Why Digital Dexterity Is Key to Transformation

To make headway with digital transformation, executives are redefining the challenge: Build a workforce to take advantage of new technologies.

- Linda A. Hill, Sunand Menon, Ann Le Cam, Karina Grazina, and Lydia Begag

LEADERS ACROSS THE GLOBE HAVE told us that despite having made significant investments in digital tools and data, their people are unwilling or unable to use them.¹ Repeatedly hearing this lament led us to ask a critical question: Why are some leaders making more progress than others with their digital transformations? In 2020, when we first began researching what it takes to lead in the digital era, we defined digital transformation as the evolution of an organization's processes, systems, and talent in order to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by digital technologies, including big data, analytics, and artificial intelligence. Five years later, we have found that leaders who are making more progress on digital transformation have gone well beyond our original definition. They have redefined the challenge: Their ambition is to build what we now refer to as a digitally dexterous workforce - a workforce that is both willing and able to take advantage of new technologies, such as generative AI, to deliver innovative solutions and prepare their organizations for future opportunities.