Many moons ago a brilliant friend and awesome colleague of mine uttered the words
‘too much acorn and not enough oak’ and it stuck with me, it stuck with me because I
keep thinking how it applies to the work we do as digital professionals as we try to
move from short planning cycles with quick wins at the core delivering point solutions
to individual problems as a result. We have to do this for so many reasons, urgent
business need, limited resource across the whole eco-system and often, sadly, to
prove ourselves.
Engagement and buy in is important but when we are stuck in acorn mode and don’t
have a route to get to the oak tree of strategy and direction then all we can do is
deliver what the immediate ask is. Technical debt and the even harder to resolve
data debt are the big outcomes of a focus on the acorn rather than the oak and as
digital change agents we are desperate to get to the heady heights of joined up
delivery where the sky can be the only limit.
So how do we move, when is a strategy no longer simply a plan, what timeline does
it take to move from a plan to a strategic direction when transformation is the goal? I
think that its on us to define this in 2025, we can drive the appetite for what we are
capable of and we can, through the careful introduction of a digital first mindset help
our businesses and even our industries get what the art of the possible is.
The journey is as important as the destination in mind, and I think this applies so
much to the transformation journey. The journey is where the relationships are built,
the plan is refined and the outcome becomes clear, a journey has to have an end
state but if you decide to keep going further or deviate to another end point then
that’s ok when you are all in it together. The change from the creation of oak trees
rather than releasing many acorns happens as we build more and more confidence
in the journey we are on.
I am in my role three months next week, time has flown by and the journey has
started, I think we even have some clues as to where we are heading but what we
are trying to do is make sure that everyone who is on the bus with us agrees where
we are going and how fast do we want to go to get there. The enthusiasm for the end
in mind isn’t enough to get us there together. If I am not stretching the analogy too
much then being able to look out of the window and see the oak tress along the way
will be a great learning experience for us all and will even help us define what we do
when we get there.
A question we can answer together as we set out on our journey is about value.
What is the value of the ‘Technology Stack’ to the whole business and why does it
matter? Are we asking the wrong question when we do that I wonder. As we strive to
define the end in mind we want to talk about the value we release when we are
there, and often feel we need to justify the cost of technology, but, in 2025 is
technology not just a cost of doing business? The value of the Technology Stack is
that we are in business in 2025, the real value and therefore justification for the
expense should be bourn from the business value, the efficiency, productivity,
accuracy and customer experience that the investment in technology creates.
The most famous oak tree, the Major Oak is held up in 2025 by struts and ropes to
maintain is beautiful span and image, the major oak of our strategy in 2025 will be
held up by the struts and ropes of digital investment, digital mindset and business
engagement I guess I am proposing.
The cost of keeping the Major Oak at the heart of Sherwood Forest in the majestic
state it is in must be huge, but without the Major Oak would the legend of Robin
Hood still be alive and therefore a symbol of one of the Uks greatest cities be lost.
The cost of ‘doing business’ for Nottingham and the surrounding area is likely never
debated as the clarity that its just what we have to do has been reached, and likely
without anyone even having to write a business case.
Finally, when oak trees don’t produce acorns, it typically means that the tree is
either too young or too old to produce them. It can also mean that the tree is not
receiving enough nutrients to support acorn production. Exactly the same with
strategy I guess.
We need the strategy to be at its optimum maturity so that new innovations, new life
in the direction can continuously drop from its branches allowing us to create a forest
to flourish within. Being on the journey together, knowing where we are heading but
able to flex that and marvel together, our business and the digital transformation
professionals steering us at not just the bright future we are creating but also the
new ideas we come up with along the way is the joy of getting this right, together.