Are you a digital migrant?

So who are the right people to accelerate digital industrial transformation in your business? – Asks Jennifer Waldo, IoT Agenda‘s contributor.

It should be a healthy mix of external and internal candidates, which can be referred to as “digital natives” and “digital migrants.”

A digital native has spent his or her entire career in technology and has experienced — and more likely participated in — tech disruption. Digital migrants are industrial by background but are now starting to learn the principles of agile development in a digital environment. Both are critical to the success of the modern, digitized industrial company. An Industry Week article by Jens-Thomas Pietralla and David Finke analyzed the psychometric profile of a productive disruptor versus a traditional industrial leader and supports the rationale for why both personas are needed to successfully transform traditional industrials to digital industrials.

Within the industrial organization, the goal is to nurture and develop a cadre of digital migrants as part of the existing workforce while attracting digital natives into a new kind of workplace. Digital natives coming to an industrial for the first time need to understand the end-customer and the larger, industrial ecosystem, while having an appreciation for a matrixed organization.

Digital migrants should have high learning agility, systems thinking, empathy and coaching skills. Typically, they serve in a translator role, understanding enough about both the digital natives and the current workforce to educate and coach both groups, becoming true advocates for transformation. Cross-functional leaders from finance, HR, manufacturing and engineering are great candidates for becoming digital migrants.

Read more on The digital transformation of industrial organizations on IoT Agenda.

Infographic: Building a Solid Business Plan

When starting or running a business, you must have a clear vision of your purpose and goal! You’ve heard this too, right? Writing a solid business plan however, is easier said than done. Fellows at the Washington State University have created a nice infographic which helps to identify the key components and also makes it easier to craft a scuccessfull business plan. You can download it from this link. If you need some help, just drop us a message.

Another shift in paradigms?

Larry Winget — who resists calling himself a motivational speaker — had an unconventional message for the crowd gathered at the 2014 Fast Casual Executive Summit:

The concept of “being passionate” about work, said Winget, is “a total load of crap.”

“I know people who are passionate but passionately incompetent,” he said. “Almost all of the work in the world gets done when people are not motivated.”

“We get work done because we said we would,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

Winget, who has landed on the New York Times Best Seller list no less than six times, delivered the event’s keynote address: “The cold, hard, ugly truth about success.”

Read the full article by Alicia Kelso at fastcasual.com,,,

Would you work for a jerk?

 Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo as he explains  how the principles of improv apply in business.

Carrots & sticks are so last century!

When it comes to motivation, there’s a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system— which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators— doesn’t work and often does harm. We need an upgrade. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements: (1) Autonomy— the desire to direct our own lives; (2) Mastery— the urge to make progress and get better at something that matters; and (3) Purpose— the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

A must read for every manager, Daniel Pink: Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us