When most people in technology hear the term “Social Acceptance”, they immediately equate it to the traditional “User Acceptance”.   It sounds like a modernization of the term. We have social networks, internal team collaboration platforms, and everything is supposed to be “social” nowadays.  But social acceptance has a unique meaning for digital transformation.

User-Focused?

The term “user acceptance” refers to a user or groups of users vetting out a new technology (developed or purchased) before it goes live or the acceptance of a system by a larger user base once it is in production. This is part of the lifecycle where an IT group promotes ideas out to the non-IT user groups, creates a system for them and turns it over for use.  If the new system is perceived to provide value and not be an unnecessary burden then everyone is happy and the organization benefits from leveraging technology. If something goes wrong during an IT-driven technology effort and the users are mad, then mayhem & expensive rework ensues. It may get so bad; you will not get invited to the weekly birthday cake event.

User acceptance is important and will continue to be an issue that you must address, but it is not social acceptance.  Digital transformation has a unique requirement that is much broader than user acceptance and it is more subtle, which in turn makes it more challenging.

A Side Story (That just happened…)

Sometimes the technology you implement is flawless and your audience was not ready or is threatened by the wonderful thing you just laid in their hands.  I know of a situation where a company launched a mobile logistics and item tracking system.  The drivers were forced to switch from their slow and error-prone paper system to a mobile device with scanning, barcodes, etc… It worked well but the drivers hated it.  There was a continuous stream of devices accidentally crushed in tailgate mechanisms or dropped and broken.  Since these were ruggedized mobile devices, the drops appeared to have happened from 30 to 40 feet in the air. (Did someone see how high they could throw this???)  One device was sent back with a gunshot wound…  The system was finally accepted after training the drivers on the benefits of the new system and addressing their concerns.  This was after a year of discord.

Living Digital

For an organization to have true social acceptance of digital transformation it must think “digital first”.

Digital Transformation is a mindset, it is an organizational focus of every department and every employee. Organizational focus means that the utilization and growth of digital technology is explicitly identified in the overall strategic plan of the organization and all employees have it as part of their job description and it is included in performance reviews. The entire company needs to make this part of their thought processes and interactions. This cannot be driven solely by the IT department.  It needs everyone looking out for opportunities to engage the marketplace with innovative technology that makes doing business with your organization more compelling, easier, and faster.

Digital transformation also requires organizations to look beyond the walls of their offices.  Vendors, suppliers, customers, regulators, and more can be a critical part of your technology landscape if your organization is truly visionary.  I highly suggest that there be formalized interactions with all these groups to discuss ideas and learn more about each group. Understanding another group’s capability is important to know in order to deliver digital technology that can improve your interactions.  With your customers, it is more than just marketing and focus groups. 100% of their interaction with your organization can be choreographed to provide the most pleasant and efficient experience but it takes more than the people in IT to build that interaction.

Keep this in mind…

If you are approached by executives asking for some of that “digital transformation stuff”, you have some work to do.

To foster this digital transformation environment, the IT group must now take on an additional role of the educator of technology possibilities to other departments and then have that knowledge diffuse throughout the organization.  This does not mean IT proposing a specific idea of what to do, but rather present the current state of technology capabilities and future possibilities.  Digital transformation meetings should be frequent and formalized with all departments participating. Most importantly, it needs to be a company-wide strategic focus, backed by management.

Will all of this effort build the ideal digital organization with everyone looking for opportunities and fostering ideas for innovation? If you have management backing and an ability to execute then the answer will be yes.  The other option of doing nothing has many risks especially if your competitors have socially accepted digital transformation while you stagnate. Doing nothing will limit your ability to respond to market disruptions or your organization could simply become obsolete.

Take Away

Social Acceptance is where the entire organization has embraced not only the technologies provided but is continually seeking to innovate and improve capabilities. Or as I call it, “living digital”.   Your role should be to educate and get digital transformation declared strategically critical and then foster people and departments along the journey.

Then the fun technology projects can start….