Digital Business Requires Growth Mindset, Not Just Technology

Digital Business Requires Growth Mindset, Not Just Technology
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When embarking on a digital business transformation, too often organizations ignore the need to change the mindset of their staff, according to Gartner. A technology shift not backed up by a corresponding cultural shift puts the success of a digital business initiative at risk.

While every organization has its own unique culture, it must understand the nuance of attracting and retaining talent with values and mindsets aligned to the mission and culture of the organization. That requires a healthy and psychologically safe team environment within a growth mindset organizational culture. "Psychologically safe" means making co-workers and team members feel that they will not be punished or humiliated when taking interpersonal risks, such as asking for help, admitting mistakes and vulnerabilities, or expressing concerns.

Applying a growth mindset culture has been a success in well-known online companies. An online clothes and shoe retailer instructs all of its new hires to experience its call center. The involvement, which includes training and time spent on answering customer calls, allows employees to gain a holistic view of the business and understand that customer service is the backbone of it.

To help application leaders implement mindset change among their staff, Gartner has developed a four-step plan:

1. Vision

Create a compelling vision that can be shared as a story to inspire and motivate desire for the change. Everybody should understand what is meant by a growth and product mindset.

2. Define

Define key behavioral attributes that reflect the intended mindset change. These can be individual accomplishments that contribute to the team, business or customer results; a greater number of projects owned; or acquiring new skills.

3. Implement

HR should be involved to ensure that performance metrics, as well as the descriptions of roles and responsibilities, are updated to include these key behavioral attributes, before rolling them out to all departments.

4. Measure, Monitor and Wait

Allow some time for the changes to percolate. Continuously measure and monitor the changes through anonymous surveys.