The age of digital transformation has caused businesses to rethink their investment in technology, but also in people. Fueled by pressure of new digital competitors, companies are reinventing their business models through new technology and creating new ways of working smarter and with greater efficiency. For any organization that wants to maintain its market position, “going digital” is no longer an option – it’s a matter of survival in many industries.
Digital Transformation: Is It a Business Opportunity or Challenge?
The migration from legacy to contemporary—analogue to digital systems—presents both opportunities and challenges for any business. As the number of enterprises undergoing digital transformation increases, so does the demand for a workforce that is highly flexible, adaptable and willing to “fail forward” through quick iterations of change.
Whether it’s the ongoing triage of the issues at hand – root cause analysis, making multiple decisions simultaneously or managing risks – companies will need to develop new, more agile problem-solving strategies for this digital age that help “maintain the flow” rather than providing start-stop stage-gates.
The more focus today’s businesses place on preparing their workforce for digital transformation, the greater chance that technology will help them solve their business challenges.
Case in point: customer service
Customer expectations will be met much better when companies provide a streamlined, end-to-end support experience enabled through technology. Support teams should work across the life-cycle of an issue, rather than using a waterfall model which tends to include many tiered escalations setting up the possibility for poor data hand-over, losing critical information “in the white space”. Just as we are integrating our IT systems, we need to integrate our processes with our teams to have more end-to-end responsibility as well as the skills to deal with this responsibility effectively.
For companies to be able to truly embrace digital transformation, they need strong critical thinking skills across the entire organization as they continuously adapt to new ways of working.
With the KT Clear Thinking method, employees learn the “how-to” in the age of digital transformation. Identifying the problem is just part of the solution. When employees learn what questions to ask, determine the best path forward, and build the confidence to tackle tough problems, organizations can embrace the changing digital landscape with confidence.
About Kepner-Tregoe
Kepner-Tregoe has been the global leader in problem-solving consulting and training for over 60 years, working with companies across industries to solve some exciting (sometimes scary) problems and provide employees with the skills they need to confidently deliver results. KT’s experience-based learning methods integrating tools such as simulations and coaching of in-tact teams have led to countless success stories for companies just like yours.
