5 Core Skills to Master for Digital Transformation

Digital transformation sounds like a nonsense phrase, especially when so much of our world is already digital. At its core, the concept boils down to handful of activities. Mastering those make you a powerful force at driving digital transformation within your organization.

Find a thing to improve
There are often easy and obvious things to improve, especially if stakeholders tell you about what they struggle with (when prompted). Also, there are things that are less obvious, which might be tied to strategies that are divergent from how your industry does business. Look for both of these in your search for areas to improve.

Probe for depth and complexity
Once you have found a thing to improve, figure out how deep it reaches within your organization. Determine how many stakeholders, business processes, and systems are involved. Also, note that even if the change is limited to a single group or department, the associated complexity might be high due to implementation details. If this is a skill you're developing, plan to spend a few more rounds than you'd expect probing for those details.

Determine the impact
There are two angles to explore around the impact of your chosen thing: what happens if nothing changes, and what happens if it does. Both of those have measurable effects and are are based on assumptions, including how you arrived at your actuals and estimates. Defining these and having justification will become important as you make your case.

Communicate with clarity and purpose
Changing anything within an organization requires communication. Your goal is not only to define what the change is, but also why it matters to stakeholders and how it aligns to your organization's objectives. In doing so, it builds awareness and acceptance that change is necessary.

Adapt to new techniques and tools
As the market evolves, there are new ways and systems used to solve problems. It's very likely that you, your peers, and your organization will find yourself entering unexplored territory. Be open to learning and adapting as you implement change. Even if it sounds overused, the "trailblazing" and "trailblazer" marketing language from large vendors is spot on.

TLDR: Find a thing to improve, probe for details, determine its impact, communicate clearly, and adapt to new ways of implementing changes.