Digital Journeys in Psychology

What are Digital Psychology Journeys and why are they important?

Author: Dr Anna-Rosa le Roux

In a world that is characterised by disruption as a result of computing power, artificial intelligence that empower more tools and advanced analytics that drives digital transformation, brand new opportunities for psychology to bring the human centrally into the equation are arising.

Unique human properties such as collaboration, empathy, compassion, intuitive problem solving, creativity and deep knowledge invites psychologists to uniquely add value in the digital era to help shaping digital transformation.

Corporates have woken up to the idea of “the human experience” and are realising the value of mapping Customer and Employee experiences alike. Using tools, for example, that are historically originating from the creative and design industries, Corporates create empathy models to help make decisions that are not only more inclusive and sustainable, but also directly adding value to the business bottom line. Many of these techniques are repositioned to create alignment across the organisation and thus instrumental to fulfill their strategic vision in more practical and integrated ways.

Elsewhere, authors recognise the centrality of humans in digitalisation and conceptualise human transformation beyond digital transformation. "... one advantage of such a human transformation approach is the way in which it puts the people building something, why they’re building it and who they’re building it for front and center of the development process".

Back to the digital debate: In an Eurobarometer study published by the European Commission (2017), the majority of respondents believed that digitalisation has a positive effect on the economy (75%), quality of life (67%) and society (64%).

Similarly to corporate digital investments impacting the entire value chain, i,e. from supply chain optimisation, product development, enhancing customer experience and fostering collaborative work environments, digital psychology creates value that is systemic in the areas of operational excellence, revenue growth, inclusive organisations and superior organisational health.

(Trenerry et. al) recognise the scope of the digital transformation: while prior theory on IT-enabled change can inform the study of digital transformation, recent research suggests that digital transformation is a process of deep, structural change that occurs through the integration of multiple technologies and fundamentally redefines organizational value and identity, (cited in Besson and Rowe, 2012; Skog et al., 2018; Wessel et al., 2020).

 

Digital journeys that create value

Let’s first pause a bit on exploring the value of going on a journey. What is a journey and what purpose does it serve? What is a digital journey? 

A journey defines in the most profound way how we grow and transition in our lives. It is driven by our values, needs and desires that serve our quest for purpose

A journey is in essence a vehicle that allows us to experience life outside of our familiar territories, gaining new experience and perspectives from the challenges and quests that we solve. Journeys open up our identity and accelerate our growth when we incorporate these new reference experiences.

Journeys also serve a second purpose, in that it reminds us of our humanness. When we endeavor into the unknown and connect to others, we develop compassion and connect to the essence of our humanity. This process allows us to see ourselves differently in that we are challenged to express ourselves more fully in accordance with our true nature.

Digital journeys are designed to accelerate personal growth, boost productivity and enhance customer experience in the digital world.

According to Global Web Index, in 2014 the average user spent more than 6 hours online, an upward trend to the 5.5 hours spent online in 2012. Similarly, social networking consumed 2 hours in 2014, compared to 1.5 hours in 2012. We are clearly spending a lot of our time digitally reading, collaborating, gaming, connecting and learning. It makes sense to meet the user (read employee leader, first line manager) in the digital space where they are already engaged.

Similarly, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Digital Media and Society report, digitalisation not only enhances the “flexibility for workers and employers”, but also “boosts productivity and enables greater work-life integration.” Digital journeys play directly into this space, where the differentiation between work and life is becoming increasingly blurred.

Digital journeys offer various opportunities that add value to traditional learning and professional development. Using a data-driven approach optimises learning. Meaningful data are gathered throughout and analytics such as journey engagement, utilisation and business impact to provide ongoing stakeholder feedback. Integration of various forms of content offers a platform for users to engage (read micro-learning, gamification, videos).

Journey mapping for organisations

If we want to increase the value of these individual journeys, or deploy them at an organisational level, we need to ensure that they are supporting the overall strategic direction that the business is taking.

Consider the big picture perspective by adhering to design principles such as:

Vision

What is the overall future state of the business? What do we want to achieve? If we want to create journeys to create the ideal customer experience, we need to ask for example: ‘What is the vision for the ultimate customer experience? and ‘What is the change story and brand value that will set the scene for our set of journeys?”

Governance

What is the governance structure around the journeys? Do we have inclusive stakeholder representation? Do we have all the voices that require embedding the journeys within the organisation?

Road map

What are the bouquet of journeys that we need to deliver on our vision? How do we test these quickly to rapidly learn from our implementation?

Metrics

How will we know we are making progress and our journeys are on track? How does our journey scorecard(s) look like?

Change and transformation

Good journeys are underpinned in solid behavioural change and transformation methodologies, digital learning principles and psychology theory.

Where to from here?

Ironically, the digital age has brought with it renewed focus on the human experience as a central concept in sustainable value creation.

 

A new paradigm of thinking is required to embed psychology creatively into businesses to accelerate business value and contain disruption.

Digital Psychology journeys unlock human flourishing, accelerating creativity, innovation, deep knowledge, compassion, empathy and collaboration that we so direly need in our disruptive world!

References

Trenerry, B; Chng, S; Wang, Y; Suhaila, Z; Lim Sun, S; Lu Han, Y & Oh Peng, H. (2021). Preparing Workplaces for Digital Transformation: An Integrative Review and Framework of Multi-Level Factors, Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 12. 

So, F. (2021). Beyond Digital Transformation, Towards Human Transformation. 

Technology has changed the world, but what about the humans?. Online blog article: https://medium.com/cogniss-magazine/beyond-digital-transformation-towards-human-transformation-10ffed0a2278.