By Guest Blogger:
Ben Sturt, Managing Director
Becoming more digitally focused as your members’ demands evolve can be fairly straight forward, as long as you keep a few key things in mind. Asking the right questions within your organisation and not being blinded with the latest technology can ensure that you constantly move forward with continued member engagement.
Team – do you have the right people?
Digital can be taught but not the attitude and energy to change. Are your team comfortable with being uncomfortable and constant evolution? Digital is all about experimentation, not having a fear of getting something wrong, but learning on the move and making fast adaptations. Having a plan is key but being able to flex this and reroute fast is the name of the game.
Digital is everyone’s job, you can’t just bring a few experts on board and expect complete change, they will definitely bring insight and add new skills, but unless they are sharing their knowledge and the rest of the team are on board to absorb this you will not succeed.
Leading by example is critical, all too often we see lots of energy at the start of a project and then one or two things move offline, management doesn’t use the systems and then slowly no one is using the new process/system to their best effect. Management has to make sure that the team are fully engaged by ensuring that everyone is adopting the new processes and tools, by using them and engaging with them every day.
Are you trying to do too much?
Less is more! Doing less and better will really make the difference. This is not a new way of thinking and applies to many many areas of the business but it’s all too easy to get wowed with the latest digital toys on offer but do you need them? Do you know the true benefits will they bring and will the organisation adopt them? It is better to evaluate your business challenges and then select the right tools based on this, you have to see how this sits into your business landscape as the wider organisation should be on board. Tinkering around the edges of technology will in most instances annoy your members.
Experimentation and pilots are a great way of working to see and test real benefits, working iteratively is key. While your ultimate plan may take years, ensure that you have shorter projects and work cycles that can be measured and you can see outcomes along the path. It is vital.
Do you work across the business today?
Collaboration is everything when adopting a more digital approach, this is not easy but the benefits to the organisation will be amazing. Throwing together departments and cross-functional teams will build trust and partnership where no challenge is too big. This enables an individual’s strengths and weaknesses to be learnt, therefore improving future collaborations.
Are your decisions based on fact or gut feeling?
Never have you had the ability to gather so much data on your member’s behaviour. Digital produces data, all interactions leave a trace. Think of it as a series of footprints, follow the trail and you can discover so much about your members. Using these digital footprints helps you to make informed decisions and directs the path to follow, reducing the need for just gut feel. It is easy to drown in data, so only use the findings you can draw actions from and where you can use that data to learn or make recommendations for improvement.
Chrysalis Digital provides a digital transformation service designed to help build a more agile, efficient and innovative organisation. With its broad cross sector experience Chrysalis has helped many organisations map their digital path and through careful planning and assessment, choose the right technology partners. Chrysalis Digital is 100% agnostic when recommending CMS and CRM suppliers to its clients.
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