The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB.
Digital leadership isn't just about using new technology
The latest research from Lloyds Banking Group identifies that 52% of charities have basic digital skills, a rise of 4% from 2017. This is coupled, at the other end of the scale, with the number of charities reporting as having none of the basic digital skills reducing from 100,000 to 97,000.
Our own work in the field of digital evolution through our Senior Leaders Programme and Digital Check Up highlights that digital leadership isn’t just about using new technology. It’s about understanding people’s changed expectations, challenging ‘the way we’ve always done it’ by being curious and bold … It requires workforce development, new ways of working, courage to stop doing some things and enthusiasm and energy to take risks.
All the above sound like really positive progress however, 69% of charities think that their trustees are lacking digital expertise and a third of charities cite lack of understanding of buy in from trustees as one of the biggest barriers to their organisation getting the most of digital. Challenging and changing the culture of an organisation needs buy-in and enlightened leadership from the top.
Much has been documented and is understood about why board’s would need experts in the fields of, say, HR, Finance, Legal etc and what that expertise looks like. There is much less articulated in the same way about what digital expertise looks like. For the past while I’ve been doing some thinking about this along with three other great partners. Here is our starter for ten. We’d love to hear your comments.
