When discussing culture and Digital Transformation, we must focus on changes and updates that come with new technologies, like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data. It also entails aligning efforts, values, and behaviors with a company's and its collaborators' adaptability and flexibility to overcome problems.
In this instance, you'll learn the basic concepts and understand how merging Culture and Transformation is key to achieving a company's objectives. You're in the right place if you want to find out how to create an excellent environment in your company.
What is Digital Culture?
Digital Culture refers to how people use and interact with digital technologies and the cultural phenomena that emerge from this interaction. It encompasses various activities, behaviors, beliefs, and practices influenced by or rooted in digital technologies.
So, a digitally transformed culture is when a company embraces all the changes and benefits digital technologies can provide. It takes diverse approaches, including innovation and customer focus, data-based decisions, collaboration, cultural openness, leadership attributions, and massive employee participation.
To start embracing a digitally transformed culture, leaders must pay attention to the community of collaborators, including users, to align internal and external processes with business objectives. Collaboration is also fundamental in the Digital Culture since it encourages leaders and collaborators of any department to unite as a team. Embracing transparency allows employees to seek help with any problem, building trust and freedom of expression. In this way, the employees can show their observations to the leaders to discuss the solutions and choose a viable solution.
What's Digital Transformation (DX)?
Digital transformation refers to integrating digital technologies into various aspects of an organization's operations, activities, and culture, as we mentioned before, to fundamentally change how it operates and delivers value to its stakeholders. This transformation is not just about adopting new technologies but also about reshaping business processes, organizational culture, and User Experiences to maximize the potential of digital tools.
Digital Business Transformation strategies play a different role in each company as they encompass different technologies for each of them. This process is born when a company achieves an excellent Digital Culture and focuses on the User Experience, reducing friction, improving productivity, and increasing profitability.
How to Merge Cultural Transformation and Digital Transformation?
Digital Transformation encourages using digital tools and data-driven insights to drive customer-centric decisions without forgetting innovation. But what are the steps to merge your current culture with Digital Transformation?
1. Live your values. Maintaining traditional values in your digital strategy helps your company in many areas. One of the cultural and digitization goals is to promote innovation practices through various tools and encourage the massive participation of all stakeholders.
2. Establish goals and a proper communication. Management plays a fundamental role when an organization is implementing a Digital Culture. As a leader, you must communicate the vision and strategy and set goals and metrics based on your projects. The purpose is to invest time and resources in essential things, such as the involvement of many people in the change process and avoiding resistance. Listen to suggestions, behaviors, and concerns, and study the feedback's viability.
3. Set up leadership. Digital Transformation is most effective when a dedicated person leads the team and is in tune with the values of Digital Culture. A good leader encourages regular meetings to track progress and provide feedback only at critical points.
4. Involve your collaborators. As part of the culture and Digital Transformation, we must determine who is excited about digital innovation. For this, it’s vital to study the abilities and skills of each collaborator. When hiring more employees, you must look beyond technical knowledge and determine your growth incentive on a cultural level.
5. Measure progress and success. It’s important to hold periodic meetings on the work done, consider listening, and trust your team. Iteratively set transparency goals and stay informed about everything. In addition, giving collaborators the freedom to choose their delivery dates within a workable range is feasible.
6. Supply adequate digital tools. One way to encourage innovative thinking is through providing tools and technical and skill training. Considering technology is advancing rapidly, keeping up with technologies and new technical knowledge is essential when merging Digital Transformation with your culture.
Tips for creating a Digital Transformation Culture
●Leadership Commitment and Vision. Top leadership should communicate a clear vision for Digital Transformation throughout the organization. Additionally, business leaders should demonstrate their commitment through their actions and decisions.
●Culture of Innovation. Encourage collaboration, create idea-sharing channels, provide resources for promoting creative thinking, and experiment with new technologies and ideas.
●Cross-Functional Collaboration. Break down silos and encourage collaboration between different departments and teams. Digital Transformation initiatives often require a multidisciplinary approach from part of Cross-Functional teams.
●Data-Driven Decision-Making. Encourage the use of data analytics to inform and validate business decisions.
●Digital Communication and Transparency. Use digital tools for transparent communication to achieve successful transformation initiatives, progress, and goals.
●Success acknowledgement. Recognize and celebrate milestones and achievements, and encourage a culture where learning from failures is seen as an opportunity for growth and improvement.
●User Feedback and User-Centered Design. Involve users early in the development to ensure digital solutions meet their needs and expectations. Likewise, implement user-centered design principles to create intuitive and user-friendly interfaces.
●Progress tracking. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track the impact of digital initiatives and regularly review and assess progress towards Digital Transformation goals.
Concluding Remarks
Digital Transformation is a crucial process that integrates digital technologies into an organization's strategic planning. However, it's not just about technology; it's also a cultural change that enables organizations to optimize work through good leadership, clear expectations, and a shared vision of the future. A good company culture also plays a significant role in driving Digital Transformation and adaptability.
Preparing for the future takes a lot of work, but today, we have tools that make that task easier. With the help of digital technologies, organizations can streamline their processes, automate their workflows, and gain insights into the Customer Experience their operating models provide.
