Introducing the Cognitive Model of Digital Transformation

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by David W Wang

Ironically, mindset changes often fall behind technological, economic, and social-cultural changes. Human beings are hardwired to resist change. Part of our brain—the amygdala—interprets change as a threat and releases the hormones for fear, fight, or failure. The good news is that just as a child goes through some mental development leaps in learning the new world, we can also achieve mindset leaps for digital transformation by following the Cognitive Model of Digital Transformation introduced here.

We are riding on the waves of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) that is primarily driven by Digital Transformation consisting of such digital technologies and applications as nanometer chips, software, virtualization, fiber cable-enabled wired and mobile networks, 5G, Internet, Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, big data analytics, and cloud computing.

Digital technologies and applications, however, are not something brand-new. The Third Industrial Revolution, which started about a half-century ago, already invented and developed personal computers (PCs) and the Internet. The distinction between the 3rd and 4th Industrial Revolutions lies between these two buzzwords: digitization and digitalization.

Digitization means we primarily use digital technologies and devices as supporting tools. Digitalization, on the other hand, has started to blur the lines between machines and humans, converging advanced digital technologies into part of our lives, complementing, or even replacing what we do, and lifting our societies to the next level with advanced productivity, intelligence, and connectivity.

“To blur the lines of machines and humans” means we will become an integrated new entity of digital transformation. In the face of such significant technology-powered changes, some common questions each of us may have include: What will digital technologies bring about? Will digital transformation make our life and work better and easier? What should I do in mid of all these rapid changes? How can I stay with the trend or even ahead of digital transformation?

The pivotal answer is that to excel and succeed in the digital age, we need to keep our mindset open and adapt to this exciting ramp-up of technological advances. Based on the Harvard Business Review published in May 2022, “A digital mindset is a set of attitudes and behaviors that enable people and organizations to see how data, algorithms, and AI open up new possibilities and to chart a path for success in a business landscape increasingly dominated by data-intensive and intelligent technologies.” (Source: https://hbr.org/2022/05/developing-a-digital-mindset)

Ironically, mindset changes often fall behind technological, economic, and social-cultural changes. Human beings are hardwired to resist change. Part of our brain—the amygdala—interprets change as a threat and releases the hormones for fear, fight, or failure. The good news is that just as a child goes through some mental development leaps in learning the new world, we can also achieve mindset leaps for digital transformation by following the new Cognitive Model of Digital Transformation introduced here.

 One keynote is that when we talk about “cognitive,” it means much more than just knowledge learning and accumulation. It is also about technology assessment, judgment, and selection. Because only when we gain technological and application insight, and take the optimal approaches to adopt new technologies, the real mindset leaps can happen.

As complex as the process of mindset adjustment and changes can be, the new Cognitive Model of Digital Transformation can help orchestrate and enable such mindset leaps. Through the Model, as illustrated in the chart below, we can categorize the cognitive process of digital mindset into five different layers, with Layer 1 as the foundation or starting key concepts, all the way to Layer 5 of wisdom in digital space, walking through the entire journey of digital mindset transformation.

The Cognitive Model of Digital Transformation

Layer 1	Key Digital Concepts, Disruptions, and Milestones
Layer 2	Digital Thinking on the Building Pillars of Technologies
Layer 3	Essential Digital Behaviors and Capabilities – Sense, Think, Connect, Communicate, Visualize, Act
Layer 4	Digital Application Models and Solutions – Operation Enhancement, Customer Experiences, ICT ecosystem
Layer 5	Wisdom in Digital Space – Equilibrium, Leadership, and Culture

 

Our mind makes a peculiar entity by itself, and can be tricked and puzzled by too little or too much data and information. In this IT & AI age, we often are haunted by data overflow, which can convey and exaggerate both correct and incorrect information. As a result, is the IT & AI age making our life and work better and easier? It depends. It depends on how well we can handle and transform data into good actions and results. This, however, implies we may mishandle data as well.

The Cognitive Model of Digital Transformation introduced here takes shortcuts and right ways to achieve our mindset leaps as we focus on those vital digital concepts, thinking, behaviors, application models, and wisdom of management, which are holistically summarized, succinct in critical points, proved by successes, and easy to keep in mind. Now we have an effective Model to follow in merging human thinking and activities with digital technologies like a brilliant partnership. The more we get immersed in this Model, the quicker our mindset can kick off the leaps of adapting to the new Digital Age.

David W Wang is a renowned business development principal and evangelist of digital transformation. He is based in Washington DC and can be contacted at ITComG18@gmail.com. Mr. Wang is the author of the brand new book “Reaching Your New Digital Heights” which elaborates on the Cognitive Model of Digital Transformation in details.

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Categories: Industry Viewpoint