DIGITAL CHANGES

Technology changes. The real test begins when people have to make it work.

Digital Changes is where I write about the distance between a technology’s promise and its use in real organisations. I have seen good technology introduced badly, capable people asked to learn too late, and ambitious plans collide with the work that still had to be done on Monday morning. These stories shape the questions behind this HTS pillar.

What the work taught me

Since 1996 I have worked on ICT infrastructure for railways, telecommunications and utilities, where a network cannot simply stop while an organisation figures out its next step. I have planned refreshes for thousands of devices along railway lines and managed transitions in which one supplier left on Friday and another had to take over on Monday. A successful handover meant more than installing the right equipment: service, knowledge and responsibility had to survive the change.

I have also made decisions I would not repeat. When I was asked to build a team for GPON networks, the people who already held the technical expertise were left out. The new team paid the learning curve again. In a digital terrestrial transition, we took on the work before investing in the skills it required; the client ended the contract early. In another programme, a demanding certification path and a productivity initiative competed for the same people’s time. Calling both a top priority did not give anyone more hours to learn.

More recently, a complex maintenance contract exposed the same mistake from another angle: acquiring missing expertise during delivery cost so much that the contract ceased to make economic sense. A signed deal is not a result if the organisation lacks the capacity to fulfil it.

These episodes are described on my page. They are why I return to one question: what must be true beyond the technology for this change to work?

The scope of Digital Changes

This pillar follows digital change from the decision to adopt a technology through its consequences in everyday work. Its recurring themes are:

• Choice and promises. How to distinguish a real shift from an attractive story, and test assumptions before committing budget, people or reputation.
• Skills before execution. What a team must know before a contract or migration begins, and how existing expertise can shorten the learning curve.
• Adoption in practice. Why a technically successful launch can fail when training, habits, incentives and ownership do not change with it.
• Capacity and continuity. How to set priorities people can actually deliver while keeping essential services running during a transition.
• Lessons across technology cycles. Which abilities and questions remain useful when platforms change, including in the current wave of AI.

What you can expect here

Expect stories from projects, including mistakes and their costs; practical frameworks for examining a proposed change; and questions you can use with your own team before, during and after a launch. The purpose is to help experienced, curious readers make clearer decisions and avoid paying twice for lessons someone else has already learned.

Digital Changes is one of three connected HTS pillars. Human + AI examines how to use AI without giving up judgment. Pro Growth explores how people stay capable and valuable as work evolves. Here the focus is the transition itself: the technology, the organisation and the people who have to live with the result.