CIO Is the Culture Change Agent to Augment Digital Dexterity

As society and business increasingly consume and produce digital goods and services, a digitally dexterous workforce is essential to foster agility, collaboration and the adoption of new digital technologies, according to Gartner. The company says that the CIO must be the culture change agent to enhance digital dexterity as a competency that applies to individuals, teams and the organization as a whole.

“The digital component of most jobs is increasing. Technical skills are important, but are not enough to steer a successful digital business transformation,“ said Helen Poitevin, research vice president at Gartner. “Business and IT leaders need to employ the right talent with a specific set of mindsets, beliefs and behaviors, which we call digital dexterity, to launch, finish and capitalize on digital initiatives.“

The payoff from digital dexterity can be significant. Employees with high levels of digital dexterity are more than three times more likely to gain value from digital initiatives than those with moderate digital dexterity. “They are quicker to launch, finish and obtain the outcomes they seek from digital initiatives,“ said Poitevin.

In 2019, 29% of CIOs in EMEA viewed digital business as a top priority, so improving digital dexterity throughout the organization is crucial. To help their employees to develop digital dexterity traits, business leaders need to build them up by enabling enterprise agility and developing digital competencies. Above all, business leaders need to make digital dexterity a C-suite priority. The CIO is the culture change leader and the chief HR officer (CHRO) is a key partner to the CIO in shifting the mindset of their own IT team members from “this is the way we have always done things“ to “how can we do things better?“