9 Secrets From Digital Leaders at Daze of Disruption Conference

Daze of Disruption is an annual conference that brings together speakers on digital leadership to discuss the potentially disruptive consequences of technology upon people, companies and industries.

In this post I share 9 insights from presenters on Day 1 so you may also benefit from the learnings of the conference even if you couldn’t attend.

Please note…these are not direct quotes from any of the presenters and represent my interpretations of their material. 

#1. Convey a Simple and Straight Forward Plan to Senior Execs

The first day of the conference had a panel discussion focused on how Australian company boards understand Digital. During the discussion, the panel reinforced how important it is to provide a straight forward and well articulated plan to Boards to showcase how Digital can transform the business. The panel went on to discuss that much of the composition of today’s boards are not always “digitally savvy”. It is rare that board members will be comprised of members with strong digital experience. Therefore, a concise plan which reinforces the value delivered to customers and the business through digital, can make or break whether a board fully supports the digital ambition.

#2. Consider Digital as a Portfolio of Initiatives (Daniel Gulati)

Daniel Gulati runs the venture capital area for Comcast Ventures. He sees hundreds of potentially disruptive ideas every year. It’s his task to know which ones could be good investments. Daniel opened up two major insights for me during the conference.

First, to look for what he called the “Thunder Lizards” in your investment strategy. These are the potentially “big breakthroughs that are not obvious at the time of investment”.

In describing the concept, Daniel drew parallels between AirBNB’s early investment rounds. While many investors knocked back AirBNBs pitches for investment funding, the eventual investors were able to spot the trend toward ‘couch surfing’ that showed the true potential for the idea.

It’s hard to believe Brian Chesky received 5 rejection emails when he was seeking to raise only $150,000, given that today AirBNB is worth well over $25 billion.

The second insight Daniel provided was to consider an organisation’s digital initiatives like an investment portfolio. Any investment portfolio will have both ‘sure things’ that return low margin, as well as ‘higher risk’ investments which may yield far higher returns but may have less chance of success.  As a result, companies should blend their initiatives with some potentially disruptive ideas as well as some more certain concepts.

#3. Build a Vibrant Culture (Kelly Ferguson)

Kelly ferguson is ex-Microsoft and now leads Mi9 at NineMSN. Amongst the many wisdoms of Kelly’s presentation, she mentioned she specifically has a line in her budget for pizza. By sharing a meal regularly with her teams, Kelly engenders a sense of community and spirit among the people with whom she works, as well as a willingness to share ideas and build relationships.

So much of what we do today can feel ‘too transactional’ (where agile sprints are measured by velocity, and teams are taught to get more out of the day through time management).  It’s refreshing when digital leaders take time to develop culture and shared purpose as part of the journey to focus on outcomes.

#4. Blend Creative with Process toward Great Outcomes (Ajay Bhatia)

Ajay has a deeply considered purpose with all the work he does with teams at CarSales.com.au. Ajay argued for the need to blend both process and creativity as companies search for innovation. Neither extreme should win out. Teams that focus only on process become boring places to work, and those that only want to be creative can meander without purpose. But when both creativity and process are blended in ways that work toward results, great things are possible. Bandt also did a great write up some of Ajay’s insights here.

#5. It’s Okay To Admit We May Not Know Everything

Let’s face it…every one of us in digital has felt stupid at one point or another. And this is completely okay. How could we possibly keep up with the pace of change in this space, when it seems every week a new social network ignites, or a new technology is borne that may disrupt the planet? Rather than try to hide this, as digital leaders its okay to admit we don’t know it all. Even better, when we do this we can learn from others who have unique perspectives on the change the world is going through.

#6. Act Like a Futurist To Consider The Long Term Consequences (Michael Priddis)

During his presentation, Michael Priddis showed a graph that looked something like this (excuse my sketched representation) as part of a discussion on the shift away from traditional printing to digital.

The argument – people in industries impacted by technological change are rarely retrained.  Instead of re-skilling workforces, we often replace them with a different workforce that posseses the new skill.

The example Michael used was the shift from traditional printed media toward digital media. When this shift occurred, much of the workforce that was highly skilled in traditional printing was not retrained.  Instead, the new roles went to a different segment, those people who were skilled in graphic design.

It’s a reminder that we rarely consider the long term implications of the technology used to transform industries.

The message I took away…technological change also provides an opportunity to retrain and deploy people’s talents toward the new technologies being developed, provided we have the foresight to see how this can be achieved.

#7. Despite Dramatic Change, Some Fundamentals Prevail (Tony Davis)

Tony Davis spoke of the many broad changes we’ve seen across all industries (from the printing press to deep data analytics). As well as talk of exponential change, he reminded us some things don’t change. Quoting Jack Welch,“there are only two sources of competitive advantage: the ability to learn more about our customers faster than the competition and the ability to turn that learning into action faster than the competition.” So true.

#8. When it Comes To Disruptive Innovation, Learn by Doing (Kai Reimer)

Kai Reimers speech revisited Clayton Christensen’s disruption theory and reminded me that ‘the purpose of disruptive innovation is so often discovered in its use’.

In reality it is often difficult to predict whether a technology will be a good investment, as well as the form that the technology will ultimately take.

For example, from facebook’s first use at college campuses it would have been difficult to predict its widespread use to over 1.4 billion users and almost every segment of society. From Uber’s first launch in San Francisco, it would have been difficult to foresee its extension to Uber Rush. From Tesla creating incredible cars, we may not have predicted its expansion to home batteries through Powerwall.

Today’s entrepreneurship requires as to spot opportunities as they occur, within small spans of time, and dynamically adjust our behaviour to see these technologies as they emerge.  The world we now live in requires skills in sensing and synthesising, as opposed to only forecasting and prediction.

#9. Remember to have resilience, patience and empathy (Gerd Schenkel)

As well as share a good deal of knowledge about how to manage the successful delivery of large-scale digital programs, there was another lesson from this presentation that caught my attendion.  Gerd reminded the audience of the need to have resilience, patience and empathy with the people and teams involved in digital transformation.

I’ve certainly been involved in digital teams ranging from 300 people to 5 people. Many of these people were incredibly talented. And in almost all situations the teams were under immense pressure to deliver their organisation’s digital aspirations. Often these teams reached breaking point and would require human support. This is why today’s digital leaders may need to tap into patience and empathy when charting new courses following setbacks and challenges.

And that’s a wrap. If this stimulated your own thinking, please consider sharing your thoughts by leaving a comment below.