Digital Transformation in Head Start Programs
Our world is evolving and advancements in technology bring new opportunities as our organizations, our economies, and our lives as individuals transform with this process. We are all hearing about digital transformation and going through a process of digital transformation – it’s the new thing, we see it in articles, journals, and in our daily lives.
Our families depend on us to get their children ready for school and life beyond. That life beyond will be in a digital world with the internet of things, artificial intelligence, pervasive computing, augmented reality, and many other technological advances. Having systems and processes in place to constantly develop new and innovative solutions will be critical for preparing children and families to succeed in a digital world.
Using technology to reach and engage with families and other stakeholders is necessary to remain at a competitive advantage. Organizations can make digital transformation initiatives a core part of their strategic plan by using a roadmap to identify what new capabilities the organization needs, what processes need to be in place for this transformation to happen, how the right data is captured and used, and the use of generated data-driven insights to better support children, families and employees.
This can seem daunting, but this process is not out of reach. Digital transformation is really about integrating digital technology across all areas of the organization. Digital technology makes things virtual and is happening in many industries already. As individuals, we are engaging and operating in the virtual world daily. Many things that were performed in person are now done virtually, many of us use our smartphones for online banking rather than going into a bank. We never really thought about engaging with digital technology, we just started using the apps as they became available.
We are in the midst of this new transformation with fundamental changes in the way basic things work. Eventually, organizations must get on board to remain relevant. Digital transformation, although revolves around technology, is more than technology. Harvard Business Review suggests that for digital transformation to happen in organizations, it requires four key domains – talent, technology, process, and organizational change capability.
Developing your leaders and employees to deal with implementing new technology and managing the digital transformation process to get the most advantages and avoid the biggest downfalls from it is imperative. There are certain competencies that leaders need to have to be successful in this process “Leadership competencies are leadership skills and behaviors that contribute to superior performance” – Society for Human Resource Management.
The benefit of digital transformation far outweighs the challenges of implementing this process. Head Start programs can simply start with automating processes allowing employees to focus on higher-value tasks, and activities that yield the highest levels of impact for their budget. Using data to determine performance, where to focus attention, and areas that would benefit from streamlining processes for digital transformation will add value to the organization.