Digital Comfort

(1133 words/4.75- minute read)

Embracing Digital Comfort: The Key to Future Workplaces

Technology is going to continue to be an integral part of most jobs with the explosion of artificial intelligence to the global work places and hybrid environments organization are operating within.  Employers are recognizing the fact that technology skill sets are going to be required in most jobs regardless how non-technical the position may be. The skill set though, of what we're most looking for, is what you might call “Digital comfort.” This is not how well someone uses a particular technology. This is more about being comfortable in using and exploring technologies and how quickly you can seamlessly integrate them into your work processes. Yes, this is about how the business still comes first and the technology comes second. This simply refers to that thought that technology is used to enable your business to be more successful. Most people using technology are not working in the business of technology. What I mean by that is they are not working for a technology company building technologies. They are working for finance and healthcare and legal and educational organizations. These organizations need technology to be productive, communicative and successful reach their customers.

Cultivating Digital Adaptability in Leadership

Leaders need to think about how much they're doing that enables their staffs to be comfortable with digital technologies. Here's the easiest way to describe this challenge (and opportunity): think about what online meeting tool you use, like Microsoft Teams. Now if I sent you an invite for a Zoom meeting, would you be okay with that? What if I asked you to host a meeting on Zoom when you use Microsoft Teams at work? Would you still be okay with that? But then what about if I invite you to a Google Meet session or use WebEx or even GoTo Meeting? Would you still be comfortable enough to run the meeting? You're faced with the fact that you have a technology made by a different provider but need to realize they have pretty much the same capabilities. You do not want that difference in manufacture to be enough to derail your meeting. 

The Importance of Digital Comfort in Online Collaboration

Someone who is digitally comfortable with working in online meetings quickly realizes that each of these options each have screensharing abilities. They all have mute and unmute or video on and off toggles and that they know they can ask the host or whoever set up the meeting to enable certain features. That knowing how online collaboration tools work, a common technology in workplaces today, your team can be generally comfortable no matter which technology is supplied for the job. Sure, they might want a few extra minutes to get set up the first time they use the different option. And it may not be their strongest demonstration but they can still get the business done. This is what we want those employees, staff, and team members to have in their toolbox - the skill set of being digitally comfortable. I'm not worried about which tool they know the best. I'm worried about if they can switch tools or not.

 
Embracing AI: Fostering Innovation and Adaptability

We've seen the rapid explosion of AI and how there's a different AI app on the marketplace every so many seconds it seems.  So if that's how fast applications are being made, and used and integrated into business, how could you ever demand someone to be an expert in one area or application?  How about wanting expertise in how to get the business work successfully done?  That's that shift in mindset we need to think about artificial intelligence. You want those staff that are innovative and naturally curious to always look for a better way of completing the business functions.  You do not need someone wanting to purchase another “paperweight” (definition of purchasing technology that is never used…).
 

Enabling Digital Comfort: Training and Practice for Success

Now how do you enable this “digital comfort” skill set? Easiest way is both enabling practice and providing training space.  You want training sessions that openly expose your staff to different technologies and tools in a safe environment. Let them play and push buttons and see what happens and be okay that things don't go as planned because that's a safe training environment.  Then set up spaces that allow and even encourage people to try different tools within small teams and comfortable collaboration groups. Whatever latest and greatest app you heard about in the news, try having staff use the free trial version of it and see how it goes.

Have your teams encourage the external vendor you’re working with use their application they prefer for running the next meeting. It'll make your team members be exposed to different versions.  The trick is to highlight how it's about getting work done. That meeting was run successfully because people were comfortable participating, not because people were comfortable finding the mute or unmute button. That's the difference here. Do not lose your business focus.  That can be the easiest way to make this technology exploration a value-add to your organization – by focusing on the business first. 

Encouraging Innovation: Leveraging Technology to Address Business Challenges

Encourage team members to define the business challenge or opportunity.  Then give the space for them to explore what technology might enable that challenge or opportunity to be more easily addressed.  Take an example of communicating feedback on a work product.  Sure I can send an email to an already overloaded inbox.  But then I tried recording my screen and my voice and video as I described the design and what I liked and what I had questions about.  And then I simply sent the video link to the team member.  There was no more back and forth emails between us (or chats or texts…).  She could hear the optimizing and praise in my feedback even when asking for changes and got right to work on exactly what I was looking for.  But if I hadn’t tried something new, then I would have gotten the same results as the last time we went back and forth on email.

Building Digital Comfort: A Business-Focused Approach to Technology Exploration

So think about how you’re becoming more digitally comfortable.  Are you exploring technology but through the lens of your business?  Are you seeing what can enable your organization to be wildly successful?  And is there space to explore and have fun with the amazing things technology can do for us?  And are we seeing this in our own teams and potential members such that we’re building the digital comfort skill sets of our organizations? 

If you need help exploring more about digital comfort, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me and the entire Champagne Collaborations team!