Digital change is about being more useful and more human

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash.

“Organisations that continue to have the ability to build power and deliver impact a year from now will have avoided using this time to grasp for ‘digital’ panaceas. Instead, they’ll have adopted and integrated new ways of planning, collaborating, and campaigning as standard operating procedures to reflect this more uncertain, complex world.”

This quote from a recent article by Hanna Thomas and Michael Silberman sums up how we need to be thinking about digital. It’s not new, but it’s more important than ever.

There's been a huge Covid-catalysed shift to digital in the first half of 2020. But in order to survive and thrive, organisations need to do more than adopt Zoom and Miro. Digital can provide answers to many of the challenges organisations are facing, but only if it goes deeper than short-term reactions and shiny tools. Organisations need to move from a crisis response to longer-term strategies and solutions that are designed to cope with constant shifts in the landscape – they need to be digitally mature. This is about much more than having the right tech; it’s about developing and nurturing the culture created by digital living.

Digital is designed for change

We haven't dealt with this scope of challenge before in our lifetimes. But digital has always been about being agile and constantly adapting to new realities.

The digitally native generation has been nudging us in the direction of change for some time. Where organisations are on their digital journey today depends on their appetite for adaptation. Some had an if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it mentality for a long time and held on to traditional ways of working and delivering. Others worked hard to prepare for the sea change that the digital world has brought into our lives.

Wherever your organisation finds itself on the scale, making good use of digital skillsets, digital thinking and digital staff will give you the best chance of long term survival and success.

Basics, not Band-Aids

When the going gets tough, go back to basics. Don't fall into the trap of covering all your problems with digital Band-Aids.

When we have to make lots of decisions quickly, we have a tendency to throw money and new ideas at the problem. But that won’t solve the fundamental issues with your organisation’s culture and skillset. It’s like doing an expensive paint job on dirty and damaged walls. When you’re done, it will look good for a short time, but then the cracks will start showing again and the paint will come off. So forget the buzzwords and shore up the foundations.

1. Strategise, don’t economise

What is the main problem my organisation needs to solve at this time? Is there a digital solution to this problem? What’s the best value digital can add to what my organisation is trying to achieve? These are the questions to be asking.

Don't just think digital-first, think digital-always. Integrate the physical experience with the digital and vice versa. Don't just make digital versions of your real-world campaigns; add digital elements into the real-world experience and real-world elements into the digital experience.

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed many health charities to move their services online. Colleagues who were against the move have understood overnight how crucial online services are to delivering their organisation's mission. Digital product development timelines have been brought forward, putting the investment (and the pressure) on the limited digital capacity in the organisation.

Surprisingly, some nonprofits decided to cut their digital staff, programmes and/or budgets and prioritise a traditional approach to their work. This smells of a lack of strategic insight and thinking, where digital activities and products are still seen as separate from core activities of the organisation.

2. Improve, don't reinvent

In order to use digital to do better, it's not necessary to develop big, new and shiny. Start by taking stock of what you already have. Is it doing the best job it can for you? If not, what can you do to improve it?

Simple innovations that focus on the user experience, like improving donation forms, evaluating and enhancing welcome journeys and launching a topical and timely email programme will build trust in your organisation and encourage supporters to stay.

3. Collaborate, don’t compete

“We’re very good at collaborating but not very good at integrating,” one of my clients said to me years ago. He defined integration as sharing objectives and, in light of that, planning activities jointly. What was actually happening is that teams were negotiating and where they couldn’t find a win-win solution, they would go their own ways and focus on achieving their own objectives.

Recently, I saw a presentation from Save the Children UK where they talked about the structural change they made to their comms and fundraising function. The picture of collaboration they presented was of agile teams, gathered around the same objectives, where each team member was empowered to make decisions and deliver products.

This is a huge change from the culture of hierarchy where multiple layers of sign-off and consultation with many stakeholders are an accepted drag on time and resources. But a flatter structure with collaboration baked in seems to bring positive results, make things happen more quickly and make staff happier.

People before platforms

This back-to-basics approach to digital prioritises culture and people over systems and tech. It may sound like a no-brainer, but in a crisis it can be hard to make time and space to think about the foundations. Ultimately, digital should be about how you can be useful and how you can be human.

If you need a sounding board to help you think about how a digital culture can equip you to navigate a rapidly changing external environment, let me know. I love talking about this stuff.