Change comes with emotional impact. The greater the change, the greater the impact. And yes, the emotional impact can be both positive and negative. And yes, the impact is personal. Different for each person because we are different. And yet, there is impact all the same.

Digital transformation is significant change. Not only do the processes for doing things change, so too do the skills we need change. And perhaps more profoundly, our human contact changes. This is true in how we shop, bank, pay bills, communicate, and so on.

As leaders, as change makers, one of the questions we need to be asking more about our digital transformation is ‘what is the emotional impact?’ We tend to think about how people’s roles are changing and what new skills are required. We evaluate projects on a financial view of efficiency. But what about emotional impact?

And not just emotional impact of our teams, our organisations. But what about the people our products and services interact with? How often do we talk about the emotional impact of digital transformation we are implementing has on the elderly? those living with disabilities (physical and mental)? people affected by disasters?

I suspect we are not asking these questions enough. What happens if we would?

Who can you have a conversation with today about it?

Photo by Hello I’m Nik