Finding your sweetspot (diary of a digital transformation)

I’m sharing my story for four reasons:

i) to help me reflect and learn

ii) to share my lessons to help you

iii) to connect and learn alongside people who want to develop

iv) to take a risk and be myself

Today, I wanted to reflect on how I am finding the opportunities which I will find most satisfying and, therefore, will do my best work.

Before I dive into that, I wanted to talk briefly about number 4 on my list and why it’s so important.

Taking risks is at the heart of success in digital transformation (imho). This could be admitting your ignorance by asking a question; simply admitting you want to do something but don’t know how and asking for help; challenging an individual in a position of power when their proposal doesn’t stack up or is just an opinion without any evidence; disturbing the group by challenging the consensus if it seems to be flawed.

Taking risks is hard but if everyone just goes with the flow for a happy life, businesses will make unwise investments, the customer will get what we think they need, not what they actually need and we will be frustrated and disengaged from our work.

There is lots to explore here about creating an environment where people feel safe to speak up, it’s not just about being amazingly courageous even if the organisation slaps you down. Not for this post though…

So I’m trying to lead by example in a small way. By being open and honest and sharing my thoughts on my experiences at work from a very personal perspective. This is often called working out loud.

So, back to the main topic!

Last week, I talked about how the business analyst role was a poor match for Alex Papworth because it doesn’t allow you to use all of your talents (and I suspect for many of you).

This sparked a conversation on LinkedIn and Angelina Watret suggested a house as metaphor for your skills (using boxes to complain about being put in a box just wasn’t working!).

So what are your foundations?

For me, these are unchanging and what makes you successful in the long term. My foundations are:

• resilience
• self-awareness and reflection
• effective communication
• empathy
• courage

Martin Wolf reminded me of these characteristics recently on LinkedIn when he said anything that can’t be digitized will become more valuable.

We can argue about what makes up the foundations but the key thing is that, for you, these are unchanging. They also need to be maintained and improved as they are foundational — they shouldn’t just be assumed.

For example, I am trying to use stories more to communicate better. I tend to describe theory whereas stories work much better. This was highlighted to me just this week by one of my colleagues. (this is a story!)

Also, what has become increasingly important for me is working where I have a positive impact on people’s lives. I need to buy into the mission of the organisation. I have been actively seeking opportunities this year where I can do that. For example, I am mentoring two leaders at the moment who are making an impact on people’s lives through improve blighted spaces in London; and helping local authorities use innovative technology to positively impact citizens’ lives whether that is mental health challenges or reducing fraudulent benefit claims.

So what do we make our house from?

The house itself should be made up of our own strengths and passions so this is clearly going to be much more individual.

My list would include things like:

• big picture/conceptual thinking
• helping others to be successful individually
• solving problems by drawing on other’s talents
• tenacity
• open to solving problems through learning
• future focussed
• creative

(By the way, it took time, reflection, asking others and using Strengths Finder to help work out my list. Thanks to Penny Pullan for helping with this)

These are some of my strengths but you may notice that I haven’t listed specific skills. I could mention skills that I have to varying degrees such as facilitation, mentoring, use of business model canvas, Lean Startup techniques, user research etc. These are all useful but they’re not strengths, just tools in the toolbox that I can pull out when required.

However, I have found that my desire to learn along with helping others to be successful can be an interesting combination where I learn enough to understand the gap but then bring in others with the right talents.

For example, one of the biggest challenges in digital transformation is around creating psychological safety to enable risk taking (Amy Edmondson’s excellent book, Teaming, explores this at length). This requires a variety of disciplines/individuals to be tackled effectively which might include: organisation psychology (to provide scientific analysis and rigour); people who are passionate about enabling others to be successful; coaches; system thinking to understand how the organisational structure drives fear and/or how it can be altered.

So how does this help me find my sweetspot?

Firstly, identifying the foundational skills has helped me know where I need to invest for biggest return.

So, for example, reflection is something that we can do individually but also as a team in an agile approach through the retrospective. I have been building this skill both through designing retospectives and as a participant.

Secondly, I can use my list to seek opportunities where I can play to my strengths. That might mean that I change my job title, move company or simply talk about my skills and experience with people who might value them (you reading this is an example!).

I’m still playing around with the job title — (business) designer, coach, digital transformation consultant are all maybes.

For me by far the best way to find your sweetspot is by getting to know, trust others and get a mutual understanding of strengths/passions. They will call upon you when they see an opportunity which will be met by your unique mix of talents (and this should go both ways of course).

Having reviewed a number of networks and communities, I joined one community that offers this promise. (you can find out more about HiveMind by joining their LinkedIn group or their website)

There is no shortcut and calling yourself a business analyst or digital transformation consultant will not find you your sweetspot!