Beyond the Ping Pong Table: 8 Ways to Create a Digital Culture That Wins

As many large enterprises look to strengthen their digital practice, most are struggling with attracting, training and retaining digital talent. Statistically, most of the digital talent lies within the millennial generation and legacy IT and product management functions inside large corporations typically do not have the right culture to effectively recruit and retain a high-functioning millennial workforce.

Unfortunately, the knee-jerk reaction to addressing this problem is some form of the following three-pronged approach.

1. Remodel a floor of the corporate campus, using open space furniture
2. Start utilizing Agile development methodologies
3. Buy a ping pong table

Although this is a little tongue-in-cheek, it is symbolic of the tactics many large organizations are using to approach a very strategic problem.  This line of thinking reminds me of an old Agile coaching joke:

“Transforming to Agile is like having your mother-in-law come to visit. She won’t solve all your problems but she’ll be happy to point them out to you.” 

Agile methodologies and open space formats often expose more problems than they solve in the near term. The reason being is the fundamental need is actually not about furniture or development methodology, it’s about employee empowerment.  If you want individuals to be creative in how they think about  digital solutions, then they need some creative license in how they manage their work and their careers.

Most large companies do have a strong culture, rooted in great tradition. They typically have a focus on excellence, caring for employees, community support and industry thought leadership.  But they often practice these values in analog ways, which isn’t attractive to a digital workforce. Let’s look at 8 differences between an analog and a digital culture.

1) Recruitment Teams:  Analog HR organizations utilize shared recruiting resources that spend a portion of their time recruiting digital talent.  Digital HR organizations have a subset of the recruiting team specifically trained in digital technologies, managing the digital employment brand and networking within the digital community.

2) Training:  Analog training programs utilize centralized corporate training functions with digital classes embedded with other corporate training programs.  Curriculums are evolved yearly and external training requests (i.e. conferences and workshops) are granted on a one-off basis.  Digital training is driven by a teach and learn culture; whereby digital teams define their own training needs, employees give training to others in the organization and, with the quickly evolving digital landscape, curriculum is evolved monthly.  External training is handled through individual self-directed training budgets. 

3) Org Structure: Analog organizations are structured in functional hierarchies and are management driven from the top down. Virtual teams are formed around initiatives with individuals split across multiple projects. Digital organizations are matrixed with dedicated teams organically formed around initiatives. Disciplines are continuously evolved through virtual practice circles.

4) Workplace Processes: Analog processes are standards based, in the hope of gaining consistency and repeatability at scale. Digital processes emphasize best practices over standards, allowing teams to make the final decision on how to get something done based on the problem at hand.

5) Career Paths: Analog career paths are a function of their hierarchical structure. Progression is often governed by tenure or openings in the organizational model. Digital career paths are a function of their flat structure. Flat structures allow for a natural career path to be defined for a particular discipline, allowing people to level up at their own pace.

6) Knowledge Bases:  Analog employee intranets are focused on finding the right content to answer a question; however, content ages quickly.  Digital employee networks are more social in nature and are focused on finding the right person to answer a question.

7) Hiring and Firing: Analog cultures hire fast and fire slow. They tend to fill posts as quickly as possible, in fear of losing the post during annual budget review cycles. Due to restrictive HR policies, poor performers are often moved around the organization instead of being let go. Digital cultures hire slow and fire fast. They are more adept at screening for cultural fit and putting the honus on the candidate to prove their worth through the practical application of their skills. Transparent delivery methodologies allow teams to self-govern and push out poor performers quickly. 

8) Performance Drivers: Analog cultures are measured based on outcomes (financial or otherwise). Digital cultures are measured based on the fulfillment of a purpose; with the understanding that fulfilling that purpose will achieve the desired outcomes.

These are just a few examples of the differences between analog and digital cultures. I would love to hear your thoughts on other differences in the comments below.