Takeaways for digital workplace leaders from the Digital Workplace Impact podcast
Digital workplace leaders and their teams have a lot on their plate. Generative AI is infiltrating the workplace and organizations need guidance on how to get the best out of it, build the right foundations and support employees. At the same time all the other challenges of the digital workplace haven’t gone away, including driving adoption, improving findability, establishing governance, increasing digital dexterity, managing content and supporting continual improvement.
Meanwhile digital workplace leaders might also be involved in getting a project over the line, learning new skills, inspiring their team and taking the next step in their career – all while battling with limited resources. Being a digital workplace leader is rewarding and exciting, but it can be challenging too.
DWG’s Digital Workplace Impact podcast continues to be an essential resource for busy digital workplace leaders who are navigating all these challenges and more. It covers the trends that digital workplace leaders need to be aware of, but is also a goldmine of practical advice on how to lead in the digital workplace. It’s both thought-provoking and occasionally inspiring.
In this post we explore some takeaways for digital workplace leaders gleaned from four recent episodes of the podcast. You will find the links below if you’d like to listen to any of the episodes in full – definitely worth your time!
Digital workplace leaders will move from coordinating chaos to leading the way
The digital workplace never stays still and is always evolving. Emergent technologies, new working patterns, global events, changes in employee expectations and shifts in organizational priorities are just some of the factors that influence the digital workplace. Digital workplace leaders not only have to navigate the changes of the present, but also keep an eye on the future too.
One of DWG’s most important and popular activities is the publication of our annual digital workplace predictions. We’ve been closely monitoring trends in the digital workplace for over a decade now, and the regular end-of-year gaze into DWG’s crystal ball has become a trusted reference point for digital workplace strategic planning.
Nancy Goebel and Shimrit Janes explored this year’s predictions in a Digital Workplace Impact podcast. This compelling episode is still very useful for digital workplace leaders considering their programme of work for the next few months. Unsurprisingly, generative AI dominates the predictions, relating to over half of them – from new ways to use AI to power strategic insights to the need for digital workplace teams to help employees ‘find their way’ with the best use of generative AI.
One particularly interesting prediction is: “Digital workplace leaders will start the year as chaos coordinators and finish as outriders.” This relates to the idea that many digital workplace leaders are having to make sense of the whirlwind advent of game-changing AI tools, while at the same time coping with restructurings, reduced budgets and shrinking resources. However, we predict that by the end of year many leaders will have proved their ability to “get out and front and drive some systemic changes in work culture and new ways of working”.
Key takeaway: Digital workplace leaders need to be on top of trends and their value will become apparent as they help employees and organizations navigate change.
Listen to: DWG’s 2024 predictions for the digital workplace
High performing digital workplace teams must adopt multiple approaches to succeed
Delivering success in the digital workplace is absolutely not a given. So, what do digital leaders and their teams need to do to be able to create a great digital employee experience at scale that is also sustainable, delivering value now but also in the future?
In a Digital Workplace Impact episode titled Ripples of change: Managing complexity in the new digital era, Nancy was joined in the studio by DWG Chief Creative Officer and Founder, Paul Miller, to talk about some of the takeaways from the recent ‘DWG Trailblazers’ session on how to create a high-performing digital workplace team. DWG Trailblazers is an online event for digital workplace leaders to share learnings and perspectives in a confidential and supportive setting.
Paul was allowed to relay some of the discussions from the session, providing insights from leading digital workplace teams like EY, as well as the ingredients that teams need to truly deliver.
The main thing that stood out for me is that there no one single ingredient or magic solution that will deliver results. Digital workplace leaders must ensure that they are moving on a number of different fronts, including taking a comprehensive and holistic approach to the digital workplace, being data-driven but also telling the right story around the numbers, and having a crystal-clear vision and strategy.
Paul touched upon a number of other areas, but I’d also add that digital workplace leaders need to have a growth mindset and be in a position to learn from others. Events like Trailblazers, with its popular ‘live benchmarking’ feature (also mentioned in this podcast episode), provide rich insights that can help digital workplace leaders and their teams be even more impactful.
Key takeaway: Digital workplace leaders can learn from their peers but need to be able to adopt a range of tactics to succeed at scale.
Listen to: Ripples of change: Managing complexity in the new digital era.
Digital workplace leaders can help their teams to grow and succeed
In recent years the world has arguably become a less predictable place, where the pace of change continues to accelerate, and it is very difficult to know what is around the corner. More people seem to be using the term VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) to describe the world around us. And, of course, that volatility and complexity certainly apply to the digital workplace, with the advent of hybrid working, generative AI and more. Digital workplace leaders and their teams need to be at top of their game.
In another fascinating recent episode of Digital Workplace Impact, Nancy spoke with Maureen Ennis, Chief Change Catalyst, Hybrid Workforce Expert and Founder of Thrive. Maureen works with executives at leading companies to build highly productive teams.
It was interesting to hear a discussion specifically about what digital workplace leaders can and need to bring to the table to ensure their teams are able to navigate the complexities and challenges they face, while also contributing to successful growth.
Some of the elements mentioned included embracing change as the new normal by letting go of the need for certainty and embracing experimentation and risk. Here, leaders can start by changing their own behaviour and setting an example. The need to have a strong narrative to set things in motion with the team was also covered, as well as building adaptive practices.
Perhaps the element that struck the biggest chord with me was the importance of strong relationships across the team, enabling team alignment and a culture where people can challenge ideas and more. This is essentially the ‘heart’ element of what Nancy refers to as the ‘head, hands and heart’ approach advocated by Maureen, and is something that will become increasingly important as we become more and more technology-focused.
Key takeaway: Digital workplace leaders can play their part in ensuring a team is high performing, and that starts by nurturing strong relationships
Listen to: How digital workplace teams can thrive in a VUCA world
Successful digital workplace leaders bring passion and creativity to the table
At DWG we believe strongly in the value of digital workplace leaders learning from each other and taking inspiration from their peers. This is why our member meetings, research programme, online events and podcasts regularly offer the opportunity to hear from industry specialists and leading practitioners in the field.
Last year Nancy was able to speak to Christy, who is currently Senior Mgr. Product Owner for the Engineering Experience at Liberty Mutual, and was previously at Wells Fargo. Christy is well known in the industry and always a trailblazer! In this interesting episode Christy talks about her career path from being interested in technology as a youngster to completing an MBA to leaning into opportunities to work with intranets.
There’s lots of takeaways here for digital workplace leaders about career paths, digital employee experience and more, but for me two things come across quite strongly. Firstly, Christy has a real passion for all things digital workplacethat shines through. Secondly, she brings a creative approach to problem solving. I like how, when talking about creating an innovative platform at Wells Fargo based on microservices, she observed that sometimes “you have to slow down to move faster”, taking the time to start with a clean slate and look at a problem differently.
Key takeaway: Creativity can be an important quality for digital workplace leaders.
Listen to: Digital leadership that really ‘packs a Punch’
Categorised in: Leadership
