Digital Transformation From Concept to Reality

Who doesn’t want to be part of a winning team—whether on the football field or in a business? Any company looking to stay competitive needs a strategy for digital transformation, but it’s a full-team effort. And with 80% of US businesses suffering from a lack of IT talent, every team member needs to pull their weight.

How can you build a high-performing IT team to transform your organization into a digital leader?  Here are five tips:

1. Promote a Common Vision

A team is comprised of individuals with differing and sometimes competing goals, which means someone needs to find the common ground. For the teams competing in this weekend’s big game, this vision comes from their talented coaches.  For your organization, it most likely will come from the C-suite.

All the pieces of a successful team need to work together.  The C-Suite — including the CEO, CIO, CMO and CTO — is essential to making it happen and setting an example for the entire organization. They are vital to shaping a security culture committed to addressing customers’ privacy concerns, security transformation and adopting cybersecurity best practices when interacting with mobile devices, the cloud, IoT, etc. – as well as the hybrid IT mindset to drive real transformation in the business.

Leadership doesn’t mean dictatorship, but effective leadership encourages open communication and accountability.

2. Get People Excited to Work for You

It’s always more fun to be on a confident, winning team. You want to instill your employees with a shared sense of mission and responsibility.  Company pride can go a long way in attracting top talent.

3. Promote Innovation and Creativity

Digital innovation can come from unexpected places.  Try looking beyond the IT department. End-users in marketing, customer service and finance can provide you with helpful insights. You want the entire team to feel comfortable offering ideas—even if they end up not working.  Encourage trial and error.  Sometimes the best ideas come from mistakes, but that starts in a culture where people aren’t afraid to fail.

4. Encourage Professional Growth

Football players know the value of continuous training and practice, and effective IT professionals are no different. Technology is constantly evolving. You want to keep your employees’ skills fresh and your team engaged.

By understanding where skill gaps are, your company can identify training needs and focus on those. Having proper training in place also makes it possible to recruit capable, but less experienced talent who are motivated to learn the required skills.

Also, don’t forget that employees learn from each other.  So, get creative and encourage collaboration across teams.

5. Stay Up-to-Date

Winning football team make good use of free agency and the draft to bring new blood into the organization and fill in talent gaps where needed.  Don’t be afraid to hire younger workers with short resumes. They may infuse your IT department with new energy and ideas.

In Summary…

Digital disruption is the new norm, and ignoring it is no longer an option. But it’s the people executing the vision that really make digital transformation more than a buzzword. Building the right team is key to success.

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