What makes digital knowledge “strategic”?
Do you want to develop strategic digital knowledge, but you’re not sure where to start? Do you prefer hands-on learning experience with a group of peers? Then this series is for you.
In the two years since publishing my last posts on what makes a digital initiative strategic, and reimagining partnerships in the arts, I’ve been busy putting those ideas into practice with a few of initiatives and in numerous conversations. Again and again, I see that people want to engage with digital strategy, but few are clear on how to start.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Why is digital literacy strategically important? Consider the overarching objective of “digital transformation” and what it means to you.
From a technological point of view, there are many “unknown unknowns” that can affect the success of digital initiatives. Happily, we are not the first sector to tackle these challenges, so there are lots of examples to learn from, if we know where to look and what to look for.
A big part of digital transformation has to do with the people and the culture in your organization. The sooner this shift begins, the better — because it’s not something that happens overnight.
The impact of your strategic digital initiative will be amplified exponentially if you can identify ways to work with other organizations. It’s essential to carve out the time to get to know each other, and seriously think about different ways of doing our work and pooling resources to reach common goals faster and more effectively.
So what strategic role does digital literacy play in achieving the above? It provides you with the context necessary for making informed decisions, and understanding potential business implications.
In a previous post, I suggested that digital literacy requires getting hands-on. Deciding what to do and how it aligns with your strategic objectives, however, is not always obvious. Should you go take a 3D printing course? Hire a consultant to come up with a plan? Network at social entrepreneurship events? Apply to an incubator to develop your vision?
All this talking we’re doing about digital is not nearly as effective as just diving in and dancing like no one’s watching, so I’m trying something different.
To help arts organizations break through the “unknown unknowns”, I want to share some digital literacy project ideas designed to help you achieve specific strategic outcomes.
This exercise has proven extremely effective in moving conversations ahead. This process offers concrete examples of what digital literacy encompasses and where it leads. It is also a great starting point for developing an understanding of your specific digital literacy needs, and how these align with your strategic objectives.
As an extension of this work, below are two digital literacy project proposals structured around a design thinking process and peer-to-peer learning model. This is an experiment, so I welcome your feedback!
Strategic Knowledge Exchange
Learning objectives:
sharing and learning from participants’ failures and successesStrategic objectives:
allow strategic potential to emerge through the process
Under the guidance of a facilitation team, a group of 5 project leads will come together and explore opportunities for strategic collaboration. The sharing of knowledge through presentation is intended to establish rapport while ensuring the insights are shared with the sector more widely. A 3-day retreat is to create an environment for roundtable discussions, facilitated meetings, with relevant business, tech and other expertise at hand to ensure practical outcomes that goes far beyond general support for each other.
Prototyping and Design Thinking
Learning objectives:
experience a miniature prototyping and design thinking processStrategic objectives:
assess readiness of participants for collective strategic (digital) initiatives
Under the guidance of a facilitation team consisting of a digital strategist, design thinker, and tech lead, a community of interested stakeholders will come together and work out what it might be like to work together in a one-time prototyping project. The shared experience of articulating their common challenges, identifying critical factors to address that challenge, and testing that assumption through prototyping, will inform whether they proceed together going forward, and if so how.
Both of these can be easily adapted to achieve your strategic digital outcomes, so feel free to circulate and use as a conversation starter with your team and collaborators.
As a bonus, here’s a reflection activity to help you get started. As you review these project outlines, consider the following:
What appeals to you (or not) about these projects?
How would you adapt it to what you or your organization currently need?
What questions do they raise that might lead to an interesting conversation?
Thanks for reading. If you need ideas on how to adapt them, leave a comment below or get in touch!
Thanks to Jessa Agilo, Lynn Briand, Akou Connell, Lindsay Fisher, Frédéric Julien, Mariel Marshall and John Sobol for their comments and feedback.
