A Human-Centered Approach to Digital Leadership with Lauren Vargas, PhD
Too often the deployment of digital strategies and tools begins humans conforming to technology limitations instead of technology being deployed intentionally in the service of human needs and opportunities - a human-centered approach.
Dr. Lauren Vargas joins me on the Cohere podcast to discuss bringing humans back into the center of the "digital transformation" conversation and provides the CALM framework and specific examples for leaders to draw from.
Lauren is particularly well suited to give guidance here, as she is one of the most experienced and widely practiced digital strategists I know. She's had an impressive range of experiences in both the public and private sectors, including senior roles at Radian6, Aetna, and Fidelity. In private practice now, she’s most recently been focused on helping museums around the globe with digital transformation. We recently reconnected in London where I also got to walk through the AMAZING Clash exhibit at the Museum of London with her to see some of her work first hand.
The Cohere Podcast: Episode 6 with Dr Lauren Vargas
Key Quotes from the episode:
On Infusing Technology with Humanity
"it's talking like technology with heart, right. So it's, it's when we talk about it being embedded in, in an organization, and we talk about being embedded in an ecosystem, in the DNA, it's how do we have technology with a pulse? How do, how are we having conversations and using and understanding, managing and creating digital, and technology in a way that is, is human-centered."
On Culture as Terroir
"I think culture is having a common language. It's having a shared belief and value system, implicit and explicit practices.
You know, those conditions, those contexts are different for every single organization. Every organization has its own terrior. Each, each organization has its own unique fingerprint, contextual characteristics unique to that certain place that can influence and shape its character.
So when we think about terroir, an agricultural and an ecological term, it's the soil. It's the topography. It's the climate that collectively gives and produces a particular characteristic. For organizations, terroir might be attributed to the type and size of the organization and the industry it is anchored in, it's visitor or customer demographics. It's physical locations and all forms of media that terroir, it's complex and it is comprised of internal and external forces that are unique to the organization. And, those forces ebb and flow. They adapt and adopt over time."
The CALM Approach to Digital Leadership
"Taking a CALM approach to digital leadership, to digital transformation, is incredibly powerful. And when I say calm, it's an acronym.
C — Collaborative
A — Anticipatory
L — Letting go of Command and Control Leadership and Embracing Collective Leadership
M — Mindful
How do we, how do we think about a collaborative first environment? How do we embed, an anticipatory rhythm of practice and ritual? How do we let go of command and control leadership and how do we create the space to reflect?"
Resources From This Episode
Find Lauren online:
Articles mentioned in this episode:
Books Lauren mentioned in this episode:
"Anything by Ursula K Le Guin" - (ex: The Left Hand of Darkness)
The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin
ASU's Project Hieroglyph - Project site & the book.
