Welcome to Week 2 of our Digitally Fit bootcamp, where we’re whipping you into shape for the big bold world of Digital Transformation.

We kicked off last week with our Agility session and now we’ve mastered that, we’re getting straight back into the saddle with some Strength training.

For the warm-up, let’s focus on what it means to be Digitally Strong.

And no, we don’t mean building muscle so we can fight off the robots (or Gen Zers!) coming for our jobs.

Being Digitally Strong is about being resilient, finding your voice, experimenting and being prepared for the rapid and relentless pace of change that is Digital.

Key to the recipe for success are strong leaders who communicate, support, inspire and listen. Leaders that are strong enough to learn from and celebrate failure. Leaders that can inspire teams to get results that outpace the competition.

Just like being fit doesn’t mean being the next Usain Bolt, being Digitally Fit isn’t about being the next Apple or Mark Zuckerburg either.

It’s important not to confuse Digital Transformation and adoption with having to invent a world-changing technology or the next great platform.

Like we said in Week 1 – start small. Even just reviewing and digitising existing processes is a great starting point.

So, let’s get stuck in.

Our strength training today will focus on five core areas:

Strong Communication – Creating and communicating a compelling vision is essential to any Digital Transformation initiative.  Like any change program – they are more successful when the end goal and the benefits are spelled out from the beginning. But we’re not talking boring, run-of-the-mill email updates that no one reads. Just like you need to be creative in your thinking, you need to be creative with your communication too. Think video messages instead of emails, monthly town-halls with coffee and buns, how about an internal Facebook page or company podcast? Get creative to inspire creativity!

Strong Leadership – A great leader creates a sense of urgency, leads collaboration and gets the troops motivated to see the change through. They also have the ability to adapt their leadership style for those team members who are fearful and reluctant to embrace change. Not everyone is going to be enthusiastic about the coming transformation, right?  Plus, you may have a workforce suffering from fatigue after what has been a very challenging year.  The Digitally Fit leader recognises what the team needs to perform at the highest levels even when that means slowing down for a moment so you can speed up again later.

Strong Voices – Successful Digital Transformation calls for employees who aren’t afraid to voice their opinion, who will challenge and question, who feel empowered to make suggestions and get involved. But while some people are naturally bolder and more outspoken others may struggle to speak up. That is why organizations with a strong culture of collaboration and communication do so well.  They recognise that everyone’s voice has value and so they create platforms, processes and approaches to ensure all can be heard. This can be easily done by offering multiple ways to provide feedback and ask questions both publicly and privately.

Strong Lessons – This really is the crux of successful Digital Transformation – cultivating a culture where failure is something to be celebrated, not frowned upon. Easier said than done in a world where we traditionally only celebrate the A students. Well, we’re here to say: ‘Celebrate the failures too!’ Promote experimentation over perfection, learning from mistakes rather than always being right. Businesses who aren’t afraid to fail and who learn from their failures are those who inspire courage, creativity and flexibility AND who will ultimately succeed.

Strong Reactions – If there’s one thing you can be sure of in Digital Transformation, it’s ambiguity. In fact, “comfort with ambiguity” is one of the most in-demand soft skills when it comes to Digital Transformation. The speed and pace of emerging technologies means change is often and rapid. We highly recommend investment in training and coaching focused on leading and dealing with fast-paced change and that’s what our Digitally Fit gym programme is really all about. Making sure you’re agile, focussed and strong enough to withstand the turbulence!

And that is your Digital Strength training session over for today – we hope you enjoyed it and aren’t feeling too sore. Thanks for joining us and we hope to see you back next week in the gym for our beast-mode Digital Speed training session.

Written by Alana Fearon

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