In many organisations the lack of digital skills is seen as an issue of staff capability when in reality the lack of digital skills is often a leadership issue.
Most of my conversations with executives about digital skills, or perhaps more precisely the lack of digital skills, go something like this (note this is deliberately over simplified and just a little pointed to help me make my point).
Executive “Our vision is to be a digital organisation but the majority of our employees do not have the digital skills they need to be successful. This is a major barrier blocking our desire to become a digital organisation. If only our people were more digitally literate.”
Me “So, if the lack of digital skills is a major barrier to your ability to go digital what are you doing about it?”
Executive “I’m not sure what you mean. What is it that you think we could do?”
Me “I get that you have what you have in terms of skills but what are you doing to change the level of digital skills available to the organisation over time?”
Executive stares blankly, maybe shrugs “like what …… ?”
Me “well, for example when you recruit new people into the organisation are digital skills considered as part of the recruitment process? Are they defined as a key competency? Do you consider turning down job applicants who meet all your other criteria but lack digital skills?”
Executive “No”, generally followed by their rationale for why this is not possible.
Me “OK so when you recruit you don’t recruit people with digital skills because you think this will make recruitment extremely difficult. OK, I get that, so, if you are not recruiting for digital skills are you providing digital skills training for your people so they can build the skills they need to be effective in your organisation of the future?”
Executive “Well, no”
Me “OK so let’s summarise. In order for you to achieve your vision of a digital organisation you need a digitally skilled workforce. Despite the recognised need for improved digital skills you currently don’t recruit for these skills nor do you provide the training and support to your team to develop these skills.” An uncomfortable silence often results.
Depending on how uncomfortable I may press on “now I know that you didn’t actually say this but, the implication of ‘the team don’t have the digital skills they need’ is that it’s the team’s fault. Yet the team is an accurate reflection of what you have recruited, supported and tolerated. That is, you created this problem, perhaps unconsciously but you created it nonetheless. If you want this to change you need to change some or all of how you support your team, how you recruit new team members, and what you tolerate in terms of digital tools use or lack of use. Digital skills is a leadership problem, not an employee problem.”
If I really want to push my luck I may continue. “So far we have talked about the digital skills of the team. What we haven’t discussed is the digital skills of leadership. Do you as leaders have the digital skills that you need? Do you know or have you agreed what these are?” At this point I will often notice the large piles of paper that various members of the team have brought to the meeting. Yes they also have some combination of laptops, iPads and smartphones with them but what they use is pen and paper. It always invokes a rueful smile from me. Digital skills are much more than being able to use your iPad to negotiate a meeting effectively but if you can’t even do that what does it tell you about executives digital capabilities?
At this point the conversation usually ends or moves on to another topic. The uncomfortable feeling tends to hang around but there is seldom a commitment to change. I believe that this lack of leadership commitment to systematically invest in the digital skills of themselves and the team is a significant factor in why so many digital transformations fail much more often than they succeed. How can you expect a transformation to succeed if you do not equip your people with what they need to be successful?
I would be interested to hear if this conversation happens in your organisation? If not what have you done to change the dialogue and justify the investment?
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