Reflections on Leading in a Digital World

The Leading in a Digital World programme supports senior leaders transforming their organisation to address the challenges and opportunities presented by our digital world. The latest iteration of the programme has now concluded, having run between March and May.

Building upon the success of Digital Champions, the programme has covered a range of themes related to transformation and digital services, to include both strategy and operational issues. We’ve heard from a range of speakers and experts on leadership, procurement, service design and cyber.

Through our annual monitoring process, we have now completed an evaluation and will use participant feedback to improve the experience and learning for those attending the next cohort, which will begin in July.

The 6 day programme is delivered in person and online and is configured as follows:

• Day 1 – Transformation
• Day 2 – System Leadership
• Day 3 – Culture and Digital Skills (online)
• Day 4 – Artificial Intelligence and Procurement (online)
• Day 5 – Service Design and Agile Sprints
• Day 6 – Challenges, opportunities and looking forward

We plan to maintain the hybrid approach as it remains popular with participants and we know from feedback that the opportunity to network with peers is an attractive proposition. The recent cohort was in Edinburgh and the next will be in Glasgow. We are also exploring opportunities beyond the central belt and with a possibility of delivering a similar programme online and/or for teams.

The programme was opened by Mr Ivan McKee MSP and Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, who also attended the final day panel with Lesley Fraser, Director General Corporate and Geoff Huggins, Director Digital at the Scottish Government. This presented a unique opportunity for participants to engage in discussion and to ask questions in relation to leadership, digital skills and transformation.

The exact content of the programme will differ from one cohort to the next as we iterate and the speakers will also change over time. The nature and essence will remain the same, with some changes related to content and structure based on evaluation.

In July, we plan to spend more time exploring the concept of transformation and in determining a common understanding amongst delegates, with theory into practice the theme on Day 5 as we take participants through a design sprint. By focussing on a real and contextualised challenge, this will act as a ‘golden thread’ throughout the programme, with participants working individually and in groups. It’s our aim to move beyond collaboration and toward co-construction and sharing of expertise during and after the programme, and we have already seen this beginning to surface as participants make valuable connections with other senior leaders from across the public and third sectors.

The Scottish Digital Academy has a role in supporting partnership and community and these themes feature in our strategic business plan. All participants on the programme will become members of our Alumni and we will continue to offer ongoing professional learning and support in matters of transformation and leading in a digital world.

You can read more about the programme here or visit Twitter and follow @ScotGovSDA #SDALead22.