If you go to the theatre and watch the Les Miserables adaption, it will be slightly different each time. The actors will interact with each other differently, lines might be forgotten or added, the lighting or sound might work slightly differently and so on. However, if you watch the film Les Miserables, each time you watch it, it will be the same.

Both are storytelling. And telling the same story. Both have a script and both are curated by directors. But, the experiences are radically different.

Digital transformation is both. It often comes with the promise of the consistency of a film or movie – the same every time. However, we often forget the human side which is fully like the theatre. Human interactions sometimes following a script, but there is always ad libbing, understudies parachuting in, power dynamics, and personal issues at ‘play’. Too often we expect everything to be solved and sorted when the digital system arrives.

Then we realise we are in an interactive play.

Photo by Erik Mclean