The Technology Fallacy

How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation

By: Gerald C. Kane, Anh Nguyen Phillips, Jonathan R. Copulsky, Garth R. Andrus

Narrated by: Jack de Golia

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Digital technologies are disrupting organizations of every size and shape, leaving managers scrambling to find a technology fix that will help their organizations compete. This book offers managers and business leaders a guide for surviving digital disruptions - but it is not a book about technology. It is about the organizational changes required to harness the power of technology. The authors argue that digital disruption is primarily about people and that effective digital transformation involves changes to organizational dynamics and how work gets done. A focus only on selecting and implementing the right digital technologies is not likely to lead to success. The best way to respond to digital disruption is by changing the company culture to be more agile, risk tolerant, and experimental.  

The authors draw on four years of research, conducted in partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, surveying more than 16,000 people and conducting interviews with managers at such companies as Walmart, Google, and Salesforce. They introduce the concept of digital maturity - the ability to take advantage of opportunities offered by the new technology - and address the specifics of digital transformation, including cultivating a digital environment, enabling intentional collaboration, and fostering an experimental mindset.

©2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2019 Tantor

Read this book!

I read/listen to a lot of books. About a book a week. This has been one of the best I've read on this subject in the last 5 years. I kept hitting pause and creating links to the text being used. I am sighting it as a reference in my upcoming presentation at a major Industry event.

Very Useful

I enjoyed this book. Very practical and useful, all the way to the end. The chapter on Agile Project management as a leadership and empowerment tool along with the final chapter was especially useful.

Creating the right culture is the key to success.

Great insights into a topic not covered enough in other books on transformation. One of the keys to a successful business modernization plan is shifting the mindset of employees to adopt a position of lifelong learning and an embrace it change culture. This is often the most difficult part. This book offers some very good information on the importance of this cultural shift and some base strategies on how you get started on that journey. Well done!

Another Digital Transformation Book

If this was the first book like this that I had read, it would have received an enthusiastic 5 stars and I would be talking about it incessantly. The author does a masterful job in corralling the topic of digital transformations and how culture is the key - but having read many of these books form others already, this book offers nothing new.

My rating is a reflection more of my jadedness on the topic of Digital Transformation and not a commentary on the quality of the book. If you've not read 10 of these already, this book will SLAY you. You will love it! And if you HAVE read 10 of these books already where you could argue that your time might be better spent elsewhere, there is also a certain amount of wisdom in hearing the lessons learned on digital transformations one more time. After all, there is a reason that so many of these books exist.

My take on The Technology Fallacy

It was very insightful. I ran through most of the content as I did not find it useful as I am not in a position to apply my newly gained knowledge. I think leaders of organisations trying to embrace technology would appreciate the book more.

I want an angle from a technologist

There was not much discussion about the role data should play in business.
In fact it suggested senior management have honed judgement to make quality decisions in a complex world, which is in conflict to much evidence.