time. The findings show that digital leadership has two main aspects within four dimensions: the first aspect is related to business, and it is strategy-focused and delivery-elated; the second one involves personal attributes, and it is interpersonal-oriented. Moreover, we identify the associated leadership capabilities for each of these aspects.

(Tigre, F.B., Henriques, P.L. & Curado, C. The digital leadership emerging construct: a multi-method approach. Manag Rev Q (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-023-00395-9)

There is additional confusion too; where organisations are attributed with the term digital leadership if they are leveraging technology to lead in their market...but let's park that one!

Then there is Digital Transformation. Did that come first? Did that drive the rise of Digital Leadership or the other way around? Or did they evolve separately?

Sadly the answer is yes to all three questions. This article gives you a good potted history of the term Digital Transformation, but doesn't provide us with the chicken or egg question: Which came first if at all?

The scope of Digital Transformation is perhaps what we should be focussing on: is it about technology only? Is it about the whole business or not?

Because of the pervasive nature of technology, I believe that digital transformation does involve the entire organisation (and beyond). However, I would also argue that the term is undergoing an evolution by becoming equally about humans and the environment as it has been about technology. There is an eco-digital transformation out there believe it or not!

Given all this, one thing is clear to me. Whatever the origins of these phrases, they are now symbiotic, to be a digital leader we need digital transformation, to succeed in digital transformation we require digital leadership.

Every organisation is digitally transforming, whether that's formally or informally (I say that a lot) - therefore every organisation requires digital leadership.

So, I ask you - do you have a sense of what Digital Leadership means today? What should the thinking, behaviour and actions of a digital leader look like? Do you know if you are a digital leader and if so what stage of maturity you are?

If you are a leader, these questions are critical. If you aspire to be a leader, these questions should form the basis of your development. All leadership is Digital Leadership, all change needs Digital Transformation

I've tried to separate my narrative from the noise - wanting to make it easier for people, which is why I focussed the last two years on Modern Mindset and Modern Leadership, but it's been hard and those phrases probably don't speak to your pains or your needs as a leader? So, with my new mentor programmes and leadership programmes being launched now for 2025 - I am settling for Digital Leadership 2.0: Leadership in an AI-enabled world. Rest assured, two things are certain. Both Digital leadership and Digital Transformation need each other to succeed and both are dynamic; evolving and changing as the digital age continues to present opportunities and challenges for us all to navigate.

Who really powers successful digital transformation?

Perhaps not who you might at first think!

We often muse over this question - it’s as loaded as someone asking me to define exactly what digital leadership means!? Subjective to say the least.

Easier questions would be; Who challenges digital transformation the most in your system? or perhaps; Who should be more visible in your digital transformation efforts?

It wouldn’t take us long to recognise that leaders play an enormous part in the success of digital transformation from inception to delivery, iteration and sustainability - yet sadly, and more often they are touted as challengers and blockers rather than enablers or role models.

Let’s not be too hard on our leaders

As a good coach or mentor would advocate - judge not, rather try to walk in their shoes and then meet them half way.

Leaders for years have been promoted and placed in post based on reasons that don’t directly relate to the mental model or behaviours required to power digital transformation:

1. We have reached our status based on past achievements (what we did and who we were then).

2. We have been trained and developed to solve problems or to gather intelligence from around us so that we can make the best decisions (ultimately all data roads lead to Rome).

We may have done our leaders a dis-service

How we have chosen our leaders and how we have developed our leaders hasn’t really connected with the modern world in a way that challenges the core foundations of what it means to be a leader, who are our true leaders and if we aren’t here to solve the problems and make the decisions, what are we for?

But I’m equally not letting them off that lightly either!

The time for a new way of thinking and behaving as been called time and again, yet never loud enough to make a big enough dent in our mainstream leadership mental model and behaviours.

So, on the one hand we have digital transformation growing at an almost exponential rate across all business communities whilst at the same time a growing chasm between leadership participation and the digital transformation delivery itself.

Answers not questions are needed

When we recognise what is needed we can see it, experiment with it, develop it. To date we’ve been bombarded with ‘leaders need to think differently’ (And I humbly hold my hand up as one of them), without a straight line answer of HOW.

Throwing a few expert masterclasses at your board, executives or managers won’t do the trick. Neither will a development program that promises mindset shift. What’s needed is a guided mechanism for fundamental shifts in thinking and behaviour - oh, and it needs to stick…

And so digital transformation success continues to grow further away from our leaders mental and behavioural capacity to participate and role model the future.

Output? Culture shift stalls and the change agents from across project management, learning & development, technology, change management, product and service design get more stressed taking more of the responsibility of success on their shoulders. Shame on us as leaders.

Enter the three amigos

There is light at the end of this tunnel. There is a solution. It’s simple, it’s real and it’s darn right critical to every business out there trying to survive these times and thrive as a business as well as collectively as a human race.

The solution (In part of course, I’m not a magician!) is down to what we call The Three Amigos.

Amigo one - The business coach and/or executive mentor.

Think about this for just a second. The majority of leaders who are seasoned leaders having been in post for X number of years are probably unaware of the damage their failure to turn up to the digital transformation table is causing. And to confess this, unpack this and explore this needs safety, trust and privacy. Enter the business coach and/or executive mentor. This amigo is in such an important place to be able to support the leader on their own digital transformation journey. If they know this story themselves. If they themselves have eaten from the tree.

So the key here is to ensure your digital transformation takes account for the training and presence of this amigo (internal or external) to deal with the deep poop, and baggage, many of these leaders have to alleviate themselves of to get in the game.

Amigo two - The digital practitioner

Wow, since COVID-19 I think we should be clapping for these guys like we have for our health professionals. These are the ones who have put in the hours, worked the weekends and literally overnight managed to get us all online, virtual and zooming - with capability support and guides for workforce wellbeing thrown in for good measure - Any digital practitioner who has stepped up to help their organisation keep running over the last year - I APPLAUD YOU ALL.

Now, back to the amigo thing. These digital practitioners get it. They understand the power of technology, data and new ways of working. So we should be elevating their training and support and connecting them with the business mentor and coach.

Amigo Three - The disruptive leader

We’ve been working across business and government internationally since 2013. We’ve profiled over 2,000 leaders in mindset and behaviour using The Dilyn Way™ Profiling tool and one thing is a fact…in every business over a given size (which is a few hundred only), there exists leaders who want to create a better future. They know we design our futures not walk into them. They understand and role model ‘thinking differently’. Yet, time and again their voice is taken by the winds of tradition - not to be heard, and so they are left marginalised.

We should be on the look out for these leaders who dare to think differently in our systems and give them voice. Counter intuitive? Not at all. If we can foster the Malcolm Gladwell Tipping Point with the amount of disruptive leaders present in our organisation - we’ve landed the third amigo. Then, as with the other two - we support them and connect them together.

So there you have it, the three amigos - the true power behind successful digital transformation.

Are you one? Recognise anyone in your system? Recognise a gap?

For more information DM me or head to our community where we bring together these three amigos to connect, support, experiment and power our businesses and governments towards a better world.

Why now - more than ever - is the perfect time to be a coach and mentor

I have a theory. In January 2020 we were on the verge something big. The world was recognising digital transformation, purposeful business and tech for good if challenged, or tough because of something other than budget, capability, timing (and dare I say) even culture - the challenge was leadership. How leaders think and behave.

The way leaders think and their frame of reference influences the creation of vision and development of strategy so crucial to a successful future. The way they behave gives others an experience and image of how they should behave too; a glimpse of what the future looks like in practice, in the moment of now - the secret to digital transformation success.

Then COVID hit.

For us as a business it was a shock to find leaders all over the world head into war rooms, crisis management meetings and pivot conversations. because that meant they didn’t want to focus on themselves. All of a sudden that bubble that was about to burst - shooting the lid off what really makes digital transformation successfully was firmly back on. Largely, I agree with this, however, fast forward to today. Whichever country you are reading from today, you are either at the beginning or end of either a 2nd, perhaps 3rd wave…

Add to this the following thought: Since COVID huge amounts of data and research has celebrated the golden age of digital transformation acceleration rates sometimes touted as high as 10 years ahead.

Great! well, kinda.

As lockdown rules start to relax - what may happen? That pull back to our old behaviours and ways of thinking could kick in. That’s the power of the mind and habits so deeply ingrained in us, even considering the huge disruption caused by the virus. I’m not saying things go back completely - it’s about becoming conscious and mindful in ourselves of the potential for this happening - questioning when it’s for good, or when it might be the mind pulling us back to old habits…

Why now - more than ever - is the perfect time for coaches and mentors

If you are a coach, mentor or aspire to be one to help others unlock their potential - you are in a unique, and I believe, important position. Very few people get the opportunity to speak 121 or in small groups with leaders to talk about the impact of thinking and behaviour on the people and systems around them. It’s these conversations that provide a platform for leaders to recognise this and change for good within themselves. To be guided on the journey of transformation to rewire their habitual, unconscious leadership practice from pre-COVID to a different kind of now - (what I can CH-OW (Change-Now)…every moment is new, unique and transient). If we can do that then we know change for good has a chance of sticking.

Leaders should be supported and helped through this shift in mindset and behaviour

This means rewiring habits - to make them stick

This is where coaches and mentors can help.

For me this puts the role of coach and/or mentor way up there and why we dedicate so much of our time to training and helping business coaches and mentors all over the world connect their current value with the digital transformation agenda. When you marry these two together you can help clients and customers thrive not survive, lean into digital transformation not shy away, embrace now as a moving object not see change as a single fixed destination.

If you are an established business, executive coach or mentor - you probably hear the your clients talk about change and digital transformation. Building your own digital transformation competency can help add relevance, meaning and unique dimension to something already valuable.

So many of the coaches and mentors we work with value our training for several reasons:

1. They experience the value of digital transformation for themselves and their own business - getting more customers, building reach and visibility.

2. They can reference a framework specific to the human element of digital transformation that many leaders are soul searching for.

3. They can meet the leader where they are in terms of digital transformation.

I’m constantly seeing and hearing stories where coaches and mentors with the privilege of 121 or small group conversations help leaders unlock their potential and recognise their value in the digital transformation agenda - helping leaders lean in, build confidence, take risk, experiment, become more data mindful and ultimately build visions and implement strategies that make the world a better place by bringing humanity back to the table.

For more information on becoming a certified mentor-coach to differentiate your service and value to leaders please feel free to reach out to me directly or check out either our website or our community platform. See you soon.

“Now more than ever is a perfect time to be a coach and mentor.”

Mel

Confessions of a CEO during COVID-19 – A corporate system whistle-blower

Leading during coronavirus IS about leadership in a digital age…

For those who had had enough of screen time in the last couple of weeks: here is a podcast version, put your headphones on and go for a walk while you listen: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-82xuj-d6b6ac

It’s 2.45am, again.

I’ve woken up the last 6 nights at exactly the same time. Anxious and frustrated. To say none of this is down to the financial burden of our company in these uncertain times would be a lie, but It’s not the main reason. It’s the wellbeing of my team and my ability to really lead them. I’m questioning the very core of my leadership ability.

This week one team member (who is a home worker) spoke to me about how stressed she was, now her husband and daughter are at home with her too; she mentioned how unsettling things seemed and how tense it was at times, as everyone scrambles to create a sense of routine in a sudden non-routine reality. Then, she mentioned her son may also be home from next week.

Another team member, a single mum with a young daughter, was trying to solve the entire complexity and implications of working from home alone, with her vibrant and energetic 6 year old, knowing she would require a lot of attention. She’s worried about things like lockdown – and what a mother and daughter in a two-bed apartment for two weeks will do to her sanity! 

It’s 2.45am in the morning again. What can I do to help them? How am I going to solve this? What am I missing? How does my leader role change in all this?

These are the thoughts running through my head, making my heart beat faster.

I confess, these night-time frenzies are taking their toll on me too – I’m not as sharp during the day with decisions and I’m not the motivational CEO I usually am. If this carries on, my team may not want to bring their realities – their confessions - to me.

Then, inadvertently I spoke to another CEO. Dancing around the edge of truth at first, I decided to mention a couple of things I was worried about and instantly the flood gates opened. It just so happened my leadership colleague was having similar angst about the same things, but in varying degrees, as well as some completely different things altogether. We talked things through and eventually shared our thoughts about what leadership in March 2020 looks like versus March 2019, we even tried to think back to March 2005! Then I said, “So, what’s March 2021 going to look like then?”

She paused and said – “Mel, the one thing that’s fact, is things have changed forever. And it’s our job to ensure that the changes we lead and we make now, that stick, are the right ones.”

I can tell you now, it was a bullet between the eyes, the elixir I needed - all in one. The challenge and motivation to spur me on as a leader. I went for a run and when I got back took myself away to a spare room and wrote the following letter to my team, sharing with them straight after, warts and all:

Message begins:

Hi Team and friends,

The rules of leadership and business have changed. They changed before COVID-19, the majority of leaders just didn’t spot them. Even as the CEO of this company called Adapt2Digital, I didn’t spot this non-digital stuff and I wasn’t prepared. But I am resilient, and we are adaptive as a team and company, which gives me the knowledge we will get through this, doing what we do best – being human, which equals resilient and adaptive.

Leading through uncertainty and complexity is now par for the course; We’ve heard about bushfires, experienced floods, and now live in the eye of a global health pandemic storm – it’s safe to say extraordinary things have become our normal (even if the ‘things’ are extraordinary in and of themselves). Extraordinary times call for extraordinary thinking. What I mean by that is we need to think differently. Thinking differently about things we know is more extraordinary than thinking the same way about a problem or issue we tackled last week, or last year or ‘for that customer’. We must be brave and bold and know that thinking differently – together – we can thrive not just survive. This is a moment in time and every moment eventually passes.

I have learnt some things about myself during the last few weeks, in hindsight I think we all will. Today, I want to share with you what I’ve learnt in the hope that you will help me as much as I pledge to help you get through this resiliently.

• I cannot help you in the best way possible if I don’t first help myself. I realise the wellbeing of everyone in this company also includes me.  So, for us all, let’s prioritise wellbeing above everything else over the coming weeks.

• Leadership isn’t 24/7. I’m not a superhuman. But, we can all be a hero “if just for one day!”. We are a small team and I welcome us all showing leadership spirit over the coming weeks to support each other when needed.

• The corporate social structure of the industrial age doesn’t work anymore and won’t transition to how we are working right here, right now. Stopping for morning coffee, then lunch and finally afternoon tea are things of the past - when it was human machines in factories, and break times were for building sustenance to drive efficiency. Today we are a team who want to drive effectiveness – so my suggestion is that we move away from breaks for food and have breaks for wellbeing and take this one step further and openly share our ‘wellbeing moments’ in our calendars. I’ve put a run in my calendar for tomorrow at 11 am already!

• Frantically, trying to get everything onto a digital/virtual screen is not our objective when going remote and becoming digital. We know this from the work we do with our customers. Let’s mix it up and eat some of our own dog food! I for one am going to record this letter onto audio and share it as a podcast.

• I don’t have all the answers. Even on those occasions when I come up with the answer in the end – it’s as a result of a team effort journey.

• Many of our customers are saying they are going to leverage this time to do more online learning – this is great! So should we – and help our other customers do the same, we’ve just in the last two days started to work with a central government agency to support them transition some of their classroom leadership learning to a virtual environment.

Finally, let’s keep perspective and keep ourselves human through this. If a young 6 year old wonder woman charges across the screen in the background during a meeting - It’s ok. If a black furry dog paw taps your keyboard when you are talking to some financial figures and 58 suddenly appears as 4392 - that’s OK too! Let’s just take things as they come and learn our rules along the way.

Two weeks ago, my beautiful, brave, utterly amazing sister-in-law learnt she has late stage cancer in several places in her body. The matriarch of the family, the beating heart of us all; but she’s strong and she’s going to fight this. Taking things day by day and moment by moment with the full support from her loved ones – she says she’s going to “beat this bitch!”. That’s exactly what we are going to do here. Let’s not take things out of proportion, let’s stick to reality and keep to fact. Remind ourselves this is a moment with an end in sight and keep hold of our humanity as we continue to work remotely and face further changes, many still unknown even as I write – Ensure we are not alone and prove together we are stronger.

Mel

Message Ends

If you are a CEO or leader, please share your feelings, thoughts, your worries and ideas with someone, maybe your team, like I did. I have reached out to offer my time to you free for advice, coaching and mentoring, but quite frankly, I don’t care why you connect with me – if it’s for a virtual coffee chat, just to get something off your chest, or even to give me a virtual hug that’s OK! Share your story with someone, or on email to me directly via mel.ross@adapt2digital.com

Please schedule some time with me using this link: https://calendly.com/digital-leadership/catch_up

Things will not be the same again.  Where they end up – positive or negative is has to be up to us – not us alone as leaders, but alongside those who matter most, our teams, family, friends and confidents.

No one should be alone right now – not even a CEO.

Leadership 2020 Vision Manifesto

Hi and welcome to our Leadership 2020 Vision Manifesto. This is a simple, yet powerful 5-point manifesto for all leaders out there and those of you who support the development of leadership around you. It’s time to kick talking into touch and start to take action.

Join the manifesto here

What is the Leadership 2020 Vision manifesto?

It’s a call to arms to start shifting our way of thinking and developing leadership for a digital age faster than is currently happening.

What is in the Leadership 2020 Vision manifesto?

Here are the initial 5 points we have set out. If you think they need changing, amending or if you have something you would like to add then join the community to share your voice.

Here are the 5 points of the manifesto:

1. Redefine and reposition leadership away from command leadership.

   Embrace wider definitions of the term through wider access and inclusivity. Start with 3 simple leadership tribes: The first is the obvious leader by label – those people who are in traditional leadership roles already. The second is Leaders of change; internally this means everyone who is responsible for driving change from project management, change management, L&D, OD, technology – we are all leaders and should be recognised as such. Externally we must start to recognise, embrace and include leaders of change – people who are making a difference in the world. These people don’t have to be famous, they can be sitting next to you right now at work and you don’t even know it! Finally, Leaders of the future – this is more than thinking about top talent or the obvious traditional idea of future leadership – this is about embracing where leadership potential exists – women in leadership, supporting the growth of leadership in developing countries, older generations re-entering the workplace, Veterans with values and attitudes that are so transferrable… - let's broaden our thinking around who and how we define leaders of the future

2. Start with ONE

   The power of change starts with us as individuals. Committing to making one change individually to get things started. If we all start to focus on the power of one – it’s only a matter of time before it starts rubbing off on people around us and a collective shift starts to happen.

3. Mindset before skill

   Focus on attitude and belief – not skill and capability. Stop thinking first about the skills needed in our development plans or what skills you are looking for in the leadership role we are recruiting for – prioritise values and beliefs, search for evidence of the right attitude and behaviour, rather than evidence of profit and proof of financial success.

4. Have a humanity focus.

   Many of us are starting to place the customer at the heart of design, which is great, but we need more. It’s time to bring community and environment into play – let’s make this about humanity – about the human and about our society – not separate the two or focus on just one.

5. Finally – the manifesto calls for a mandate around data literacy. The practice of data ethics and taking self accountability for data. We’ve all heard stories in the news about data identity, cybersecurity and the manipulation of data when it's big and when we've got the technology to mine and exploit it, there is a growing reality and need to act as individuals and become accountable ourselves. We as leaders must role model data literacy in everything we do. We call this data mindfulness.

Please join the movement and commit to the manifesto yourself.
Share the manifesto amongst your peer groups, colleagues and your organisation.

Most importantly, please share across social media, let’s take action and help shift our positioning of leadership across the world.

Thank you,

The Adapt2Digital/Dilyn Team

Digital Transformation is not a choice, but an inevitability

We work with senior leaders and change teams all over the world. Profiling, mentoring, coaching and supporting the development of digital age leadership. Helping leaders and change cohorts in their ability to competently drive and actively participate in digital transformation (DX) at an organisational level, ensuring that it is positioned as people focussed and not technology, data, product or service focussed.

Working with hundreds of leaders across industry and geography, one major factor- and I think a worrying factor - has emerged from our data. Too many leaders believe digital transformation is a choice, a business decision to be agreed to (or not); dependant on the level of success (or not) that their business, product or service achieves against the business strategy, target and/or user need. If there is no burning platform, why change right!?

The majority of leaders believe digital transformation is a choice, a business decision to be agreed to or not.

Whilst many leaders agree digital transformation is important and something that would be beneficial to the business and customer, too few still associate digital transformation as something related to a set of projects and programmes.

What does this tell us? It suggests that, in reality, digital transformation by definition is still being buried within the confines of projects and programmes; burdening project and programme teams with huge delivery pressures that may not be properly supported which, in turn, renders many digital transformation efforts as siloed and limited to addressing digital shift that isn’t fully end to end or applied to the entire system.

Digital transformation has become so synonymous with technology, data, product & service change that we’ve missed the nuance which makes it different and unique to transformation efforts from previous decades. This nuance is that it’s happening everywhere around us whether we like it or not! We must start breaking down the walls between business as usual and digital transformation. They are one and the same in many respects. Even without new technology, newly designed ways of working, products or services being tested and piloted by project or innovation teams, we need to start shifting our thinking and ways of working right here, right now in what we are doing within the tiniest moments of our daily routine. That way we’ll have a chance at encouraging the emergence of culture nurtured on being prepared for the inevitability and constancy of change. Cultural readiness comes before anything else, it’s not part of a strategy, plan or change management push after the fact - it needs to be in - and at the heart of - our business as usual environment. Few people would argue that the growing number of millennials in the workplace, is not creating some sort of cultural friction or disconnect with the organisations’ current operational machinery and cultural norms.

Does your digital transformation need repositioning?

Whether you are already in the middle of a ‘digital transformation’ or building your strategy - perhaps it’s time to stop and take a big serious retrospective look at your positioning, your metrics, your communication and your leadership involvement, and ask yourself these four things as an example:

1) Is your positioning of digital transformation something you are doing within a project/programme environment only to be ‘rolled’ out or ‘deployed’ across your business when it’s time, after you’ve designed, after you’ve tested and after you’ve piloted?

2) Are your metrics fixated on delivering ‘stuff’ on time and on budget with few tangible measurements of success directly linked to impact? e.g. mapping the effect of behavioural shift in your target audiences as a direct result of your new technology or design? When I say mapping - I really mean a hard core measurement!

3) Is your communication focussed on us and them: talking about the benefits of the ‘new shiny stuff that we are bringing to you’ type of thing?

4) Is your leadership engagement in digital transformation little beyond being a passive authorising authority or at best a programme sponsor?

If you honestly answered yes to just 2 out of the 4 questions above - your digital transformation is likely to be understood as something which is being done to the business, or with the business despite all your best efforts and despite your intent and aspirations.

Some of the answer lies in the Power of One

Start to think about the many things you do in a day, a week even a month, all the many decisions you make and actions you take. Pick one and think about how that decision or action would play out if you were at home and the person you were interacting with was a friend, a son, a sister, a partner - not a colleague or a customer.

Using The Dilyn Way™ framework and approach, we work with leaders breaking down their daily habits and actions and rebuild them even before a new technology has arrived, which does something magical. When new technologies, new digital initiatives arrive - the mindset and behaviours are already waiting to embrace the change. Even more magical, because the framework focusses on the leaders of a business/organisation as a priority; over time, teams and the wider workforce start to follow the leadership behaviours. Those reading this article who work in people services will know well that culture shifts mainly by looking up. And if a culture looks up and sees the manager or the leader behaving in ways contrary to the shiny new digital transformation promise - what’s the likelihood of shift? I’ll leave you to answer that question yourself…

It’s time folks. It’s time to reposition and admit that digital transformation is something that’s happening organically within our systems as well as across all those project and initiatives we’ve got happening. Together, and only together, can digital transformation really succeed. Change the way your leaders think and behave, to change your culture, to prepare for your change projects, your transformation programmes and innovation efforts that are working damn hard to breathe new life into what you do and who you are.

If you would like to know more about The Dilyn Way™ and how it can accelerate your digital transformation efforts? If you would like to know more about what the profile of a leader in a digital age looks like? - my virtual door is always open!

We're coming out and extending the hand of friendship!

The people framework focussing on leadership for a digital age

1. An adaptive profile that defines leadership in a digital age.

2. A model that aligns leadership development with digital transformation.

3. An approach to leadership development focussed on mindset and behavioural shifts as well as knowledge and action.

4. A people framework that can accelerate your digital transformation efforts and help create internal and external environments where workers and customers are happy, and expectations met.

This is The Dilyn Way™:- An adaptive framework that allows you to identify where your leadership profile currently sits in relation to the digital age and transformation. It then supports your shift towards unlocking the most effective leader you can be for a digital age. As an outcome, digital transformation efforts within your business and organisational environment start to accelerate over time. The culture starts to trust and believe in change because they can see the change first-hand within their leaders; so, they will follow:-

• We’re coming out, because it’s time to share our people framework for digital transformation profile and approach for defining and developing leadership for a digital age. The Dilyn Way™ is the culmination of our work across the world for the last 7 years.

• We’re coming out because we are seeing so many people struggle with knowing what leadership for a digital age looks like and how to support the development and evidence of this within their business or organisation.

• We’re coming out because we want to help advise L&D practitioners, OD practitioners, Digital change agents and executive leaders design and develop their programmes, learning journeys and pathways.

• We’re coming out and offering our learnings over the years to anyone who would like to know more or would like help designing and building their own digital age leadership programmes or journeys.

Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Don’t waste time trying to figure out what we’ve figured out delivering this, and only this for the last number of years.

In the spirit of transparency, collaboration and the sharing economy we are opening our doors to help and give advice to anyone who cares and understands that effective leadership in a digital age is the real catalyst for successful digital transformation.

One final thing. A huge thanks to the customers and people who have helped us develop The Dilyn Way™ as a people framework for digital transformation and approach for developing new leadership to help us drive forward and thrive in an age defined by data, technology, change and convergence.

If you are in the process of designing a digital leadership programme or wondering how to support your leaders through digital transformation? Please get in touch, reach out, share your story and we’ll share our learnings.

Schedule time with me

People first-Projects second please!

The secret to digital transformation…

This blog was originally posted on LinkedIN.

For decades, transformation has been driven through the professional domain of projects, programmes and portfolios. The rise of project management methodologies like Lean and Agile have raised hope but the disconnect remains.

With digital transformation becoming pervasive within business, government and country visions and strategies, it is becoming accepted another driver is needed, so the disciplines of projects, programmes and portfolio management can focus on the operational delivery they were meant to serve. That driver is leadership. active, adaptive leadership.

Real digital transformation is becoming defined as the shift required to address the human effect of the digital age across both corporate and governmental systems and subsequently the human affect of the digital age on society.

I believe it should follow that leadership for a digital age must be inclusive and engaged across all three of these areas, be inclusive, be recognised based on profile over label. Most importantly, taking an active participatory role in change as a role model for others to trust and follow by example. This story is about digital age leadership - how we can effectively lead in a digital age.

“The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

— Einstein

The digital age demands greater adaptive leadership profiles and approaches. What is emerging is the need for a leadership profile that takes the best of leadership fundamentals and augments these with the opportunities and possibilities afforded by the digital age. This approach encourages followership in others which in turn builds confidence, reduces vulnerability around change and starts a people movement. 

The Seven Principles of Change and Transformation

Leading Digital Transformation With People

Digital Leadership: 'The Follower Method’

The Case for Digital Change

Mel Ross, Director, addresses the case for #Digital change in your current #business model

There is only one type of transformation

Is there such a thing as Digital Transformation…really?

You have a kick 'A' digital strategy, you are noted as being a digital leader, you have a budget, a digital hub, some awesome tech being installed…but are you really happy with the results so far…?

Digital Transformation is touted as the solution to a burning platform – that of the maturity of technology against the painful inability of businesses able to keep up with, and take advantage of, a constantly changing customer expectation and need.

But what does Digital Transformation really mean in terms of delivery and outputs?  It’s safe to say that for the most part, Digital Transformation has the output of new, or updated technology within an organisation - ranging from a complete technology redesign, a move from legacy to cloud, or a specific new technology implementation (CRM maybe), all the way through to perhaps giving mobile devices to the workforce. Each one of these examples can and does get described as Digital Transformation – but is it just really transformation?  In terms of delivery there is process redesign that is often included, some skills training that is sometimes included, a communication campaign perhaps developed and of course a change programme that is hopefully implemented.

Digital Transformation can be whatever you want it to be, from building a website to complete business wide transformation that takes an inside out approach.  People will tell you that you are right, people will tell you that you are wrong, but who cares - the point is; that whatever kind of transformation is being delivered our customers still feel unfulfilled during and after - engagement levels are usually lower than anticipated, change continues to be a really hard slog, and projects and programmes continue to fail. So why?

Because we got it all wrong! When digital started it's rise to fame it was seen to be all about technology modernisation and process change. And thus, we’ve built up the global market (according to IDC digital transformation (DX) technologies will grow to more than $2.1 trillion in 2019) that is dedicated essentially to these two areas; technology and process, with one glaringly obvious omission – the people.  Yeah a few skills here and there and a change management programme to support your shiny new tech or uber redesigned process, is definitely in scope – but why still, is there that niggling feeling of something else being missing, a feeling deep in your gut just keeps saying we're doing this the wrong way?

People? Mindset? Culture? – isn’t that about being human beings with emotions, feelings, ideas? Yes, but that’s not got anything to do with the serious world of business right?

Wrong.

Our direction as a company over the last 4 years has led us to understand that we are not in the business of digital transformation, we are indeed in the business of we have defined as People Centred Transformation.

Realising that what people think, how people behave and the skills and competencies they possess - seen as a collective whole - is far more important to the success of any transformation programme – digital or otherwise. It has been a journey we've taken by breaking down our customer transformation programmes into those that have achieved outcomes versus those that have just outputted some numbers or delivered an on time - on budget programme. What we found, time and time again, is that any focus on people as thinking, feeling and reacting human beings somehow gets lost in a shroud of mystery and beliefs that such things belong in the world of 60's psychedelic liberation not in the world of process driven business and the world of transformation. So we've been on a mission; trying to get leaders, technologists, marketers, transformation experts and change managers to get more in tune with their human side and start focusing on change by names not by numbers.

We believe that People Centred Transformation is the only transformation that is needed, and we're proving it over and over with a growing list of customers who are making transformation about re-humanising business not de-humanising business. (I suspect that this is perhaps one of the success factors of Amazon and Tesla as they increasingly stand alone in terms of growth, progress and success on the global business stage).  Transformation must remain being people centred from start to finish and not start with a people focus then revert to a set of processes or a technology project because that's all we know.

If we understand what people think, how they behave and the skills they possess we can add context and relevance to why our business is in the situation it is in (culturally and financially). why our shiny new technology doesn’t have much engagement or workforce buy-in, and why our amazing new product doesn't seem to be resonating with customers.

People Centred Transformation can be defined by two simple design principles:

1. That all people be considered equal. To be customer centric you must first be audience focussed - and treat everyone equal for the part they should play towards success. The worker, the customer, the supplier, the partner, the leader and of course increasingly the crowd.

2. That transformation prioritises human mindset and behaviours. Skills training and job titles just don't cut the mustard anymore; we follow a simple three step journey that always considers behaviour and mindset before maybe putting someone in a room and giving them agile training: that three step journey is what we refer to as THINK, BEHAVE, ACT.

Following the People Centred Transformation approach will support and nurture the right behaviours and mindset (across worker, leader, customer, partner, supplier and crowd) to give you lasting success, it will give you everything you need to move your business forward whether it’s a speedboat or a Titanic – it will shift, I promise you.

So, do we ditch the process re-engineering, change management, technology transformation efforts and expertise – of course not. People Centred Transformation is your mandated parallel to anything that involves change or transformation. However, if you want to start what you think is a digital transformation don’t. Build a people centred transformation programme and do it right.

Back in 2014 we talked about the importance of people, culture and connectedness when making organisations adaptive and transformative. Our message is still the same and even stronger today than ever before: people must be at the centre of all change and transformation, as human beings and individuals not as guinea pig groupings or numbers on a process map - this is the gift that technology has provided us, the ability to serve the individual by name, not by number.

For just as we noted back then, even Andy Warhol said that it’s not time that changes things - it's people.

Welcome to the world of People Centred Transformation!

Partner Blog - Collaboration Best Practice

The Knowledge Hub approach to digital collaboration and engagement

Here are our top ten tips for building and developing an online collaboration group on Knowledge Hub:

1. Purpose – a community always needs a clear reason to exist. What are you setting out to achieve?

2. Audience – who’s it for?

3. Benefits – why are people going to join? What is in it for them? Maybe it’s essential knowledge for their work, perhaps it will help them gain new skills, or come into contact with experts in their field.

4. Champions – identify people who are passionate about this too and ask them to help you lead/facilitate the community.

5. Communications – invite the right people, prompt people regularly, personalise communications where you can e.g. acceptance messages, send messages about individual items you think people can help with.

6. Content strategy – start with some key content that will really draw people in – aim to upload at least one or two items or comments each week, encourage your champions to do the same.

7. Drip feed via notifications – regular communications and reminders really work. Email is still king, so get people to sign up to notifications and make sure there are regular posts.

8. Teamwork – use your champions well. Facilitating a community can be a lot less onerous if you all spend 10 minutes a day on an allocated task rather than letting the responsibility all fall to one person.

9. Encouragement – when people do get involved in communities, they like to feel part of something and that it’s a trusted environment. Encouraging people and feeding back when they do start to engage helps them feel more comfortable about sharing.

10. Evolve – don’t be afraid to change your approach if it’s not working. Keep refining what you’re doing and gain an understanding of what works best for your community.

If you would like to learn more about Knowledge Hub and what we do click here to go to our site.

Digital Transformation doomed to fail! Culture with a sting in the tale (wink, wink)

Here’s a story told in a simple way about average people, living average lives, working for an average business. 

James is finance manager at LMN Limited.  He’s been working there for about three and a half years, and in that time, the business has seen a new CEO come on board and a few change initiatives happen in the sales area and service area of the business. He can’t tell you exactly what those initiatives were about, and even more, he can’t really tell you what they achieved.

James is on his way to the staff café to grab a coffee mid morning one day, when he walks past a meeting room where a meeting is being held. He looks at a screen and sees something, which looks like "Digital Strategy, Workforce Modernisation Through Technology" and hears what he thinks is 20% reduction being quoted.

In the café James bumps into Hilary from Customer Service. He mentions what he’s seen and Hilary immediately replies:  “I knew it! I had heard something about a digital strategy from my boss in our weekly meeting last Monday but it was pretty vague. They are going to reduce the workforce by 20% by using technology! Oh my god, that’s got to mean losing people in my area right? I can’t believe it”.

Hilary returns to her desk with a tale that stings it’s way throughout the customer services area, festering and breeding more words and embellishments like staff reductions, takeovers, 40% redundancies…you name it, they are talking about it with increasing nervousness and a lack of trust.

James returns to the finance area and talks to Sharon and Steve who run Accounts Payable and Receivable. The story he tells them immediately gets both worried about how 'they' (a collective term for the leadership team and the elusive digital team - firmly cementing a barrier between them and us) will bring technology in to replace their jobs. Steve calls his wife, then a recruitment company, he’s only been there 8 months, so first in first out gives him the sense that he’s going to be first to get the boot, whatever happens.

Unbeknown to everyone who connects with this simple story initiated in the café, the meeting that was happening went something like this:

With our new digital strategy we will be able to bring about technology changes that will enable our staff to become more empowered in their roles and achieve 20% reduction in transactional errors, making for happy workers and happy customers.

A month later, when things have settled down - into a general understanding that this digital strategy is clearly not to be trusted - the CEO sends out an email (they are not on Slack yet!) talking about a fantastic new technology that will be implemented over the coming weeks as part of the new digital strategy. It will bring about fantastic efficiencies and increase productivity in the customer services and sales areas of the business. He urges everyone to get on the bus and join with the leadership team and the digital team in making sure this is a success.

Over the following weeks, workshops and training sessions on the new technology take place across these two business areas. But engagement is low and there is resistance to change within certain groups, even some hostility amongst one or two people.

Things are just really hard and no one can truly understand why…

Whether you call it a digital strategy, transformation strategy or modernisation strategy, no one really cares.  What the individual really cares about is having voice and visibility of what this all means to them personally.  Having context of their role in the overall picture. If this scenario was played out a second time with full transparency and inclusion of the workforce in the development and approval of the so called digital strategy, things would be very different. Even more important, though subtle, is placing the right level of focus on the organisational culture from the very start, something which could have negated what took place in the café even happening.

Culture exists whether you actively consider it or not.  But the one you let develop and nurture of it’s own accord you have no control over, no way of really nurturing and using as an enabler for change.

Digital Transformation is doomed to fail if your cultural story has this sting in it’s tale.

All the characters, situations and scenarios mentioned in this story are completely fictional.

Process or Progress? It's your choice.

Have you ever thought that you are the slave to process?  That you can’t get done what you want to get done, or that what you need to get done takes too long because you have to fill out a form, get approval, wait and then wait a little bit longer?

Process.  That beautiful word! 

Aside from the dictionary definitions, when you are talking about Digital Business Transformation or Digital strategy, process really boils down to two distinct things:

1)    The formal steps one must carry out in order to achieve an outcome or move forward as set out by the organisation, leadership or management.

2)    The behaviours we as individuals tend to follow when completing a task, addressing an issue, solving a problem or creating something. This is the ‘way we tend to work’.

Both examples are not exclusive of the other.  I’m sure there is a huge amount of research to discuss, debate and evaluate the behavioural psychology and historical legacy of each and their relationship to each other…but so what.

Back to the opening statement: I can’t do what I know I need to do because I have to follow due process. I don’t do what I should or could do because my learnt behaviours force me to do things this one specific way.

When building a Digital Strategy or when travelling through Digital Business Transformation a leadership team and organisation must prioritise these too things to progress. Or else? Simple, you will not progress or stumble and stall at best.

Processes as dictated by the organisation

Why we don’t address the processes of an organisation and the ways of working of the individual as a key priority within any Digital Strategy or Transformation is simply mind blowing.

Everyone knows Digital Transformation isn’t just about technology now. If you still think it is…you have a long way to go. Also, increasingly, research and articles around Digital Business Transformation are talking about the importance of culture to the success of any such initiative.  This is great, but in the time old tradition of Adapt2Digital no-jargon-client-speak – who really knows what to do about culture unless they are super smart or experienced in that area?

I’m supposed to write actionable blogs, not opinionated waffle so I should cut to the chase right?

If you are building a Digital Strategy or going through a Digital Business Transformation, ensure you have organisational process as a top priority for assessment, review and change. This should include governance in general as well as your policies & procedures.

When you are assessing and reviewing processes consider this; Do your processes enable or inhibit the ability for you to:

·      Understand your customers better?

·      Help your workforce make decisions in the moment they are needed?

·      Change when you need to change -  NOW!?

·      Optimise (and when indicated redesign) your customer experiences?

·      Speed up the end to end customer lifecycle?

There are more, but these should be included in your initial assessment and review. I am not for a second belittling the challenge and complexity some organisations face when addressing the need to review and change processes – but this doesn’t negate the importance or need to do so.  It should fire you up, not drag you down - how much worse can it be if you are already so frustrated? Getting policy makers and leaders understand that processes and procedures need to change as a major part of any Digital Strategy or Digital Business Transformation becomes part of the need to get senior leadership buy in right at the very start.

Summary: 

1)    Don’t think you can ignore or trick your Digital Strategy or Digital Business Transformation to work without addressing changing processes as a key outcome and objective

2)    Work this priority into your business case and leadership awareness initiatives

3)    Take heart, this really is an area where you should start small but not stop thinking big…there will be lots to do along the way.

The way we tend to do things as individuals

Here at Adapt2Digital I know I should do something about integrating our CRM software with our financial software; it would save time, money, provide hugely more valuable information to our sales teams and to our management team. I’ve known this for about 6 months. Have I done anything about it? Nope, zero, ziltch, nada.

Those of you who are aware of the work of Robert Kegan, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education will be familiar with what he calls:  Immunity to Change on which he has published.  Ultimately, this is al to do with human nature, Robert urges us all to consider this:

 “If fourteen frogs are sitting on a log and thirteen decide to jump into the pond, how many frogs will be left on the log?”

The answer is in fact fourteen.  As Robert explains in this great YouTube video, our intent to do something, our want to change is very different to the action required to ‘actually’ change! And, furthermore, he’s proved this using some incredibly compelling examples including heart patients.

What’s my point?  Even when you have changed the processes, you have to ensure you have gained the trust and created the desire to change at an individual level to progress.  Otherwise, when the going gets tough, or even without any challenge, over time people will revert back to learnt behaviours.

Also, personally I believe, you have to understand culture through the lens of local groups or tribes to really make an effective difference. 

What does a bread maker, the country of France and digital transformation have in common?

Put simply?  When the humble break maker was invented, helping people make their own bread that was cheaper, healthier- with that amazing smell added to the romance of it all – who would argue the concept of moving to a bread maker?  Well, aside from the fact that in many countries simply buying a loaf in a supermarket seems more convenient and cheaper - something very different took place in France which I think offers up something we should all be mindful of:

Throughout the country people were buying bread machines…but the reality was this:  The idea of walking to the bread shop was part of the culture, meeting local community members was part of the culture, and the product, I think we can all agree, is far superior than in most other countries! 

The point is, the French tried a new technology but it didn’t work for two reasons: It removed a valid cultural, community aspect at a local ‘tribal’ level - the importance of the established process - bordering on ritual was never considered as important.  And, secondly of course, the bread maker could only make bread as good as (at best!) the myriad of Boulangeries throughout the country.  

When you are assessing the individual behaviours of people you must also look at their local tribes and understand the value of this community aspect. If you are going to remove it, ensure it is for the right reasons.  Furthermore, ensure you are communicating clearly and effectively the benefits of change, and do so authentically - don’t be like the humble bread maker and be change for change’s sake - the tribe has to be supported and the outcome/product has to be better and far superior not only to the existing process but also to the tribe value that might be ingrained within that process.

Summary:

1)    Understand the people/tribe/group value of processes before you start to change or remove them - this can sometimes be subtle but to an individual or small group hugely important.

2)    Ensure you can articulate the ‘WHY’ of change.  Clearly demonstrate the benefits of a new process just as you would a new product or service.

3)    Create desire for change, not just fact for change.

Process versus progress. It’s your choice. If you would like to know more about how to do this and accelerate your own Digital Transformation journey then please do connect.

The Wheel Of Digital Transformation

What to do and how to do it

Actionable blogs, insightful blogs, blogs that demystify and develop business’ understanding of Digital Transformation and Leadership. That’s the challenge the AD2 team set me for 2016.

So last week, I set things in motion by sharing our Definitions of Digital Transformation, what they were and how to recognize them.

This week, it’s time for action. I want to share with you our practical guide to taking those first and so important steps in your own Digital Business Transformation so that you can do it effectively.  But first, a couple of things to point out before I hurl myself into a bullet point list of ‘do this’ and ‘do that’s’:

REMINDER: Digital Business Transformation is a wheel. It’s not a line. There is no end point or final destination. There is only constant modernisation.

When you start a Digital Business Transformation initiative you need to bring clarity to the strategies you pursue and to the discussions you have with key stakeholders.   This is essential.

The leadership team and the wider workforce must understand that success is going to be about changing everything inside out and becoming focussed on constant modernisation.

This is an important point to make as we move through yet another phase of the Industrial Revolution or firmly ensconce ourselves in the Second Machine Age.

REMINDER: Things don’t happen just once. I’m serious – and really you know that. People change; they come and go, just like technology.

So whilst we are putting all our focus into changing technology for the good within the organisation, we might well miss the fact that two or three of the senior leadership team have left and all the good work we did to get their commitment and participation up front needs to be done again.

Scenario: You are building a digital strategy, you are new to a digital leadership role, you are part way through your strategy and want to do a gap analysis and check-in exercise to see how you’re doing…

What should you be looking at? Assessing? Measuring? Focussing on?

Answer:  The Wheel of Digital Transformation. Here we go, let’s go round the wheel: 

1)    Know thy Self: Forget digital for a minute or three. Ask yourself: Where do we want to be? Where are we now? Can you answer these questions? If not, you need find those answers now.

Probably a workshop or series of workshops are needed. You need to bring the right group of people together (Leadership representation, Technology, Audience Knowledge, Workforce Knowledge, even a digital native), then thrash out these questions. Every business should do this. Once you know where you want to be you can assess where you are now against a realistic target or benchmark. Rather than using industry benchmarks and digital maturity audits, your most valuable and accurate benchmark is against an authentic and robust business vision and goal for your own organisation. We learnt this the hard way. So get onto it now!  This is the building block of Setting a Target.

2)    Convince the Elders: Leadership, commitment and participation. And it needs to be from the get-go. I know I sound like a broken record, but believe me full and active participation by the leadership team is essential.

You may be tempted to bypass the top table, and you may even find that there are things you can do at the start that don’t require their full commitment and participation but sooner or later things will get stuck, momentum will slow, money will dry up or not be enough.

So don’t just get them on board theoretically, get them involved practically! That’s the way to get leadership to buy into digital transformation. This is the building block of Momentum.  

3)    Know thy people: Who are your audiences? What do they think? What do they do? How do they behave? Assessing and asking your audiences to talk is key to building a strategy and transforming. Ditch the old ‘assumption’ rubbish and forget the lazy segmentation techniques that spend so much time grouping people into stereotypes they lose track of individualisation. One of the most powerful things the digital age has given us is the opportunity to get up close and personal with people. This is the building block of Culture and Change.

4)    Write your commandments: This is where people stumble and fall. If you are going to effect change across people, business, culture and communications (our Adapt2Digital cause and effect quadrants), you are going to need some rules that people sign up to, principles that people commit to, anchors that can be monitored and measured. 

We have the Six Principles of Modern Business & Leadership which we share with our customers; What will yours be? This is the building block of Strategy.

5)    Build & grow your people not your temple: I love the saying; "What got you here won’t get you to where you are going". This is so true in regard to skills and resources. "What got you here, won’t get you to where you are going" - love it. 

So, first recognise that your skills and resource landscape is in for a good shake up. And I mean shake it up good! It’s going to become more complex and you are going to have to rethink a few things, but the results are going to drive your transformation journey at pace. Some pointers:

• Don’t force a type of skill onto a person based on their job label. Base it on their competency, capability and willingness.

• Find out what skills you have beyond the job label. Finance Manager by day maybe super App developer by night!

• Loosen the shackles that bind you, them, us to full-time or long term commitments, think short term micro resourcing. Get what you want when you need it.

• Open up and free people to learn, on the job, off the job, on the way to the job…let it be known that learning is good.

• Put these four things together and you’ve got the ingredients to shake it up good!

6)    Last piece on the wheel of Digital Transformation is Engage and Monitor. I like this unlikely pair to be put together for a very good reason. When you give voice and visibility to the wider audiences of your Digital Business Transformation you have something really special happening, ideas become rich, feedback becomes more accurate and continuous, belief and advocacy in the journey is ripe; and voila! You have something to monitor alongside numbers and profit.  These are the building blocks of Outcome Based Reporting.

There you are, our simple but well seasoned Wheel of Digital Transformation. 

But remember, at any given moment you probably will be focussing on more than one area of the wheel and when you get round the wheel you will already have realised you need to head straight back to one of the other areas! That's the reality.

Last piece of advice from the field?  Don’t think you can cheat the transformation wheel.  You can’t. You can only kid yourself for a certain amount of time before it comes to bite you in the proverbial behind. You have to address everything on the Wheel of Digital Transformation.

The Different Faces of Digital Transformation

After my post last week about 'action not discussion' as a prediction and plea for Sweet ‘16, the team at Adapt2Digital have charged me with writing content which allows the reader to gain as much actionable and relevant knowledge to help them move forward either in Digital Transformation or Digital Leadership

“No problem!” I said. And so, this blog aims to provide a summary of the different definitions of Digital Transformation that seem to have evolved and be talked about today. To what actionable end? So that you can recognise which type of Digital Transformation you are either currently undergoing or thinking of kicking off. So you can recognise which type of Digital Transformation someone might be referring to in conversation and consequently ensure the context is correct.

Somewhat akin to separating the goats from the sheep, or rather searching for the diamond in a coal bunker, the term Digital Transformation has become synonymous with single business area digital transformations, single project focus points, or worse, simply the procurement and deployment of a new piece of technology.

So, how many different types of Digital Transformation are there? Which one applies to you? And which one is the best? The following lists the types that tend to be referred to in the market currently, but without distinction.

1)    Digital Marketing Transformation

Positive

• Raising the importance of the customer and the voice of the customer.

• Bringing the value of engagement through social media and real-time capability to the fore as well as the need to be ready to pick up (and drop) new channels quickly and effectively to maintain relevance in the eyes of the customer.

• Raising the game in regard to data and how connected data and allowing continuous engagement with customers can create richer experiences with together also contribute to more superior product or service design.

Cautions

• It potentially stays as a front end transformation and, without gaining the right visibility and endorsement across the wider business, further transformation may get stuck here forever.

• This type can give rise to the adoption of technologies that may fall outside the visibility of the wider business. For example, the use of a new social media monitoring tool by the marketing or communications team could have far more value if integrated with other technologies or data within the business.

2)    Technology Digital Transformation

Positive

• Gaining access to agile ways of working, using new technologies and connecting with suppliers that can provide the art of the possible.

• Enabling innovation through joining the dots across the audience value chain (that can be a customer, employee, supplier, partner even stakeholder)

• Building speed into the business from an operational perspective to meet demand and differentiate.

Cautions

• Without paying equal attention to culture and communication together with process and the technical fundamentals of deployment, usage and maintenance; this type of transformation can lose momentum and fail in achieving goals and objectives. For example; Using an new internal social platform like Yammer might go 100% smoothly in regard to process and deployment but without understanding the culture of the workforce and communicating the ‘why’ benefits success might be short lived.

• The positioning of technology, especially technology teams within the organisation is of major importance. That the business perceives technology as a provider of solutions to its needs is vital. Equally important is the mindset and behaviour within the technology area itself, to actively go out to the business and seek to provide the business solutions rather than being told ‘I want this technology please.’

3)    Product/Service Focussed Digital Transformation

Positive

• Often one of the most resistant areas of business open to change due to fear of revenue/profit decline, customer loyalty etc. Equally, this is often one of the most celebrated examples of Digital Transformation - how a business transformed by redesigning their product or service to better suite their customers. When product and service goes through Digital Transformation amazing value and opportunity can by realised through adopting a redesign mindset. This can, quite literally, be transformational!

• This type of transformation often delivers one of the most valuable elements of the wider Digital Business Transformation if focus, investment and commitment is placed on customer experience mapping. The value of this is connectivity of the customer journey across all touchpoints, which means the business starts to get visibility and naturally integrate with other teams and business areas to better serve customers.

Cautions

• Can become a one-trick pony. Transform a product or service and then you think it’s done! Without adopting an adaptive mindset, embedding adaptive processes this is not a good route.

• Digital Transformations in this area can become more of a channel shift rather than a full redesign, if there isn’t enough commitment and leadership to drive the transformation.

4)    Digital Business Transformation

Positive

• Carrying out a Digital Business Transformation means, by definition that everyone and everything is involved and thus the overall benefits become far greater than the transformations mentioned above.

Something Beautiful

• A complete transformation of your business from a 20th century organisation to a 21st century organisation serving a 21st century audience! Please note I say audience not just customer. Digital Business Transformation places a focus on each audience within it’s ecosystem: customer, workforce, supplier, partner, stakeholder and increasingly the wider community.

Clearly, for Digital Transformation to be truly sustainable and adaptive, it must be a Digital Business Transformation and that requires an inside-out focus, a commitment toward redesign far beyond a product or service, a commitment and participation by the entire leadership team and be fully inclusive of all audiences within the business ecosystem.

Any business that wants to serve a 21st century audience should, ultimately, have its eye on Number 4 above.

This is not to say the other types of Digital Transformation are without merit, quite the contrary, they can be significant starting points from which a wider business transformation can grow, and often one will effect the beginning of another. In this instance they would most probably become strategic projects or initiatives under the umbrella term Digital Business Transformation movement.

Summary

1)    Recognise which type of Digital Transformation your organisation is currently undergoing or talking about and if it falls within No. 1, 2 or 3 ensure your leadership team know this is only the start of something bigger. Do not dilute the imperative of the wider Digital Business Transformation but use your learnings, your successes as the business case to widen your efforts. 

2)    Think about how you can start to bring other areas of the business along the Digital Transformation Gravy Train – Data, Workforce Engagement, Customer Services…think, be open, share, collaborate, ditch ego and all sense of ownership and get out there!

3)    If you are undergoing Digital Business Transformation make sure you make it real for everyone: from the very top of the business to the very bottom. Everyone must be involved and and have a voice in mapping the journey from a place of contribution rather than a place of being force fed.

4)    Spend time, more time and then some more time, in getting a majority understanding and a solid level of authentic commitment to active participation from the leadership team.

Regardless of which type of Digital Transformation you are journeying towards or journeying through, make sure you are totally aware of your starting point. Ensure any targets are based on an audience benefit and business outcome and not just profit margin or savings quota.

So, one down!  I’m thinking of sharing our Wheel of Digital Transformation as my next actionable blog. Sharing with you the steps we take businesses through to help implement realistic and effective Digital Business Transformation. Sound good!? Please do let me know.

2016 - Sweet Sixteen! The year of serious transformation?

I couldn't start the year without adding some personal thoughts on the road ahead - having read so many already via social and the web.  So, short, sharp and sweet  - here we go!

1. Working in the world of digital, leadership and transformation, I think it's clear that 2016 needs to be the year where we say No! to discussions that take us away from action, like 'What does digital mean' etc...and start to really focus on doing. Strategising from a place where you've tested something or had a go is a far easier position to start from.

2. 2016 should also be the year where we accept digital leadership as a profile and not as a simple job title to be handed out without much thought or consideration. If you want to be a digital leader consider your capability and competency across a robust 360 profile, not just based on your job title or business area expertise. Are you a change agent? Can you face and manage challenges? Do you truly inspire? Are you adaptive, open? Being a CIO or CMO isn't a default passage into digital leadership.

3. Understanding the need for competency and capability around driving change is as important, maybe more so, than technology. More and more we are hearing that digital transformation is about dealing with change first and technology second. Let's get a bit more supportive and focussed on readiness for change, fostering an openness for doing new things or things different across our people: Leadership, workforce, partners, customers, community - the whole lot!

4. Sadly, as many authors, analysts and research papers have recognised, most projects fail in expectation in some way, shape or form. It's been sited on numerous occasions by some of the world's most reputable professional services organisations and research houses that this is due largely to a lack of skill. So, there you go! That's something you can tackle immediately in 2016. Accept that skills no longer work by generic title. I for one remember when I was choosing my specialist subjects in school as a teenager. I had to choose between Maths, Geography, Music, Physics, English...you get the picture? That was fine, it's all we needed. My 14 year old nephew can choose micro specific topic areas based on his interests and strengths today...and that's exactly how you should see business. It's not that you need a marketing manager so much as you need more and more specialist skills to deal with specialist areas to serve a superior customer experience. And by all accounts this idea will continue to diversify for a few years to come. So let's plan for it, let's consider what this means in context of our own business ecosystem.

5. Security. I am far from an expert in this area - be it cyber, compliance, data protection etc. But I have recognised one thing and hope that in 2016 this area gains the appropriate airtime; security is not all about control and restriction. It's about enablement and it's about understanding that as individuals we all have a responsibility in this area, whether we are an employee, a customer or a member of the community. It's not just up to someone else anymore, it's up to you as well as the business, the brand, the service, the government. We should all try to become more personally accountable in this area. I for one have ear marked this as a personal focus area in 2016.

6. Finally, (there is so much more, but we're in an attention deficit world so these are just a few of my thoughts to share) it would be remiss of me to publish this blog without mention of leadership. This has to be the elephant in the room that needs tackling in 2016. Leaders and Leadership Teams everywhere please start listening and looking - the world has changed and if you are going to win, you need to change too! So what if a 20 year old graduate suggests a new way of communicating with the workforce? So what if the role of a leader is more about participation than ever before - I believe you wouldn't want to be a leader in the 21st Century without a thirst for continuous improvement and participation at all levels without too much ego or hierarchy getting in the way.

Well, there you have it. Just a few thoughts, around stuff and things we could/should be doing or focussing more on in 2016 when it comes to digital transformation. It could be a great year this Sweet Sixteen!

This post was originally published via Pulse/LinkedIn on 7th January