I wrote about Digital Transformation a few weeks ago. In the heart of it, People are the real key to the transformation of every organization. Following up what I described earlier, Change is the factor that People in every organization have to embrace.
Drowning and going blind
We are swarmed by technology. We are inundated with everything digital and we are attracted to the latest buzz and hype. In the sea of it all, these things have made us, the People reliant of technology. This reliance, this needy dependency, has made us complacent. We settle because the boring and mundane tasks have been taken away from us. Moreover, the constant firehose feeding our lives has created “digital drowning“, a situation I would like describe as gasping for a breather to think clearly. We are bogged by digital quagmire, blinded by what shiny things and we lose sight of the strategic focus.
We shrivel and we go back to what we think is our comfort zone.
Change is constant and uncomfortable
I once read that our known comfort zone is no longer our safety zone. That idea of everyone’s safety zone has been obliterated aeons ago. I love the following quote from Seth Godin, my absolute marketing guru.
As he rightly pointed out, “There is no ‘ever after’. There’s just the chaos of now“. We don’t arrive at a comfortable place after the change. There is no comfortable place or safety place for that matter … at all. The Digital Transformation or what ever Information Age we described our generation earlier, is constant change. We have to ride the hungry bear and we have to saddle the ferocious dragon at all times. We have to learn to ride the bucking bronco!
So, we learn. We change and change.
Mindset and Attitude
Someone shared with me a story. This happened at a well-known vocational school here in Malaysia. In the workshop of high tech machinery and technology, students with poor attitude and safety mindset thronged the factory shop floor in their slippers, and cigarette butts were strewn along the corridors and drains of the school. Malaysia wants to move ahead with Industry 4.0 initiatives, known as INDUSTRY4WD. Malaysia has often prided that they are the leading country in South East Asia. For 60 years since our independence, we believe we were better than our neighbour countries. We settled, and today, we see ourselves dropping behind. We cannot afford to have an “assembler” mindset and attitude because the digital transformation and economic complacency would have very serious impact and consequences of Malaysia’s future.
The Attitude of the People involved in the Digital Transformation has to change. We have to accept Change and be comfortable with Change at all times. Those who have accepted Change and take up the mastery of Change will succeed in the Chaos of Change.
When the Attitude changes, a Mindset is transformed. Only then will the People element in the Digital Transformation journey takes shape, adopting and adapting all the time.
Change in People’s Thinking
For a long time, I am drawn to the quote “As Within, So Without“. What you think on the inside reflect what you are on the outside. So start thinking and ride the Change.
The foundation of Digital Transformation requires Change in the People.
