WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: CTO position often comes up in discussions, and more often than not the question is "what do they do?". This is a good start to think about it.

WHY IT MATTERS: I agree that hybrid collaboration, ransomware & automation are 2022 priorities for CIOs but feel that energy & blockchain may not be very high the priority list of most CIOs outside of government.

WHY IT MATTERS: yes, we need more T-shaped employees - at least as far as training and skills are concerned. A very good paper from mckinsey on the breadth vs depth of knowledge and the need to provide individualized training programs for your employees.

WHY IT MATTERS: remote work means changing the way we work and the tools we use. This book extract provides an interesting diagram to help make sense of it all. Useful.

WHY IT MATTERS: so much has been written and this article raises interesting questions and possible solutions. Best quote: "Others talk of the office as a destination, a place that has to make the idea of getting out of bed earlier, in order to mingle with people who may have covid-19, seem attractive."

WHY IT MATTERS: I don't do news but this one strikes me as interesting and I expect many other changes related to covid that will make their way into our daily lives. Here, indicating you'll be on site or remote for a meeting will become essential (happened to me yesterday - "oups I thought you'd be on site"...)

WHY IT MATTERS: interesting stats and useful information for all companies as they make their plans for return to the office. In particular this stat which indicates that 1 in 3 may look elsewhere if return to the old way is projected.

WHY IT MATTERS: returning to the office, yes or no? full time or part time? The talk of the town these days it seems. More important question is: WHY return to the office? To sit in front of a computer all day? Nope. The buzzword seems to be all about caring for ancestral human behaviours and needs: rituals, tribes, ... Anthropology more than technology.

This long article from The Guardian explains what they are with some useful examples. It details with success the experience of early adopters of digital technologies and their experiments with new office behaviours that digital transformation mandates.

The article reminds me of my software development experience. As I started to use Agile methodology and 3 week sprints, I found that it was best to have everyone on-site for the first few days of the sprint, to align everyone and let design decisions flow from conversations between team members. When the backlog was groomed and everyone was coding, then developers were better at home for the next few days, at their own pace and schedule using videoconferencing and messaging to share. Then bring them back for the final crunch - all together to pull in with the testers and the UAT team. So not 2 days home, 3 days in the office. More like 2 day workshop, then half day meetings to regroup every few days, then 2-3 days (or more) of crunch time before the sprint end.

For digital transformationalists like me, office rituals are important because the remote working tools have serious limitations and it is often best to sit next to your colleagues at regular intervals to be productive and efficient.

WHY IT MATTERS: human nature will dictate return to the office or work from home.

People that DO things for a living - coding, answering calls, writing marketing copy, etc. - don't want to waste 1-2hrs per day traveling to an office to sit in front of the same computer they use at home! Return to the office will not be a huge selling point for them.

People that MANAGE others will crave the visibility and face to face interactions. They will push for a return to the office. And because they are higher up in the food chain, the pressure will be HUGE for workers to return to the office.

Thus I think working remotely will negatively impact your promotion potential within typical organizations and that most workers will goo back to the office at least 3 days per week - even if their work could as well be completed remotely.

WHY IT MATTERS: "digital transformation" often means anything and everything. These 5 markers can help you define quantifiable metrics to ground resources in concrete, actionable activities. Too often, unfortunately, are CDOs "chief digital officers" , CTO "chief technology officers" or "VP digital transformation" or "VP innovation" tasked with vague requirements that are aspirational ("move the organization in the digital world") or qualitative ("coordinate actions and support executives in the digital transformation"). After a few years of workshops, evaluations, and pilot projects they often fail to deliver meaningful business impacting metrics. 

WHY IT MATTERS: interesting solution developed at Cloudflare, a technology company, to facilitate conversations across the organization. The paper highlights the challenges of making random chats truly random (and useful). As work from home and remote work become the norm post-covid, this will become required in all organizations. Not only large distributed companies but also startups that decide to go full work from home.

WHY IT MATTERS: buried in this article from McKinsey is this gem of a chart about different ways to introduce transformation, including digital. Pick the wrong method and you are doomed. I believe it.

WHY IT MATTERS: technology is high on CEO radar of priorities as digital transformations shifts from front-office (web, social, search, all areas of the marketing CMO) to the back office (manufacturing, security, IOT, cloud, AI). CIOs play a role but many times they can't cut it so the CTO comes in. Could be a fundamental trend, or simply tunnel vision (it is an IBM survey after all ;-). Thanks to Sean Moffitt - Future Proofing Next guru! Many more insights in the full report.

WHY IT MATTERS: an optimistic viewpoint of the future, very much worth reading as it covers all aspects of the recovery and many elements of digital transformation - remote work, eCommerce, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: suggestions for improvements in 2021 from Accenture include rethinking innovation, delivery, last mile and  remote work.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI and more specifically machine learning and deep learning skills are in high demand but it appears from this annual update that demand remains higher than supply.

WHY IT MATTERS: this well-researched article highlights the PROs & CONs of work from anywhere - WFA - and provides best practices from large companies that have done this at scale (1300 WFA employees at GitHub). A reference for us all in digital transformation and also a showcase for the real impact of our work: large cities may struggle to attract people versus small towns that have lower cost of living and little traffic, countries may find that work visas need to be adapted to limit remote workers (how to do that), etc.

All in all, it may be the biggest transformation that digital brings: a societal change. Who knows...

WHY IT MATTERS: no surprise, companies will hire technologists and agile methodology experts post confinement to enable their remote workforce ... and reduce the need for humans!

WHY IT MATTERS: yes the new normal may include being tracked by governments and employers for contact tracing. At some point the data will need to be be stored somewhere and the question will become: where is it stored? is it secure? is privacy protected?

WHY IT MATTERS: have everyone work from home. Many say it cannot be done. Buffer has done it. They may be small (few 100s employees) and not have a long history (10 years) and produce a digital solution (website), their experience may help every business improve their remote work environments.

WHY IT MATTERS: this in depth study shows that cybersecurity issues in organizations stem from lack of skilled resources. With covid and remote work on the rise, the importance of cybersecurity is higher than it has ever been.

WHY IT MATTERS: a very interesting reference to manage teams remotely (or not) using kanban boards.

WHY IT MATTERS: a great guide to help users be more efficient when working remotely. Includes tips on holding meetings, chats and collaborative documentation. The basics!

WHY IT MATTERS: the biggest impact of digital transformation is on humans and this article from BCG analyzes the changes in talent demand and supply. Must read for managers in the context of global changes we currently see.

WHY IT MATTERS: insights into the tools and methods to manage an agile team when working remotely.