The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation (Management on the Cutting Edge)

by Gerald C. Kane

The need for collective affordances raises the importance of strong communication between management and employees to effectively enact digital strategy. It is not enough to implement a new technology. Employees must also know what they are to do with it, because the possible and most valuable uses may not always be obvious. Communication involves leadership clearly and coherently communicating a vision for digital strategy to employees. It also means listening to input from those employees on how that vision is being executed in the real world and modifying that vision to account for actual ways technology is being used. Employees can also serve as effective sensors for unintended barriers to or implications of a digital strategy. They can report these difficulties, allowing the leadership team to adapt the strategy accordingly. Nonexecutive leaders can be valuable first responders to tackle unexpected problems that may occur while executing a digital strategy. As such, they should be given some latitude to act when they identify issues once the strategy has been effectively communicated to them.