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I recently spoke with members of the CCC Digital Expert Panel. The focus of the discussion was to look the impact of Covid19 on 1) the training and education sector and 2) businesses in general.

As usual, our expert panel has provided a good and varied view of todays situation, drawing on their different backgrounds, experiences and customer base.

The following is a brief synopsis of some of the areas discussed on the recent CCC Digital Hub think-tank with the CCC Digital Expert Panel.

The working dynamic has changed. This is no longer the new-normal. THIS IS THE NORMAL! It may be hard to believe but it is our current reality. There are many reports of businesses waiting for things to go back to the ‘old-normal’ so they can go back to how they did things pre-Covid19. These businesses seem to be in a form of denial of the current situation.

How do you see the current situation? Is your organisation in denial?

In the history of previous global change and transformation people didn’t go back to what was in place beforehand; we evolved. For example, modern societies use the car to travel around having abandoned the horse as a mode of transport. Industrialisation moved the world forward (although some might argue).

Is your business looking forward, not backwards? Are you moving with the time, and not against the tides of change?

Digital transformation is challenging. The technology can be new and many organisations don’t actually know what digital transformation actually is. Far to often organisations spend the majority of their money on the technical side of digital transformation. It is common that the people side of the equation is neglected and under-funded. Yet it is people that are needed to get the results from investments in digital technologies.

Does your organisation really know what digital transformation is? Even if you did, how do you validate what you know?

The boundary between training and consulting is blurring. Covid19 has affected the training and education industry immensely. The impact is likely to remain for some time especially affecting classroom-based learning experiences, colleges and universities. There is certainly an opportunity to blend training and consultancy into a hybrid offering with different options. Thus transforming their business model for these challenging times.

If you are a training provider, how are you adapting? Can you add consulting, or adapt current consulting offerings, to be more relevant for your customers?

The rise of the Office Hotel. Will it be the case that we will only go into the office to conduct or attend meetings or group sessions? Will the traditional office space transform in an office hotel? Our panel thinks this is very possible. What do the real-estate folk and CFOs think?

Could this happen in your organisation? Why not?

Is there a skills gap, or a lack of people who have the required skills? Is this the same thing, or not? Interesting view put forward by the panel. In the CCC Global Digital Skills Survey, a critical finding reported that ‘organisations require staff to have the ability to acquire skills quickly as opposed to having skills’.

The panel also pointed out that there will always be some form of a skills gap, at least in the technology sector. This translates into a skills gap affecting all businesses who rely on technology. Especially those who plan to use the latest technologies available.

For example when cloud was being adopted there was a significant skills gap, which some would say remains today. A way to address any skills gap, according to the panel, is to have a foundation of base skills and knowledge embedded throughout the organisation and build on that where needed.

What is the digital skills gap in your organisation? Do you know? Have you a base foundation of digital skill identified and embedded in your organisation?

I hope the content and views expressed are of interest and helpful during these ‘different but now normal’ times.

Mark O’Loughlin

CEO       Red Circle Strategies

PS If you would like further reading, additional views are detailed here

On a recent CCC Talks, I took an in-depth look at blockchain. I have heard John deVadoss talking about the inbuilt-economic model within blockchain – and was instantly intrigued. What is this, what does it do and why does it matter? So I asked john to join us and explain all.

John deVadoss is President and Head of Development of Neo Blockchain, Partner at Outliers Fund and Board Member for InterWork Alliance, helps us gain some clarity on this topic. John was also instrumental in the early development of Microsoft Azure.

John explores the following interesting areas:

• The economic model ‘baked’ into blockchain
• How blockchain helps address governance issues
• Can economic incentives built in blockchain make a difference?
• What are crypto economic protocols and how do they relate to blockchain?
• How does a coffee company using blockchain gain competitive advantage?

Hear invaluable industry insights from Blockchain expert John deVadoss who talks about The Economic Model Within Blockchain. Did you know such a thing existed?

As John says “We have economic incentives baked into the (blockchain) platform. No other platform in history has economic incentives baked in like this.”

Follow this link to hear the full CCCTalks episode

Cultural challenges and unrealistic expectations can emerge when companies move onto the cloud

Cultural challenges can emerge when a company makes the shift to cloud-based applications and processes. Finding and cultivating the right technology talent can lead a company to look beyond their own IT teams, and a lack of clarity around what the shift means for a company can lead to misunderstandings.

People issues related to cloud adoption also can affect the IT team itself, starting with finding talent. Identifying cloud-capable talent inside and outside the organization can be challenging.

More on this over at the WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cloud-adoption-is-slowed-by-people-as-much-as-technology-11569014450

This is an interesting read from McKinsey. It starts with ‘To enable continuous learning, leaders will need to think and act differently…

… Continuous learning in the workplace must become the new norm if individuals and organizations want to stay ahead. This places more demand than ever on leaders to take on a new role they might initially find unfamiliar—that of learning facilitator-in-chief.’

There is merit in this thinking especially where there is a knowledge economy in place.

As the article states, it is important to create a safe space to learn and to cultivate a service-leadership approach.

It is also important to use the right blend of training, learning and educational programmes and platforms as opposed to using a one-size fits all approach.

More details throughout the article.

So think about – What does this mean to you?

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/redefining-the-role-of-the-leader-in-the-reskilling-era

@Rachel McElroy knows how to make a difference.

It’s the small things which make a big difference. It’s the personal touch. This morning I received a hardcopy of the recent Solutionize Global Cloud Leadership Definitive Guide – which has a contribution from Cloud Credential Council

But look at the top of the left hand page @Rachel McElroy has marked the CCC page for us to clearly see and read our piece. That is a small thing to do – but on opening the parcel this morning it hit me that – that was a very personal and thoughtful touch which speaks a lot about an organisations people and culture.

So what are you doing to provide that personal touch to your customers – and what kind of culture exits in your organisation to go that extra 10 seconds – which customers call ‘Going the Extra Mile’