Digital Capability Maturity
Insights for leaders navigating a digital world.
Welcome to Leading Digital - a three minute read designed to help you ask better questions, make smarter tech decisions, and lead with confidence in today's digital environment.
Digital Capability Maturity
In this edition of Leading Digital, we're going to dive into digital capability maturity. I know, it's a bit of a mouthful, but, trust me, it's a topic that can make your life much easier by connecting the technology dots. Organisations with a high level of maturity experience a greater ability to manage technology risk, exploit new opportunities, and smoothly integrate technology into their ways of working - it adds up to stronger productivity, delivery, and opportunity for competitive advantage.
Simply put, digital capability is the capacity of your organisation to turn digital technologies into business value. I think of it in four major components:
Strategy & Leadership - where are we aiming, how will we get there, and who is advocating and leading the way?
Governance - do we have the right guard rails and oversight to support our strategy?
People & Process - do we have the people, skills, integration into business, and learning culture to execute?
Technology - finally, do we have the right set of tools in place? (see earlier ediitons for more on why this one is last!)
I might have been called in to look at tech policies, providers, or because tech was just not working, but you can't paper over things with a policy, new tools, or a fresh hire. So, the first activity I do with clients is always a Digital Capability Maturity Assessment to understand the health of each of those elements.
Typically, you'll be stronger in some areas than others. Most organisations actually don't need to be at the cutting edge of technology - developing industry leading tools in house, for example. If you're in a regulated industry governance may be a priority. If digital experience is a part of your competitve advantage you may want to dial up the culture of innovation and how you integrate digital tools into your processes. The important thing to know is that no one area can succeed without support from the others. If you're noticing challenges in one of those areas, consider it in concert with the others.
By having a mental framework for digital capability, the pathway to building up maturity in each area and the impact it wil have across the others becomes much clearer. Once you can see the parts of the puzzle, you can start asking questions that will move you in the right direction.
Leaders have been asking...
Asking great questions is a leadership skill you already have. Here's some questions you can ask to better understand the role of technology for your own organisation.
A question for the leadeship team: "Do we have a clear vision for how technology supports our strategy, and is someone accountable for leading it?"
A question for yourself: "If we had to make a major technology decision today, would I know where to get all the information I needed to make it?"
A question for your team: "Is the technology we're using today supporting you to deliver in your role? Are you getting enough support to build the skills you need to use it well?"
It's difficult to list only a few questions for this topic! These three are a good place to start opening the conversation. If you find there's not a strong answer for these it's a good sign you're in a reactive decision making state when it comes to digital technologies. Reacitvity often leads to a fractured set of tools, shifting goal posts for teams, and challenges keeping up with skilling needs.
Take action!
Building up your digital capability maturity is about progress, not perfection. If these ideas are quite new for your organisation, start by mapping out the four areas and where your strengths and weaknesses are within them. Even a gut-feel assessment is a good start. Once you've got that mapped out, take some time to consider what good looks like for your organisation. Just like that, you've got the beginnings of a digital capability roadmap in bridging the gaps!
As always, leaders don't need all the answers, and we certainly won't all be technology experts. Having aframework for thinking about digital capability, our strengths and weaknesses and what guides our decisions relating to technology can reframe the conversation from being 'too technical' to a business conversation. Focus on the outcomes - what would help your organisation better translate digital technology into business value?
I'll be back in your inbox next fortnight with more on digital leadership.
Scarlett
