How to start your next digital initiative
Fresh starts are powerful. Whether it’s the start of a new week, month or year, quarter, budget cycle or year, we’re more likely to achieve our goals at the start of a period of time.
But if your to-do list has a million things on it, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and give up. So how do you make a start?
Here are my seven practical tips to get your next digital initiative off to a strong beginning.
1. Get the basics right
“Our engagement on Facebook is dropping; we should be on TikTok instead.”
“Our current website is a bit cluttered; we need a brand new one.”
“Our data is a mess; we need a new CRM.”
Sound familiar? It’s tempting to look for a shiny new tool when we want to create change.
Before you go chasing after new platforms, technologies or projects, it’s vital to get the basics in place.
First you need to get clarity on your vision. When you know what you’re trying to achieve and know where digital can make the most difference, it’s easier to make the most out of what you have, in service of those goals.
My Strategy House
I created this strategy house to make sure that I always consider the main elements needed to deliver any digital ambition. Whatever vision you have, it won’t be achieved by the implementation of new technology alone. You also need to design new processes, job descriptions, training, and take your organisation with you on this journey of change.
If your organisational culture stands in the way of, for example, decision-making based on evidence and data, then you have to fix that culture. Whatever technology you put in, those cultural issues, if not addressed, will recreate the same problems.
Distracted by shiny new platforms? Concentrate on making the most of the tools you already have.
2. Focus on things you can control
I often meet with coaching clients who have big plans but no idea how to get started. Here’s my three-step process for getting there:
Write down everything on your mind that’s overwhelming you.
Don’t think too much, just let your thoughts flow out and write them down on a piece of paper as they come.
You might write down worries like: senior managers not understanding the importance of digital strategy, treating it as a siloed project, not having the staff you need, not enough budget, a skills gap, or constantly-shifting internal priorities.
If some personal stuff comes to your mind (like ‘not sleeping well’) put that down too. Just let it all out.
2. Rate how much influence you have over all these issues
Give each issue a rating from 1 to 5, with 1 for issues you can’t control at all, and 5 for issues over which you have a high level of influence.
3. Zoom in on the areas you can influence and start your action plan
First, look at issues you rated as 4 or 5. What actions can you take to resolve them?
Then look at your 3s. There’s clearly a lot going on which is out of your control. So which bits are under your influence?
“Management don’t care about digital” is something I hear a lot. There can be many reasons why they “don’t care”. Something you can do is understand what their reasons may be and what they are thinking and doing.
Then see where you can try and get on the same page with them and influence their views. There is no point in telling them that their whole organisational strategy is wrong. You may believe it and it may be true, but it’s most likely not something you can single-handedly change.
So focus on the areas that you have control over and can do something about (your ratings 5, 4, and perhaps some 3). If you lack staff, you can recruit. If you need specific skills, you can look for training or look for skilled people in other teams.
Write down your actions, one by one. Then look at that list and think what you can do that takes you towards completing those actions:
in the next month,
in the next week, and
tomorrow.
Take action now. You have more control than you think.
3. Don’t go it alone
Always remember - you don’t have to know and do everything yourself.
Look for allies both within and outside your organisation.
To find out who your potential allies and blockers are for an initiative, have a look at my tips on how to do effective stakeholder mapping.
Are there people in your team, or your professional networks, driving changes that you’d like to emulate? Analyse what they do and extract tips and lessons for yourself. It’s even better if you can speak to them. Ask them for insight, thoughts, their guidance - what worked, what didn’t work, what surprised them.
If you have budget, look for support from consultants and agencies. They will bring a fresh point of view, additional resources, and can help you access information and people you may not otherwise be able to get hold of.
4. Consider different perspectives
Advice from other perspectives is vital, but it doesn’t always need to come from other people.
The resourcefulness model
This resourcefulness model shows how you can take on new perspectives on the issue or situation you are dealing with. Here’s how to use this model to harvest the strongest insights from yourself and the people around you:
Get into the mood of each quadrant:
If it’s you in the past, cast your mind back to a time when you experienced success at work. What did you do that worked well? What were you feeling and thinking? Who were the people around you? What else was going on in your life?
If it’s you in the future, try to imagine your ideal future. Picture how you would think, feel and how would people around you behave without any constraints.
If it’s someone else in the past, think back to real occasions when people around you had success in similar situations. If you can’t speak to them, reflect on what you know, situations you’ve seen them in, and make guesses about how they felt and what they did in their professional life at the time.
If it’s someone else in the future, ask yourself what someone you admire or know would do in a future you need. What strengths and skills would they display? What kinds of decisions might they be making?
2) Apply you analysis of those experiences, skills and behaviours to the situation you are in now. What advice would the person in that quadrant (for example, your past self) give to you today?
Looking to other people, other experiences and times in our life can all be helpful. It encourages us to draw energy and solutions from our own experiences and thinking. When we change the perspective from which we look at a situation, it gets us out of the tunnel vision and spirals of despair. It opens up our own ability to look at things differently. By practicing this, we become more resilient.
5. Be prepared to be wrong
We can’t learn if we’re not willing to be wrong.
Setting objectives and being clear on how you’re measuring them will help you keep track of whether your initiative is working.
Use your results to adjust your initiative as you go (this is a core tenet of Agile methodologies). Sometimes, it’s hard to adjust as you go on a project, so you need to make sure that you learn from previous similar projects. As long as you’re not doing the same thing and expecting better results, you are learning and iterating. Use your insights when you’re planning your next month, quarter or year ahead.
But don’t test for testing’s sake. The point of testing is to learn something and put those lessons into practice. Track what you need to learn and improve, but not so much that you drown in data.
6. Measure the right things
Digital tools let us measure almost everything, but more data isn’t necessarily better.
Instead, you need to figure out what you’re trying to test. Then measure only the metrics that will tell you if it’s working.
Try using this structure:
“I am testing the assumption that _ will happen.”
“I will know if this is true or false by observing _”
You need the courage to accept the results.
If you commission an expensive video, for example, and the data shows that almost nobody watched it, use data to understand why. Has the video been promoted properly? Was tracking set up? Where in the video did the audience drop off? What percentage of viewers stayed beyond the first 3 seconds of the video?
All this information will be useful to people who created the video. Next time, they should work to address the issues you uncovered. When you share your insights, make your feedback fair, specific and be sure to criticise the content, not the person who created it.
Small steps can create huge results.
Anyone can think very big or very small. Digital leaders know how to match up ambitious, big-picture goals with small steps that will take them there.
Getting started doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It can be as simple as deciding to start, then taking your first step.
If you need a hand using any of the models I’ve talked about here - get in touch!
