It is hard to avoid the technology and the multitude of options available today.

“Which technologies do I choose? Is it relevant to me? Do I really need this? Will it give me a new set of problems? How do I manage the culture change? Can I still compete? Who am I now competing with? Will I be left behind? Does that matter? Should I just retire early and forget it all?”

Individual technology choice is bad enough.

But technology also has an impact on the way our society acts. It changes the ways people communicate and act together. 

It changes the way people source information. It shifts the power of influence from traditional centralised sources to a multitude of new options. It disperses and distributes power. It creates new networks with membership spread across the planet. It creates new market relationships.

How does the “old world” deal with this? Not very well.

And as individuals become more familiar with these extra connections and collaborations, their attitude changes…permanently.

There is no going back.

Even the use of traditional media is managed differently.

Television is dipped into or accessed differently. Advertisements are muted, or channels are shifted. Programs are recorded and ad-breaks sped through at 16 or 32 times normal speed.

The mainstream print media is read for what it is, one of many perspectives, offering a biased view representative of its owners. Propositions are now tested on the internet, commented on, shared, questioned, fact checked and ignored – whether they are sales messages, political messages or news.

The power of propaganda is diminished.

It used to work well, when media sources were few and content could not be so easily discussed. But today, instant sharing and commentary underlines anything that “smells bad”, anything that does not align with the multiple other sources of information, news, opinion and commentary. Cognitive dissonance is amplified.

The ABC, Radio National and some other traditional media sources, in contrast, grow in power and influence as people increasingly appreciate the value of the content, recognise how it aligns with the new media, with sharing, with collaboration and the new.

The digital revolution brings ever more connection, more collaboration and more integration and these are the underlying, major currents of the revolution that drive disruptive change.

They are largely invisible but they are the game changers in the new digital age.

They affect and change the world we live in.

Ready access to information changes our attitude.

It changes our expectations. It makes us more confident. It makes us less patient. It reinforces our relationships with those who really know about something.

It diminishes the hold that traditional organisations and individuals have on us.

It allows us to question the expertise and leverage of the “high priests” in our society – the doctors, lawyers, accountants, politicians, bankers and priests.

More digital connection, collaboration and integration empowers people.

It shifts power from the seller to the buyer.

It transfers control of the agenda from traditional media to the anointed blogger or commentator on a forum, living anywhere on the planet.

The digital currents steadily transform a customer from somebody who doesn’t know to somebody who does.

And with knowing comes new power and confidence.

This is the most fundamental effect of the digital revolution and the one that is the least well understood.

Connection, collaboration and integration build empathy.

Connection, collaboration and integration build trust.

This is a sea change, a weather change, a wind change and a climate change for the better.

It drags power away from traditional power brokers – vendors, media, government, politicians and pundits.

It transfers power, information, knowledge and confidence to customers.

Slow and subtle though this process is, it will have and is having a revolutionary impact on the societies we live in.

The transformation will take many years, but it will have a huge impact on us all.

You can’ t become more connected, more collaborative and more integrated and fully accept inequality and unfairness.

The government still hasn’t understood that it is not a question of them not “selling the budget message” well enough…the message is unfair and fails to resonate with the new digital attitude. Cognitive dissonance on steroids.

And the new attitude is just the old attitude of “fair go” multiplied by new digital technology.

It is conservative with a small “c”. It is national with a small “n”. It is liberal with a small “l”. It is social with a small “s”. It is non political. It is human.

More connection, more collaboration and more integration bring us closer together. It builds community. It builds trust.

And the nature of digital connected change opens the doors and windows, shines light on corruption, lets in the fresh air and inspires a real desire for vision and direction and structure based on the new paradigm.

It is no accident that we are having so many enquiries into corruptions and abuses of all kinds at this moment in time.

Digital revolution demands looking forwards not backwards. It is a paradigm shift. And it is not comfortable for many.

There is a conflict of cultures in play…a contest between the past and the future.

But the past has gone and gone forever.

The digital revolution is remorseless, constantly disrupting, changing and evolving. It offers enormous opportunities. They are being picked up and manifested every day.

This is fundamental change. Affecting not just single businesses, but sectors, regions, states, countries, associations, councils, governments and academia.

Digital is about a lot more than just social media and websites. It is far more profound and disruptive than that.

“Focusing solely on web and social… is like a few penguins standing on an ice floe discussing the price of fish and how to sell them, when the ice floe is melting beneath them, the orcas are circling in the water around them and the ice floe is being carried towards an enormous whirlpool, that is destroying icebergs 5000 times the size of the ice floe they stand on.”

True digital strategy first looks at the causes of digital disruption, the impacts overall, the affects on industry sectors and supply chains…and only then starts to consider how best to use the tools of the digital revolution to maximise benefit.

Anything else is just discussing the price of fish.

John Sheridan is CEO of Digital Business insights, an organisation based in Brisbane, Australia, which focuses on helping businesses and communities adapt to, and flourish in, the new digital world. He is the author of Connecting the Dots and getting more out of the digital revolution. Digital Business insights has been researching and analysing the digital revolution for more than 12 years and has surveyed more than 50,000 businesses, conducting in-depth case study analysis on more than 350 organisations and digital entrepreneurs.

http://www.db-insights.com/

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