Whose Skills are Lacking, Exactly?

June 20, 2019 | by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

My colleague Johanna Mickel pointed me towards a recent study about the skills gap in the American workforce in her blog post on the topic. The article in CIO about this study focuses on the interpersonal and business skills that are lacking, specifically for digital projects, and is based on research from Gartner and Robert Half International.

But the detail that captured my attention was this one:

Deloitte’s 2018 global CIO survey found that creativity, cognitive flexibility and emotional intelligence are already in strong demand and are expected to be even more desirable in three years.

Wow. These higher-order skills are certainly worth their weight in gold, and an asset to any company in any role. But when I look at CIO's own list of the reasons digital transformation projects fail, these skills seem a little off the mark.

Why? Because at least eight out of the "12 Reasons Why Digital Transformations Fail" have less to do with the talent of project personnel and more to do with executives' failure to understand what they are doing and why. If that seems like a harsh verdict, just look at this precis of the article in list form:

1.  Lack of CEO sponsorship
2.  Lack of consensus on the project vision
3. Inability to figure out what needs to change and how to go about it
4. Failure to understand what talent is required by the technology and/or how to develop it
5. Poor timing ... failure to match the pace of transformation to market demands
6. Not hiring the right-skilled people (this is actually code for "being unwilling to compensate appropriately" in my view. You can always hire a talented person IF you are willing to provide the right pay and benefits. If not, there's always the consultant route, which is where high-performing organizations go when there's a talent crunch on a strategic project.)
7. Too much C-level turnover ... with too much ego in play. Everyone wants to be the transformation hero. No one wants to finish the job her predecessor left hanging.
8. Resistance to change. Often this is used as a way to blame the rank-and-file for project failure. But in fact, it is a management failure. We know there will be resistance to any organizational change. Smart executives plan to deal with it.

If I had to summarize the solution to all these issues in a few words, I'd say: Skills gap? Look within instead of grousing about a lack of "cognitive flexibility." Then hire someone who knows more about transformation projects than you do and let him/her run with it.

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