“I was under a misapprehension that my accomplishments were mine alone. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have been encouraged, sustained, inspired and tolerated not only by my wife, but by the greatest group of friends anyone ever had”
This is an extract from Sheldon Cooper’s Nobel prize speech in the final episode of the Sit-Com Big Bang Theory. It may not mean much to you, but Big Bang Theory acted as a lifeline for me during a very dark period in my life through its elegant and witty humour. Even today when I have thankfully recovered and binge watched all twelve seasons for goodness knows how many times, I sometimes like to keep it in the background as the voices of Sheldon, Leonard and Penny somehow have a soothing effect.
Empowered Digital Leadership
Beneath all that fiction, lies an underlying truth about leadership and that includes leading the successful implementation of your digital roadmap that most leaders are afraid to admit. You might be the brightest, most experienced or the most charismatic. You might even have the best resources and access to the most influential people in the network. Success is not the product of a mythical demigod but the result of the collective effort of a group of imperfect human beings guided by an imperfect leader who needs to be encouraged, sustained, inspired, and tolerated to steer a digital strategy in an imperfect world.
Indeed, the survival of Homosapiens as a species over the Neanderthals has been frequently credited primarily not to their superior intelligence but more importantly to their social capabilities to interact with each other and work together to find common solutions.
Distorted realities create incompatible solutions
Our imperfect nature gives rise to the creation of distorted realities depending on our vantage point. As stakeholders across your organizations are positioned at several vantage points, they each are conditioned with their own myopic distorted realities. I never get tired of warning my clients that myopic distorted realities are dangerous because they often lead to incompatible solutions which at best render your organisation ineffective.
In my book, Digital made Simple, I describe a process which I call Reality Corrective Calibration where the digital leader facilitates the fusion, merging and morphing of several distorted perspectives of different stakeholders to form a closer perspective of reality on which a relevant digital strategy may be developed.
Are you interested in exploring more concepts about digitalisation for the future? Please visit my web-site on www.david-galea.com. Also my new book Digital Made Simple will be out for sale soon so watch this space.