Anyone who thinks we are strongly networked today will have to think again. What will happen in the next ten years may be written in the stars. But networking will expand like an atomic cloud. More of everything - content, channels, and opportunities, while the reference groups can and must be narrowed down ever smaller, better and more precisely identified and selected. Speed, frequency, application possibilities, dimension and effort to mark the indispensable presence here will simply overwhelm us.
What can be distributed via countless channels and platforms in a targeted or blanket manner will be distributed. In the end, the addressee will not be able to grasp the mass of messages, images and emotions, let alone digest them. Certainly, the question of intelligent handling remains: Identifying relevant target groups, distributing relevant content on the one hand, filtering on the other. But with so much competition, indeed cacophony in the communications market, how can one still score points, who will survive? And how is it not to "storm" the addressee?
Are organizations - whether profit- or non-profit-oriented - ready for this change? Not at all. Will older employees and managers or younger ones be more comfortable? Hard to say. Contrary to many prejudices and illogical arguments, the digital generation in particular is also characterized by a lot of unconscious ignorance and elementary mistakes, ranging from wasting resources to destroying resources.
While the disruption of existing processes is progressing inexorably, one thing is certain: regardless of age, job, and hierarchical level, everyone has to deal with digitization, its possibilities, and its logic in addition to traditional knowledge. It is already no longer possible to do without it at the ticket vending machine (ticket machine), which is replacing the counter. How little renunciation will be possible in organizations that want to assert themselves? A new literacy must take place that affects all organizational levels and units.
In particular, managers have to deal with the new forces in order to identify the opportunities that arise and the risks. It's about recognizing long-term patterns and translating them for their own organizations. And it's about moving beyond the current noise. It's about exploring perspectives. Allocating resources. Triggering and managing change. Continuously shaping the future of your own organization. Eliminating fears. But always in the knowledge of what is going on.
That doesn't mean rushing headlong into the digital world and following every fad. Especially not for traditional organizations with an ingrained culture. Because failure and demotivation are preprogrammed. But modeling the future must be recognized as a continuous process, and it starts with top management becoming digitally literate themselves, regardless of age or industry. Knowledge and skills, traditional and expanded to include the new: This is part of the new, even more complex form of leadership. The fact that many executives are virtually non-existent digitally does not speak well for them.
Prof. Rodolfo Ciucci
Lecturer for Communication
University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland
School of Business
[email protected]
