Digital Dexterity – Jaison Jacob

What are Digital Dexterity and its importance?

Teams’ capacity to adapt and use existing and emerging technology in their sector to deliver better results for their firm is referred to as digital dexterity. Because the digital world is always changing, personnel must be willing to adapt and innovate with new technology. Employees and the company might be affected by their level of digital dexterity. Digital transformation must be welcomed, and this shift in thinking must be visible in each employee as well as across the enterprise. When it comes to conducting a digital transformation, having an agile and adaptable staff may make all the difference, and this is where digital dexterity comes in.

Basics of Digital Dexterity

Digital dexterity is a technique for preparing your company for future difficulties and identifying solutions with the use of digital tools. This is frequently a company-wide approach that can assist team gain a better understanding of digital tools and services. As a result, digital skills and its attributes have become increasingly important as time has passed. The reliance on technology to create collaboration and a sense of belonging among remote team in the ‘new normal’ will be more crucial than it has ever been in the future.

What are organization’s needs and how you can lead the charge?

You’re not alone if you have no idea what digital dexterity is. According to Craig Roth, vice president of Gartner Research, “the capacity and ambition to utilize technology for better business outcomes.”No matter what new technology or strategy a company adopts, it will fail unless people embrace it,” Roth said.

The teams involvement in transforming a corporation into a digitally adept one

So, where does this fit into all of this? According to a popular notion.” “To encourage desirable behaviors, the team will need to play a significant role in promoting desired behaviors and modifying the processes, procedures, rules, and management practices that shape how work is done.”

It can be difficult to shift a whole organization from one that is resistant to new technology, or at the very least accepts it grudgingly face a difficult road ahead of them, but it is not insurmountable.

To assist establish a more digitally dextrous team following steps can help:

Begin by conducting surveys or focus groups to identify issues that inhibit teams’ willingness to change their jobs. Determine what went wrong in the past and how to correct it.
Create a benchmarking/measuring system that evaluates teams (and overall organizational) attitudes regarding new technology. With that information, you may decide where and how to concentrate your efforts (e.g., on one department or a particular kind of technology).
Consider putting together a “future visioning endeavor” that envisions your company’s future. People may be more open to new technology if they see it as a step toward a better future.
“Citizen development, data science, and any other fields where non-IT workers are needed”

How to Build Digital Dexterity Into Your Workforce?

How do you promote a digitally dexterous workforce after addressing basic transparency and accountability issues, given that only 16 percent of all leaders — and only 9% of employees — have high digital dexterity? Below are outlined the important actions that businesses can take to start developing their employees’ digital objectives and skills.

Demonstrate to employees why digital dexterity is important to them.
To improve digital dexterity, brokers should have development experiences.
To assist leaders, identify and utilize “translators” with digital skills.
Develop skill disseminators to provide on-the-job coaching.

Demonstrate why digital dexterity is important to them.

For some team, the issue isn’t so much a lack of digital aptitude as it is a failure to see the value of up skilling for digital transformation. Organizations focus on the business’ demands far too often when asking for change from team. Teams are more motivated to learn a skill when they perceive how it will help them grow as a person and achieve their professional ambitions, or when their company contextualizes skill needs to their specific business units. Demonstrating this value can also help you retain customers. According to Gartner’s 2021 EVP Employee Survey, when companies encourage personal growth, employees are more likely to stay. To ensure that all employees are on board, it’s vital to emphasize the link between improving digital skills and the personal impact digital transformation has.

Ageas, a publicly-traded worldwide insurance firm with Belgian roots, assists its executives in this by encouraging them to reflect. It created external “digital safaris” to expose leaders to cutting-edge technologies. The major purpose is to demonstrate to executives how other organizations’ executive teams approach and make digital decisions. The learning is then contextualized by Ageas’ leaders using a self-reflection template. It urges them to consider what they would need to do to replicate what they witnessed, as well as to devise a strategy for beginning to practice the behaviors they wish to adopt.

To improve digital dexterity, brokers should have development experiences.

There is no alternative for hands-on experience when it comes to learning. Teams current positions, on the other hand, may not provide enough on-the-job learning opportunities for new skills, especially given that many companies are deciding on hybrid work schedules. As a result, it’s critical to connect employees with individuals or initiatives that will help them develop new abilities. Organizations that use their learning and development function to link employees to learning opportunities can improve skill readiness by up to 28% when compared to self-service development. One technological company’s career services team has accomplished this by developing a mechanism that allows for the smooth bartering of talents and development opportunities across departments. When managers have a development opportunity, they may list it on the tool, and employees can browse all of the options and pursue the one that interests them the most.

To assist leaders, identify and utilize “translators” with digital skills.

Organizations can identify people to act as “digital translators” to advise executives through digital business activities to help them develop their digital dexterity. ENGIE has achieved this by bringing in individuals from outside of IT who have experience or skill in digital domains (e.g., data science or blockchain) to advise executives on digital business prospects and connect them with key stakeholders.

Develop skill disseminated to provide on-the-job coaching.

“Skill disseminators,” or people who can coach others in vital digital skills on the job, are linked to the concept of digital translators. The first stage is to choose an employee who satisfies many essential requirements, including a drive to learn and teach, an openness to new chances, and a local network of influence. HR then prepares that person to coach others by teaching them in-demand skills. Because skill disseminators operate on the front lines, they’re in the best position to spot when new abilities are needed in the workplace and can provide timely, tailored coaching to coworkers. Because digital talents are increasingly found in atypical sectors of companies, it may be easier to locate potential digital skill disseminators than one may assume. According to a Gartner report, non-IT functions accounted for 39% of new job listings with digital skill requirements between July 2019 and June 2020. The IT department isn’t the only area to look for digital skills.

As the economy improves and midsize businesses become more comfortable with hybrid work, companies may shift their focus away from survival and toward what the company needs to thrive: digital dexterity. Focusing on digital dexterity provides individuals with not just desired (but also necessary) development, but also the fundamental basis to speed digital transformation.