How should digital workers work in a digital age?

How should digital workers work in a digital age? How can digital work be made more ‘digital’? How can individuals and organisations develop a digital mindset

Most organisations aren’t very digital in their approach to work. They still apply an industrial way of working to digital work. And because this mindset is so pervasive it’s hard to imagine that there is any other way of working, but the industrialised approach of mass-production isn’t the only way, it’s simply a way that has existed for a few hundred years. Before that there was a different way of approaching work that existed since the agricultural revolution, and before that there was the hunter/gatherer approach to how a person spends their time adding value to something bigger than themselves.

Digital workers are still expected to turn up on time (at a time that works best for the organisation), sit down and get on with their work, not think or talk about things that aren’t part of their job description. This is an industrial approach and it doesn’t really fit digital work. So, trying to force an old approach onto a new world of work is clearly not going to be successful in the long run. As the digital age is only a few decades old we haven’t yet figured out what this new mindset looks like and it’ll probably take a few more decades until we reach any kind of collective agreement on what a digital approach to work would include and involve, but it’s definitely coming and organisations that figure it out are going to have a competitive advantage of those that don’t.

Structuring a digital team

Digital team matrix

I have an idea of how a digital team could be structured. It would be a matrix of Service Units and Business Units that creates an interwoven and interconnected team that is focused on collaboration to achieve the service delivery and business objectives.
 

The Service Units would be responsible for delivering digital services for the organisation. In this non-exhaustive list we have advertising, email and social marketing, the website and analytics, but the list would include every service that is delivered by the department. Each Service Team would manage any platforms and suppliers associated with the service and be the main point of contact for the Business Unit Managers/Teams. The Service Teams, as the experts in their areas (Gladwell’s Mavens), would make recommendations to the Business Teams about how to use their knowledge and services. They would know that they can’t achieve their objectives without working closely with the Business Teams.
 
The Business Units would be closely aligned with the objectives for the department, in this case online donations, stock collection, event sign-ups, membership subscription, and online retail. The Business Teams would be proactive in approaching the Service Teams to implement their plans. They know they can’t achieve their objectives without working closely with the Service Teams.
 
This kind of matrix framework and reliance on each other for achieving objectives would naturally foster greater collaborative working without trying to tackle the ‘silo problem’. These teams can continue to work in their silos but they can only achieve their objectives by working together. Communicating the need to be objective-led is another problem.

Libraries face their Kodak moment

Almost 8,000 jobs in UK libraries have disappeared in six years, about a quarter of the overall total, and 343 libraries have closed, an investigation by the BBC has revealed.

Every industry has been disrupted by the digital age and companies that fail to innovate (like Kodak infamously did) can easily fall by the wayside. Libraries are facing their Kodak moment as they struggle to figure out how to continue to exist and offer a useful and valuable service.

One of the ideas mentioned for the future of libraries is for them to become community hubs, but this is just about keeping the building open and so misses the point of a library. Libraries were once the only and best place to find out information and gain knowledge. Full of books, magazines, newspapers and DVD’s on all kinds of subjects, and a system for getting any book that your branch didn’t have reserved and brought in for you, libraries were market leaders in delivering the worlds knowledge. Now, Google, Wikipedia, Amazon Kindle, and NetFlix have taken the role of libraries, digitised it and put in our phones. It’s no wonder libraries can’t keep up.

So, maybe with no chance of catching up with their information, knowledge, and entertainment competitors perhaps libraries should think of themselves as just buildings. It’s hard to imagine how they could diversify  in any other way.