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Strategic oversight, performance evaluation, and policy setting for the long term should top the list in the digital board’s agenda.
Digital boards are heterogeneous, inquisitive, intelligent, effective, innovative and influential, with the ability to adapt to the “VUCA” digital new normal. The board competency will directly impact business competency. Board must set an example of leadership which permeates through the entire organization. An effective and efficient board can reflect, identify and mind the gaps on their own boardroom turf, they also continue to add the new blood for enforcing digital acumen in the boardroom. Here is a set of digital board’s composition inquiries.

How to overcome the most common succession planning challenges? Digital organizations are complex systems that are dynamic, self-evolving, self-adaptable, and self-perpetuating. The fact is that change is happening at a much faster pace than ever before, requiring a much more rapid response from the boardroom to the front line to survive and thrive. In order to lead today’s hyperconnected digital organization with the hyper-diverse workforce, the board composition should be synchronized with the digital perspective of the business.

Performing a board’s skill assessment is very important to understand the 'current state' factors in digitizing boardroom. In order to lead today’s hyperconnected digital organizations with the hyper-diverse workforce. The board composition should be synchronized with the digital perspective of the business. Maintaining the great board dynamic can help to transform the emotional board to an effective board via self-checking: Does this decision make sense? Can the person identify if there are insufficient "facts" to allow a conclusion to be formed? Are BoDs willing to change their mind when faced with new and relevant facts? Does the BoD have a track record of getting it right most of the time? If the company's vision, mission, stakeholders, and strategy have been clearly established - then this emotional appeal can be tested against those and the stated values of the organization.

Digital BoDs with strategic acumen are in demand for helping the business in strategy development. Because they often present the in-depth knowledge about the business and expertise in multiple domains. So, they can see things from different angles and provide invaluable feedback to business management teams for leading digital transformation.

Do you have the digital expertise needed in the boardroom? The multidimensional digital effects provide impressive advantages in term of the speed of delivery, the quality of information for decision making, and the wisdom of digital workforce. Digital makes a significant impact on every aspect of the business from people, process to technology, both horizontally and vertically. Furthermore, digital dynamic creates many blind spots and generates quite a few gaps due to its “VUCA” characteristics - Velocity, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Also because different individuals and organizations evolve digital in the different speed. The Board is responsible for ensuring an appropriate mix of skills, knowledge, and experience are present or available for it to fulfill its function. BoDs with digital acumen can both drive changes and adapt to changes effortlessly.

Digital becomes the very fabric of high performing business. It required the commitment from the senior leadership that is often lacking. The board provides an “outside-in” view of the business and multi-dimensional lenses to oversee and advise the business strategy and execution, in order to steer the business in the right direction.

Digital savvy BoDs understand what's required and how as a high-level basis of going digital mean to the business. With strong digital acumen, BoDs can sense emergent opportunities, and predict potential risks, exemplify learning agility, and also encourage those they guide to seek ongoing experience and knowledge.

What steps will the board take to develop an effective and inclusive culture?

The digitizing boardroom is not an overnight sensation, but a well-planning journey. Transformational change involves a complete end to end change, including organizational culture. With strong digital acumen, BoDs can sense emergent opportunities, predict potential risks, build the culture of innovation, exemplify learning agility, and encourage those they guide to seek ongoing experience and knowledge.

Digital culture is not necessarily just about transparency, but the balance of visibility and invisibility; inclusiveness and dynamic. In some cases, organizational culture is so powerful and even then will be able to influence the surrounding societies of the organization.

Leaders including the board of directors should always look for the capabilities and skills that they don't have so that they can build a winning team and complement each other. They can learn a lot from different mindsets (thought processes), cultures and positions, to make good policies so organizations as a whole can be competitive enough to keep surging further. The policy is still on the surface, though, organizations need to build an innovative and inclusive culture, this only happens when the ‘inclusiveness mindset’ is available with top management including the boardroom.

Strategic oversight, performance evaluation, and policy setting for the long term should top the list in the digital board’s agenda. A renewal board with digital savvy can set an example of leadership which permeates through the entire organization and synchronize the board evolution with the digital transformation.

Posted in: Digitalization,Leading by Questioning