Digital Transformation

It is not uncommon that the majority of us get stuck in jobs that neither totally exploit our potential nor offer us with learning opportunities. But it is a shame when we settle down at these options without looking for chances that, although be challenging, can at least improving our knowledge and skills rather than just adding another experience to the resume. The fault lies in humans who are programmed to opt for comfortable, monotonous, familiar job positions. This is another reason why merely adopting digital transformation to our workspace will fail in the long run as we are not skilled enough to implement it properly and make the most of the available resources.  As a result, we get paid less in our jobs, end up on the counterproductive side, whereas we should be able to close the skill gap and propelling self towards a more excellent, more prosperous career.

"Any kind of crisis can be good. It wakes you up."- Ryan Reynolds.

Without a doubt, this is true, in a difficult time, a person is forced to think tangentially, and beyond the basic thoughts horizon. During these radical times, we are presented with ideas on how to walk over the problem areas and enhance our skillset. So maybe the current pandemic is one of such chances, we have to reflect upon ourselves. Upskilling is the need of the hour so as to be prepared for future changes.  According to Harvard Business Review, this can be achieved by:

Humanistic Approach: If we have learned something from emerging technologies is that they typically help us with more yield from a limited pool of sources and tools. And this is possible only when we have the right skills. Contrary to popular belief, this automation has led to creating more jobs than eliminating them. Maybe at first, it seems like this disruption has led to lower creativity; one must remember than being creative is a personal trait. Hence it is essential to invest in educating, training people to made them better skilled and therefore can work hand in hand with modern technologies, rather than be baffled by them.

Emphasis on soft skills: While possessing technical skills are essential, we cannot ignore the necessity of soft skills. There is no use of an employee who lacks curiosity, does not like sharing knowledge, or prefers on sharing data when required with other teams or even has poor team-building skills. The hard skills can be either mainstream or outdated, but soft skills do not. In other words, technical aptitude is temporary, but intellectual curiosity must be perpetual.

Multi-way dynamics: The bottom-up approach is now ancient. Further, it does not facilitate progress for a healthy and productive enterprise environment. This culture needs to be replaced with either parallel change or top-bottom structure. Organizational change is more effective when the top leaders embrace the transformation. This not only enforces trust in the subordinates but also makes them have faith in the whole digital switch process while encouraging them to upgrade themselves technical expertise. The top authorities also benefit from this form of leadership and differentiate themselves from the rivals on the grounds of mindset, values, integrity, and competence, thus eventually outshining them in the race.

Remember to act on Data Insight: Companies need to be aware that seeking higher-end and fancy tools to incorporate AI, IoT, or other areas of AI like machine learning, natural language processing would not help them get an edge in the market. It does only when they have access to qualitative and quantitative data stores and the necessary skills to apply resources to extract valuable and actionable insights from it. Having or creating proper algorithms to translate this data is equally crucial and boosts financial gains. So it is better if companies come out of the illusion that employing smart data scientists and buying costly licensed software shall make them marker leaders. Data without insights are insignificant, and insights without action are futile.

Failures as building blocks: It is rightly said that failures are the pillars of success. Hence, having a perfect system or framework will leaving no room of mistakes and hence no further scope of learning nor improvements. Although sometimes, this may not be the case. So, the only way to adapt to a constantly changing and rapidly disrupted present is to speed up and operate at pace. Surely speed, and delivery of quality will not take place simultaneously parallel to each other, yet it is always great to have the freedom to experiment and tweak certain elements. Who knows, we can get even superior outcomes then! Therefore it is okay to have a slower rate of success in the initial phase than stagnancy later.

Humans have always had proved to be a better asset than other aspects of the technological revolution. This was possible due to eagerness to move further than general comfort zones and use talents and skills at disposal to transform into more refined versions. So why stop now and settle for less?