Revisiting DL and Looking to The Future
As a newly emerged area of interest and attention, digital leadership development (DLD) is interdisciplinary by nature. In this course, we have attempted to examine DLD at the intersection of technology, adult learning, and leadership.
In this book, we have discerned the context by looking at the key characteristics of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the impact on today’s organizations and workforce development. We have also examined the challenges covid has created, the roles that technology has played to help us continue our training and education endeavors, and the shift from grieving the damages covid has made to looking at this pandemic as an opportunity for digital transformation (Dx). We have challenged ourselves with this question – “Is digital leadership (DL) and how is(n’t) it different from traditional leadership?” We have discussed three major changes that technology innovations have brought to us, including speed of change, democracy, and diversity. Professionals in the field of training and education are now working in a fast and ever evolving training and education environment, dealing with “disruptive technologies” daily, and experiencing both accelerated digitalization and information democratization.
After discerning the context, we have sought to convince of the importance of mindset shifting for DLD, and to map the following areas of importance:
- Mindset shift #1 – Re-envision human capital management
- Mindset shift #2 – Re-define workspaces
- Mindset shift #3 – Develop the art of communication
- Mindset shift #4 – Strategize technology transformation
- Mindset shift #5 – Develop social capital/social currency through CoP/SM-F-CoP engagement.
- Mindset shift #6 – Approach our use of technology as “a way of revealing” (Heidegger, 1977, p.12).
We have attempted to make a case that DLD is not all about chasing the bells and whistles of technology innovations. To lead successful Dx, a digital leader needs to look at a simple but important question – What types of relationship do/should we as humans have with technology. Our approach to DLD as a rapidly growing area of research, practice, and profession, has been to identify and examine the key attributes that most education and training organizations would like to see in their leaders in the next 5 to 10 years when technology is more ingrained in everyday education and training practices. Are you ready to live and lead the digital opportunities and transformations in the near future?
