When working on digital transformation, most of us acknowledge people, power, politics, and culture all play a role in its success/failure. And yet, the ‘digital’ part of digital transformation almost always dominates conversations. Perhaps because it is something more tangible, more concrete. Something we can see. While interactions between people, the power plays, the politics and the organisation culture is intangible. Something hidden.

It doesn’t make it any less real. It just makes it hard. And yet, we’re happy to spend thousands and millions on the easy bit. The building the shiny toys, the apps, the gadgets. But hardly a fraction of that on the ‘hard’ bits.

When we do this we tend to end up with rooms full of shiny toys and gadgets, which no longer work and very few people know how to use. But we also have teams, organisations, and communities facing the same challenges they did before the ‘digital transformation’ occurred.

Where we focus, where we invest, is up to us.

Photo by Gilly