Stop saying Digital, be Digital

Comedians do well to adhere to the saying, ‘don’t tell me you are funny, be funny’. Is it time to adopt this for another purpose?

Digital

Digital is the use of digits, typically binary, to encode, convey and store information. Depending upon how you define the starting point, digital has been around since the 1950s. Yes, digital is 70 years old.

Nevertheless, the term is still used widely as if it is a future topic, the ‘new new’ thing. Let’s look at some examples:

• Chief Digital Officers – it is questionable whether these roles have ever had the impact that had been hoped. Any organization that still has such a role, and there are some, is broadcasting very clearly that they are not, yet, a digital company. Is that what they want?

• Training courses – the education sector is replete with offerings which use the term ‘digital’ in their title. This includes education providers of all shapes and sizes. Often the courses are entitled ‘Digital …’, followed by words such as strategy, transformation, marketing or innovation. This is probably a deliberate ploy to help sell the courses by somehow making them sound jazzy.

• Digital transformations – many transformation programmes run by organisations include the word ‘digital’ in their title or within their objectives. Digital in itself is not an objective. Achieving digital does not directly deliver the mission of any organization. Rather, it is a way of being and not an end in itself.

A journey

The irony of the introduction of digital is that it is an ongoing journey and not a binary switchover. Though its early beginnings were in the 1950s, the 1990s were when it started to go mainstream. For example, the introduction of Windows 95, SMS text messaging and the world wide web.

Folks born before 1985 are often called ‘digital immigrants’ and it will not be until around 2085 before they have all passed. Therefore, we are living through a long adjustment cycle. There are a number of years ahead of us where a proportion of society have strong memories of pre-digital times and have certain anchors to that period. For them, digital was introduced during their lives and therefore it is something they had to adjust to. It is like people born after World War Two. They typically do not talk much about it, other than for historical purposes. Whereas for those born before the war, it is a feature of their life, never far away.

As we proceed through the next decades, digital natives (born after 1985) will be an increasing proportion of society and the narrative of digital immigrants will fade away, exponentially. As yet, this change of narrative has not happened as quickly as you might have thought, since the oldest digital natives are only around thirty-five years old. Mind you, over the next twenty years, these natives will not only become a greater proportion of society, they will also move into leadership positions, bringing with them different messaging. Their anchor will be post-digital and not pre-digital.

Additionally, this narrative adjustment will be accelerated by the implications of COVID-19 which, it is clear, will result in a swifter and more sustained move to an on-line society.

Complementing the word

Digital is an umbrella term and nowadays is so generic as to be of limited value. Some commentators denounce the term by saying it is an over-hyped buzzword. Yes, it has been hijacked but the word does still have value in certain situations. Simply categorizing it as a buzz term is as lazy as overusing it.

Instead of disparaging the word, the time has come to be more thoughtful in its use and where possible, become more granular.

Inspiration could come from the chemical periodic table, first established in 1869. This took a physical world and broke it down into its constituent elements. This has proven extremely useful ever since.

The same can be done for digital and indeed, attempts have been made to create a digital periodic table. Typically, elements include:

• Artificial intelligence
• Bots
• Drones
• Biotechnology
• Data
• Quantum computing
• Distributed ledger technology
• Crypto currency
• Information Security
• Internet of Things
• Advanced materials
• 3D printing
• Augmented reality
• Virtual reality
• Cloud infrastructure

Even within these descriptors, more granular classifications are available and often necessary in conversation since they are, themselves, becoming abused terms. Caution is required to ensure the context and the detail of the situation is clear when any of these words are used.

The physical and digital border

There are many ways in which the term digital does have a place, beyond its universal technology reference. For example, our stage of human and society evolution is such that we do not exist purely in a digital environment. Or will we for many years yet, if ever. We will continue to co-habit a bits and atoms mixed environment.

A headlong rush to say you are digital seems to abandon the physical world and misses the key interaction between online and offline. Rather, identifying the border between these two worlds and merging them in a rewarding way for consumers is an exciting opportunity. This is sometimes described as Online – Merge – Offline (OMO).

Don’t be lazy

Banning the word digital is a step too far and would be unfair. Instead, we need to avoid the lazy and thoughtless use of it. It is no longer cool to drop the term liberally into conversation. We are way beyond that stage of the journey. Therefore, if you find yourself employing the term, be really clear with your audience why you are doing so. This will be far more thoughtful and helpful. Your frame of reference should be that digital is as much part of the environment as the physical. After all, we already exist within both.