How Will You Choose to Travel in the World of Digital?

Some peers and I recently launched a coalition focused on driving digital transformation in our companies through leadership, culture, and learning. We determined that if we were going to be successful in a world of collaboration and expanding ecosystems that we needed to learn from and help each other. Some of our earlier conversations centered around the roles that people play when their company is trying to transform. 

I was sharing with the group one of the lessons that we have learned at GE—that you need to have “Digital Immigrants” in your company who can help translate between the incumbent parts of your organization and the disruptive digital parts. Since we were an international group, who had all recently been on the road quite a bit, this image of a Digital Immigrant spawned some fun discussion and I wondered if I could take the metaphor a bit further. 

So, for your consideration, here are some ideas about the roles we play or can choose to play, during our journeys in the world of digital transformation.

First, we have our Digital Natives. I think we all know by now who they are. These are the people born in the digital age and who are “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games, and the internet. They’ve never lived in a world without them. I think the thing to recognize, if you are a Digital Native, is that there are a lot of people you work with that were born into very different experiences and circumstances than you. Yet those people still might have a lot to contribute to how your organization transforms. They may not know much about software, but they do know their market, products, and customers.

Then there are the Digital Immigrants, as mentioned above. Digital Immigrants were born prior to the digital age (like the author) but they became fascinated by and adopted much of the language and perspectives driven by the new technology they came into contact with. When it comes to trying to change a company to embrace the digital future, your Digital Immigrants are your secret weapon. They find the common ground in communication. They bridge the dialogues that can quickly become acrimonious or, even worse, that just don’t occur because the different parties don’t understand each other.

But not everyone will decide to immerse themselves in the new, digital ways. That takes real time and effort and they may have a focus in their career that they already love. However, they still want to be able to interact and communicate effectively. I call these the Digital Tourists. They are people who, while lacking the interest and adoption of technology like a Digital Immigrant, can sufficiently interact with Digital Natives without excess culture clash. They do this willingly and even find it to be fun. This is as opposed to the “Digital ‘Accidental’ Tourist” who finds themselves thrust, usually not that willingly, into the world of the Digital Native and who struggles with the language and the culture and would just rather go home. 

Lastly, I think there is also a role for what I’ll call the Digital Sherpa. The Digital Sherpas are guides who are born Digital Natives and who willingly help their non-native colleagues to understand the language and culture of the Digital Natives, allowing those colleagues to function sufficiently in that world. The Digital Sherpa often shows up in the reverse mentoring that is going on in many companies. Here, at GE, it is not uncommon at all for senior leaders from the non-digital parts of the company to seek out individuals or even whole teams of Digital Sherpas to help them navigate the new world they find themselves in.

So, if your organization is headed for, or in the midst of, a digital transformation you might want to consider how you want your passport stamped—what role do you want to play and does that match what might be expected of you? What adds the most value to your company? One thing is certain, these worlds are colliding (or combining, if you prefer) and we will all have to make choices about how we work with our fellow citizens, at least until that time when everyone is a native in a digital world. If these simple, and I hope fun, metaphors help you and your people make some of those choices then I am happy to have had a brief moment as a Digital Immigrant in your world too!

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