I don't know anyone serious who has digitalization as a goal. The true objectives are always much more specific and, for example, in companies they do not talk about digitizing but rather reducing costs, increasing sales, improving the margin, reducing the ecological impact or incorporating talent. Likewise, no one understands what we are talking about when we say technological humanism, because if we are talking about human issues we should be talking about health, work, ethics, justice or education. Digitalization, and technology in general, are tools that can help us improve as long as we are clear about the objective. Digitizing production might not be the best fit for a company that has a sales problem. Encouraging all companies to digitalize is like encouraging the entire population to take medication without knowing exactly what illness they suffer from.
The objective is not the digitalization of society but rather that everyone is willing to do things better, and the challenge is not to explain what can be achieved by embracing technology, but to find out if everyone is willing to do things differently. When we talk about digitalization, we are really talking about updating ourselves, reviewing what we do and catching up, with or without technology. To wake up.
I don't know anyone serious who enjoys changing, so the challenge is to convince them of the need to change. Normal people have a certain resistance to change because changing causes uncertainty, discomfort and risk. Accepting that you have to do things in a different way from how you do them without being sure if you will know how to do it well or if the result will be what you expected, and without knowing for sure if the person proposing the changes really knows what they are doing. . Change is complicated, and it is normal for it to make us doubt.
Most normal people don't change because they want to, but because they are forced to. The true driver of change is necessity. You change because the company is doing poorly, you change because you see the opportunity to win, you change because the law forces you. I ended up always wearing a seat belt because I was tired of paying fines, I changed jobs because I wanted to work at something that had more social meaning, and I stopped smoking because the person I was in love with asked me to. Normal people change basically for three main reasons: out of fear, out of excitement or out of responsibility.
Those who change out of fear do so because they have seen a risk or felt a threat. This is the case of companies with bad results, or those affected by a regulatory change, or that person who has a new boss who wants things differently. Fear is a great driver of change with many faces and it does not have to be negative. As has been said many times, there is a fear that makes you be cautious and be careful, and there is also a fear that slows you down too much and doesn't let you try what you should do. There is also the fear of looking bad, the fear of losing what you have, the fear of disappointing, the fear of making a mistake, or envy, which is the fear of not being preferred. Fear can take on very strange appearances, but it is there, it lives with us, and explains why some make more or less changes.
Desire is also the driving force of many changes and can also take many forms, some good and others not so good, and as always everything can end up becoming poison depending on the dose. Illusion, ambition, causes, love, passion, the desire to complete a task, the pursuit of an ideal, having a mission, wanting to help someone, loving someone or wanting something. Desire is the other great engine of humanity. And the third is responsibility, making changes because if it is within our reach we have the duty to improve things. It is the engine that should be moving the changes that our administration, our justice and in general most public services need: for responsibility.
It is not about everyone going digital, but about getting everyone to wake up to do things better. If we want to help, we don't have to make digitalization plans but understand what could be the reason for changing and what it needs. Changes caused by fear are not managed in the same way as changes caused by hope or responsibility. They are different atmospheres, expectations and casuistries, and therefore the methods, roles and tempos are also different. Let's not talk so much about digitizing and talk more about why it's worth changing.
