The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation

by Gerald C. Kane, Anh Nguyen Phillips, Jonathan R. Copulsky

Why an organization's response to digital disruption should focus on people and processes and not necessarily on technology.

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. Every organization needs to understand its “digital DNA” in order to stop “doing digital” and start “being digital.”

Digital disruption won't end anytime soon; the average worker will probably experience numerous waves of disruption during the course of a career. The insights offered by The Technology Fallacy will hold true through them all.

A book in the Management on the Cutting Edge series, published in cooperation with MIT Sloan Management Review.

Genres: Business, Technology, Management, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Buisness, Contemporary

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Richard Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which is not something I say about that many professional books. It gives a clear description of the nature of digital transformation, with the big hint given in the title that the authors do not think mastery in this field is just about technology. The acknowledge the critical importance of technology, but technology alone won't transform a business - its is application along with the culture and climate of the organisation - you know the soft stuff all about people.

Like most books that talk about things like digital transformation I'm sure this book will age quickly, but as I read it in early 2021 it seems a good place to get a broad understanding of the subject.

[Sergio Caredda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book walks the reader on the challenges that digital disruption is posing to all companies. Based on a research done with MIT and Deloitte, with more than 16.000 individuals surveyed, the research examines the traits of three clusters of companies based on various degree of digital maturity. And comes to create a concept of Digital DNA where each company should understand its own DNA in order to stop doing digital and start being digital.

[Fred Cheyunski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Human Implications Need More Attention - Becoming aware of this book when reading another in this series, e.g. Ross et al’s “Design for Digital” (see my review), I decided to give it a look. It seemed as if it might inform other aspects of digital transformation that has been becoming so prominent especially now, although written before the current COVID 19 Pandemic (e.g. see my review of Rogers’ “Digital Transformation Playbook”). While appreciating elements from this book, it seemed I actually got more about digital human implications from the other books mentioned above. Perhaps, I am jaded because, as a consultant in this arena, I have been more familiar with the topics covered. If I could, I would actually rate it between 3 and 4 stars, as there are many helpful aspects to the book.

Delving into the text, its contents include an introduction and 15 chapters divided into 3 parts whose headlines summarize the topics covered. More specifically, the introductory remarks concern “Digital Disruption-The Cyclone has Arrived.” Then, the book proceeds with Part I. Navigating Digital Disruption: (1) Digital Disruption is no Secret, (2) Digital Disruption is Really about People, (3) Moving beyond the Digital Transformation Hype, (4) Digital Strategy for an Uncertain Future, (5) The Duct Tape Approach to Digital Strategy - Part II. Rethinking Leadership and Talent for a Digital Age: (6) Digital Leadership is not Magic, (7) What Makes Digital Leadership Different? (8) The Digital Talent Mindset, (9) Making Your Organization a Talent Magnet, (10) The Future of Work; Part III. Becoming a Digital Organization: (11) Cultivating a Digital Environment, (12) Organizing for Agility (13) Strength, Balance, Courage, and Common Sense: Becoming Intentionally Collaborative, (14) Test Fast, Learn Fast, Scale Fast, (15) Moving Forward: A Practical Guide. Finally, there is the “Conclusion: There’s no Going Back to Kansas.” There are also Notes for each chapter with references and an Index.

Among my favorite aspects of the book include its premise which echo’s the older line from the late Michael Hammer of “Reengineering “ fame that the “the soft stuff is the hard stuff.” It is also clever the way the authors use the MGM movie and L. Frank Baum novel, “Wizard of Oz” as metaphor likening the cyclone to the technology disruption and the aftermath of living in the strange world of Oz. Given my background, I appreciated the references to Nadler and Tuchman’s work on the need for “congruence” among organizational elements much like that by Jay Galbraith and Edward Lawler (see my reviews of “Designing Organizations: Using the STAR Model to Solve 5 Critical Design Challenges” and “The New American Workplace”). Along these lines, the human issues seem to be the same one’s they have been for some time. That is, there is the challenge of creating situations that balance between those that foster people thriving and getting the job done (typically tilted, as would be expected in business, toward the latter).

Since, this title is a management book it is not surprising that the emphasis is on leaders, key talent and organization matters, rather than the social aspects of digital disruption. For instance, the authors refer to historical parallels from the 17 and 1800’s and the recent opioid epidemic in the US as human responses to technological, economic, and urban disruption. However, they readily admit that such issues will (as indicated in Kindle edition Location 2528 ) “. . . likely only be addressed through public policy and government intervention, which are worthy topics but not ones that we address in this book” (which brought to mind Harari’s “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” where so many of such concerns are raised---see my review). I was heartened and sobered to see the treatment of job prospects (Locations 2648-53) where individuals are going to have to “. . . continually pivot to the next possible career wave . . . chart [their] own course of career exploration . . . scan the environment and find the point at which personal interest and market opportunity are maximized . . . the junction at which what you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs all come together” (such remarks had me thinking about Vonnegut's "Pity the Reader" when looking at the career outlook for writers where he advises to make sure they have a ‘day’ job---see my review).

Despite my focus on drawbacks for me, those not as familiar with treating human implications of technology efforts in a business setting may benefit from this book and the deft combination of theory and practice, e.g. from Boston College, Northwestern Business Schools and Deloitte Consulting, that its authors present.

[Sunny Jaggi · Rating 4 out of 5]

With emerging technologies and business models, companies today are having to decide whether to follow this trend of digital transformation or rely on maintaining the status quo of historical successes. The Technology Fallacy is not about technology per se but instead focuses on the cultural elements of digital transformation. The authors argue that implementing new technologies alone will not suffice for an organization to become digitally mature. Instead, the leadership has to set the focus on its people and their interaction and adoption of new technologies. Subsequently, this implies a cultural shift for many organizations ready to leap forward. This book is based on four years of study on how various organizations are having to change as more and more industries are being digitally disrupted. By surveying 16,000 professionals on matters related to digital transformation, the authors could define three categories of digital maturity; 1) Early, 2) Developing, and 3) Maturing. The companies falling into Early adopters are typically lacking the right ingredients to leverage new technologies and may not have it as an internal priority. These companies are often on the losing end of any digital disruption. Developing organizations have generally initiated a fragmented transformation journey but not yet scaled it up to deliver significant outcomes. Maturing companies are digitally savvy and have upskilled their workforce to quickly adapt to new technologies and business models. Such companies have incorporated digital maturity as part of their core strategy. This book provides great practical examples of how companies in these categories are evolving and navigating their people through the ubiquitous digital disruption.

[Per Berggreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book for anyone involved in any technology-related topics and most are these days. The main conclusion seems, in short, to be: Technology considerations without People considerations is a poor investment and People considerations without Technology considerations is a poor investment. Like many other similar books, we have heard this or alike statements for ages and to little avail. Kane and Co., however, takes the reader into the combined universes of technology, business, leadership, employment, organisation, market, talent etc. visualising and documenting impacts, effects, emerging trends based on their research - it is not a thought experiment based project but at the same time produces thought experiments.

The subtitle illustrates well the intention: "How People are the real key to digital transformation" and they abandon the "digital transformation hype" by introducing "digital maturity" and hence moved from the abstract level of the unknown meta concept to concrete and relatable term and perspective - butterflies transform, humans develop!
It is filled with valuable information, input and inspiration in a fashion that actually manage to succeed in combining perspectives as you go, and not in separate chapters. It's complicated, even complex at times to do multi-domain relating but it is hugely rewarding.

The essence is old, often cliche and repeated for decades, it's still no surprise and still true as it has been throughout human history - people are the most valuable source and (not) coincidental those who invent technology.

This book intertwines perspectives and combines knowledge and stresses that technology in itself will not save much - how people are allowed and choose to apply and use technology could potentially save a lot. Many of us know this to be true and have been struggling for decades with user adoption, experience, engagement etc. fascinated by a new ERP, CRM, a cloud solution etc. must all acknowledge that success is found within the use of these, not their technical implementations.

In the foreword to "An introduction to Enterprise Architecture" An Introduction to Enterprise Architecturethe grand old man of this topic John A. Zachman draws on Peter Drucker (in)famous article "The next information revolution", 1998 to focus more on the "I" than the "T" in IT leading him to conclude the following:
"I know I have a rather radical view of this, but my observation would be the whole reason you want people with technical skills in your Enterprise is not for building and running systems. Anybody can build and run systems, the employment of technology. The reason you want these kinds of people in your Enterprise is because they have the capability of engineering and manufacturing your Enterprise for you. That's the reason for their being, NOT simply for building and running systems." (Scott A. Bernard, 3rd edition, 2012, p.8.).

This book important because it manages to direct itself towards holistic perspectives and an equally holistic audience and the authors succeed in creating a merged and embedded "People-Technology" view that makes sense from a "people|technology|leadership|business|employee|....." perspectives - it actually succeeds in producing a highly needed, accessible, well documented, research-based and thought-provoking entity all in one - highly recommended.

[Lars Hamberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading The Technology Fallacy. It was an extremely rewarding read for me. I am a PhD-student with digital transformation as my field of study, and would say that this is "the book" on digital transformation. I have a bunch of other new books on digital transformation, and, from my narrow perspective, no one has more solid and robust research in - and deep insight into - this fascinating area than the authors of this book.

[Scott Lamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Require reading today and tomorrow if you want to succeed

Everyone should read this book on the digital fallacy. The authors are able to describe through 23 points of DNA what companies should do to survive in this digital age.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

" The Technology Fallacy” emerged from the annual work that MIT and Deloitte have partnered on, with "Coming of Age Digitally" being the most recent version. The book digs deeper into the topic and provides a view across multiple years of the study.

Digital transformation is hard. There are many aspects and complexities to consider in the transformation. The authors: Gerald C. Kane, Anh Nguyen Phillips, Jonathan R. Copulsky, and Garth R. Andrus have provided a strong view into the complexities, considerations and thoughtfulness needed when pursuing a Digital transformation. And, right from the cover, they make it clear that people are the key to success (and I’ll add, the reason why transformation are so hard!).

By moving from a short publication to a full book, there’s space to get much more detailed — providing more insights and more guidance. Kane et al, take advantage of this space by offering a more fine-grained look at the data through the lens of Digital Maturity, which they define as: “aligning an organization’s people, culture, structure, and tasks to compete effectively by taking advantage of opportunities enabled by technological infrastructure, both inside and outside the organization.” Viewing transformation as an ongoing activity related to continuous growth and maturity appeals. Too often, transformation appears within organizations as “the” goal, an end state. Such a view misses the point of being digital and will lead to poor choices and disappointment. Further, this view on maturity is also helpful as it takes a broad view of the alignment needed to take advantage of technology. We can’t just focus on org structure or just some training. Without alignment, it will be impossible to build the trust needed to take chances, gaps in knowledge, or share vulnerability. And in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) — how far can we get without trust?

A few additional things I’d like to highlight:
- Importance of ongoing learning, adjustments and planning is critical to the success of having a digital strategy. If the digital world is dynamic and continuously changing, how can you have a strategy that is static and followed like a script?
- “In a digital environment, organizations must shift from a world of ‘scalable efficiency’ to one of ‘scalable learning.” This quote is introduced in discussions about “Digital Leadership” highlighting that there is a significant change in mindset needed — both from leadership and throughout the organization. Who cares about efficiency if we’re not creating the right products or offering the right services?
- Continuing on the topic of leadership, this following quote is important both for how we work and how we learn: “To enable change, organizations must harness effective leadership at all levels of the company….digitally maturing organizations are less hierarchical and drive more decision making down to lower levels, where those decisions can be made more quickly and in a more informed way.” This flattening of the organization is critical both for executing and for learning — with the two moving in lockstep.
- STEAM vs. STEM: I’m a fan of discussing STEAM rather than just STEM and appreciated seeing Kane et al. embracing this view as well. Diversity of backgrounds is needed in organizations and the teams within — and that diversity needs to include the arts.

And one last quote that I’ll highlight sets the stage for discussion: “A key facet of developing digital talent is cultivating a growth mindset. Of course, no matter how much of a growth mindset you nurture, not everyone in your organization is capable of learning advanced technical skills, like Hadoop or machine learning. Yet, everyone can become more digitally literate, learn to adapt better to change, and think more critically-the skills our survey respondents identify as most important for success.”

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kane's Technology Fallacy develops a framework for what it means to be a company receptive to digital transformation. Much of the perspective is defined by surveys of CEOs, agents of change as well as large surveys of employees. What stood out to me was the emphasis on lifting existing staff and talent within the company instead of hiring outside techies to create change. In addition, creating smaller leaps of digital experimentation that can be expanded to the rest of the organization is more agile and often more successful. If you try to do one massive change, the digital transformation might even be obsolete by the time implementation is completed. This book proved convincing on how important it is to be a "learning" organization and, more importantly, what a learning organization looks like from the outside. There were some interesting industry terms as well, in particular, the term "affordances" which is how people interact with technology, how it can influence their behavior to create new opportunities for action that would not be possible without technology. "Competency Trap" when past or even current success prevents the consideration of change. Also, efficiency is not always the best benchmark for measuring success of change. Effectiveness, impact and value delivered by change can be a different focus. Six Sigma and lean improvements deter experimentation by focusing so much on reducing error that it diminishes corporate culture's appetite for risk or failure. The book is divided into short, digestible chapters with bulleted summaries at the end of each.

[kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technology is all about people and this book goes out and states the “obvious”, which is, of course, lost to many people, particularly outside technology. The structure is clear but follows a maturity model and the content is evaluated against user surveys. While there is scientific basis to some of these surveys, it is still a set of responses from people who may have subjective contexts. I have done a few of these surveys (not this one specifically) and do not have confidence that these are precise enough for very directed actions, but more to serve as indicating directional trends.

Then, the rest of the content are assembled from other sources such as the growth mindset of Carol Dweck, and the Agile Manisfesto, thus making parts of the content more of regurgitation of existing text in cliff notes fashion.

The points are relevant and the summary of each chapter describing specific actions to take is helpful (but my question is if these are the right actions to begin with other than them sounding coherent with existing literature, which may well be unscientifically backed as well).

Still as a senior “administrator” or “ officer” within an org, this provides a nice collection of concepts grouped into actionable framework for application. Sometimes, the accuracy may not mean as much as being able to articulate an overall vision and steps to be taken. This book does serve to provide that basis.

[Rafael Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro introductorio para los empresarios que estén planeando seguir un proceso de transformación digital en sus negocios. Basado en cuatro años de investigación llevada a cabo por el MIT Sloan Management Review junto con Deloitte (y como el título lo indica) el libro se enfoca en aspectos de liderazgo y cultura organizacional, los cuales son fundamentales para una transformación digital exitosa. Si los directores no entienden esto, lo más probable es que acaben gastando muchísimo dinero en tecnologías digitales a las que no se les saque provecho, que no ayuden a crear valor para los clientes o que no les permitan capturar parte del valor creado en beneficio de sus accionistas.

Una de las ideas más interesantes del libro y que permea el análisis es la de madurez digital: de manera similar a una persona madura que actúa con fortaleza y prudencia, y que sabe adaptarse y sacar el mayor provecho de los cambios que se dan a su alrededor, una empresa digitalmente madura no es la que ya llegó a ser digital sino aquella que tiene bases operativas sólidas combinadas con la capacidad de aprender y adaptarse continuamente. La mayor parte del libro consiste en identificar qué distingue a las empresas con madurez digital de aquellas que están intentando desarrollarla.

[Matthew Cahill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on years of research into digital transformations, the book shows how people - not technology - are the key to successfully navigating the digital maturity journey. It provides practical approaches for navigating digital disruption, adapting personal and organizational leadership for the digital age, and cultivating an organizational culture suited to thrive in a digital environment.

The findings and lessons in the book are consistent with what I've seen while leading digital transformations in financial services over the past decade. By recognizing that people - both customers and employees - are the key to digital transformation, organizations can unlock the capabilities required to transform and compete in the digital age.

I encourage any business or IT leader faced with guiding their organization through the digital maturity journey to become intimately familiar with the teachings and guidance contained in this excellent book. I know I'll be sharing it with my clients and teams!

[Tim Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Technology Fallacy is written by a Professor at Boston College and 3 people from Deloitte and published by MIT. It is based on a survey of 16,000 business leaders. In it they explain that digital transformation does not come from technology, it comes from people and process. Most importantly empowering people with digital skills.

The books shows that there is a direct correlation between business leadership and growth and the investment in the digital skills of the people. They also explain how these leaders are the ones that get access to the best talent. As you can imagine, that these leaders start to accelerate away from the digital laggards. Interesting enough, the research shows that digital laggards do not invest to catch up, so the gap widens.

While there is a lot of discussion about the research, there is also practical stuff and advice around rethinking leadership and talent for the digital age and becoming a digital organisation.

While this does read like a textbook. There is a lot of insight buried in here.

[Tiago Vilarinho · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is embedded on a study the authors did regarding less digital mature vs digital matured companies, in order to assess which are the cornerstones to digital transformation.
Their approach is quite interesting, as they drive away from typical hacks and fast results we tend to believe that accelerate business digitalization, and rather focus on organically (yet measurable and manageable) digital culture transformation from within the core of organizations.
Another great focus of this easy readable study is that the key for this change is held on people.
It is a great book for those who are interested in business, technology and organizational culture and deeply believe in digital as key for thriving in an upchanging world.
It explains that the key challenge is that technology adoption, adaptatiob and assimilation evolve at different paces and that the biggest threat of digital disruption is in the organization itself.

[Psyckers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a technology book that most people will understand. It strips out the jargon and the 'headline grabbing' buzz words to focus what fundamental things you need to consider when embarking on a digital transformation change programme of work in your organisation.
The book outlines the importance of ensuring that the people involved understand the journey, the possible roadblocks, and the rewards of going on this change journey. It is also important that the story narrative 'sold' to the organisation and people reflects this journey.
With a well written, and easy to understand examples, I certainly recommend this book to anyone who is planning to creating digital and technological changes in their organisation.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's well researched. There's some boilerplate corporate language, but I guess that's standard for a business book. Themes: "Digital maturity" — integrating new tech into the workflow — is what all corporations should aim for. Organizations have to become more collaborative, (somewhat) less hierarchical, and open to experimentation to keep up with digital technology. People adopt technology, then businesses adapt to technology, and finally the law catches up and assimilates technology. Still, the fundamentals of leadership and business relations do not change, just because everything is online.

[Veenit Mavani · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book revolves around a detailed survey floated across various C-suite executives and insights drawn from it. The book has some content that could be useful to different audiences during different periods of time in their career. However the over reliance on data and repeated mention of various stats makes this book a dull read. Some parts of the book come across as insightful will the remaining feel like fluff. Also, if you were to run a Find-and-Replace on the contents of the book and replace the word "Digital" with "", the book might just reduce to half it's current size :p

[Sergio Caredda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book walks the reader on the challenges that digital disruption is posing to all companies. Based on a research done with MIT and Deloitte, with more than 16.000 individuals surveyed, the research examines the traits of three clusters of companies based on various degree of digital maturity. And comes to create a concept of Digital DNA where each company should understand its own DNA in order to stop doing digital and start being digital.

[Paiman Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A survey of more than 16,000 businesspeople worldwide about the impact of digital disruption on their organizations.

The researchers gleaned numerous insights that can help guide any company to “digital maturation.”

They found that technology alone doesn’t drive digitalization.

Rather, a firm’s talent, culture, adaptability and leadership matter most.

There is also a warning not to copy another firm’s digital path outright but to adapt the process to your unique culture.

[Swathi Ashok Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book for a project on Digital Maturity and I kept reading even after I was done with the project because the book is amazing and explains everything in layman's terms.

With the comparison to the Wizard of Oz and the simple diagrams, even someone like me, who has really no knowledge about digital transformation and digital maturity was able to understand.

A definite recommendation to anyone who is trying to learn more about the future of work in the matter of people.

[Ryan O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required Reading for Leaders in this Century

If you want your organization to remain relevant in the near future, you’ll need to understand how digital transformation will impact you. You’ll need to know where this transformation is going and how prepared you and your organization are to deal with it. This book get you headed in the right direction.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great number of books address the disruptive nature of technology and how companies can ready themselves for change. In The Technology Fallacy, the authors deep dive into the role of people in this change process. This often-overlooked ingredient of transformation is analysed in-depth and with sufficient examples to make a strong point for focusing on people.

[Fannisa A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book introduces key concepts by which readers can understand and are practical in the realm of management in a digital world. I appreciate the practical side of things as writers have succinctly described how one would go when encountering a particular trouble and have admitted that it will inevitably be hard. Good read for those wanting a deeper insight to digital transformation.

[Riccardo Bua · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is one book of a kind covering the specific missing element from any digital transformation, people. It digs deeply on how technology adoption needs to be coupled with a change in organisation values, practices/processes and most importantly its human elements. Priceless reading for anyone looking to adopt leading edge tools and shift away from their legacy environment

[Viridiana]

kinda resisting the urge to trash this book just because it was a mandatory reading for a class that i absolutely loathe, but it's not that terrible. i was not interested in the least, and it's repetitive af, but it's still pretty much what it promises to be – a book about how companies can tackle the challenges that digital transformation represents. (pretty boring if you ask me)

[Jason Attard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, with great advice on how to operationalise digitisation in your organisation. This book focuses on the most important aspect of digitisation: people in the organisation. As I experienced, digitisation is driven by people, and not technology; focus on the business need, and fill the gap with technology.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably there is a grain of truth in here. But the science is limited to interviews and cherry picking. And asking these people about the issue, is pretty much like asking the heroin salesman to tell you the virtues of heroin.

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book highlights the essential role of people, leadership and cultural shifts in successful digital transformation. It’s an inspiring read with clear guidance and practical examples. The audiobook’s narrator enhances the experience with a clear and understandable voice.

[Marjorie Beaugad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and clear but a bit lacking in the last few chapters, just like other books of this kind when touching on actual implementation. Still worth the read though!

[andy noble · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthwhile read

A great book and excellent introduction to building digital capability into your organisation. I will be using this as reference material for my next assignment