What are we prattling on about?
As part of my #weeknotechallenge I have decided to challenge myself to doing a different style of weeknotes every week.
The other 16 are linked below:
‘Traditional’ Weeknotes , Gif-Notes , Sketch-Notes, Shanty-Notes, Week-quotes, Animal Crossing — Notes , Poster — Notes, Haiku — notes, Achievement — notes, Hanami — notes, Meme — notes, Retro — notes, Comic — notes, Story — notes, Slang — notes, Tweet — notes
One of the ideas on my list for future #weeknotechallenge is a blog and I haven’t really found the subject to base this around until now… a lot of conversations this week has been around me communicating what Digital really means and trying to reduce the common misconceptions about what my team actually do.
So, I thought why not make a blog about it!
For a while i have been thinking that maybe we should just not use the word Digital because it can mean different things to people and is often miscommunicationed but i have since been inspired to not run away from conflicting meanings and define what Digital is to further embed it into the organisation.
It can sometimes feel a bit like this…
What is Digital?
Everyone today is pushing to become more digital. But what does digital really mean?
For some it can be seen as using the latest technology and ‘pushing things online’ and that Is not necessarily incorrect, but it isn’t the full picture.
Digital is a way of thinking and working. It’s about changing the way we work and how we collaborate and communicate with each other. It’s a skill that we must learn, practice, and continually develop.
The way we like to describe it in the team is People, Culture, & Tech.
So let’s break that down:
- Designing services around the needs of People — to ensure accessibility and inclusion.
- Supporting Culture change, being open and transparent, embracing innovation and creativity to develop a new mindset.
- Making the most of modern Tech, using data for decision making and forward thinking that people expect from a 21st century rural council.
A good everyday example of this is something like Dominos, nowadays you can order through an app on your tablet, the website or even through Alexa. But its not just about it being on the latest tech, its about it being easier for users and based on their needs/feedback changing the process to be more efficient and transparent.
Remember when you used to have to guess when the pizza would arrive and write everyones order down on paper?
A Dorset Council example would be developing new business models like how the library adapted during the pandemic to deliver online click and collect.
“digital should be seen less as a thing and more a way of doing things”
Do you communicate your work? Support change? Design around your users?
You are most likely doing these things already… but do you see yourself as being digital?
Stepping away from Digital = Tech mindset can be hard to embed in people especially in a large organisation. This is part of the journey we are on in Dorset.
Even google isn’t there yet, look what happens when you search Digital… It’s not all about the tech google come on!
What do you think about Digital? Has this changed your perspective?
When something is described as Digital how are you going to think about it now?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Sam out.
