If you google ‘Digital Transformation’, the results will be a little overwhelming. Almost every organization claims that is embracing the new digital age and, almost everybody that has an smartphone declares that is somehow ready for the digital disruption. Still, if you take a deeper look at the everyday aspects of running a business, the reality seems much more tactical and patchy. There are wonderful pockets of ‘digital enlightenment’, but the concept of a fully integrated ecosystem is only an elegant diagram so far. A perfect example may be Uber drivers, they take the ride with the App and manage the payment and billing ,,, however, they tend to trust themselves to Waze or Google maps for a faster and more accurate output on driving directions.

There are few useful tips collected from experience and failures that will help you (and your teams) on the people aspects of this digital adventure:

– A meaningful platform of digital business assets is the foundation for any transformation initiative – declaring ‘digital’ without the right set of tools is empty demagogy

– Remixing and getting your team ready for a digital business model is not a linear process, it gets complicated and sometimes tactical moves are the best next step on the right direction

– A ‘backbone’ of up-skilling and digital acceleration initiative (aka Training and Education) is indispensable and should be embedded in the daily business execution

– The best ‘talent equation’ is always multigenerational to ensure you have strong players of both, deep business experience and fearless innovation

– Never settled for ‘mild compromises’ in your people programs to smooth the transition to a digital business model; also, never allow ‘grandfathering’ of compensation or incentives practices for legacy pockets of your digital business

– Purposely build a full fledged incubator of digital business model execution within the fabric of your organization

– Enable the leaders to drive the transformation (A reverse mentoring program matching seasoned managers with millennial employees tends to work wonders!)

No perfect formula exists because each organization had accomplished different levels of ‘digital maturity’ and the marketplaces where the day-to-day happens tend to be very segmented. Always be prepare to experiment, win or declare quick failure and move on. We need to repeat ourselves every morning that ‘change’ is the only constant and, maybe gradually, we will really start to believe that and act accordingly. Now stop goofing around in LinkedIn and comeback to work to drive meaningful transformation projects and initiatives ,,,, Good virtual winds on your digital sailing 🙂