Key pillars that underpin a digital mindset methodology   

As organisations navigate their digital transformation journeys, several key themes emerge. 

Leadership and Vision: Strong leadership is essential to guide the journey. Leaders must articulate a clear vision, set strategic goals and inspire an organisation to embrace change.  

Digital Literacy: This is central to adaptation in an evolving digital landscape. A significant challenge is demonstrating the value of digital tools, i.e., helping people understand the ‘why’, rather than simply enforcing their use. The goal is to shift mindsets so that digital integration is not perceived as extra work, but rather as a different, and often more efficient, way of working.   

Data Driven Decision Making: Understanding and leveraging data and analytics points allows for more precise insights and informed decision-making. This could include project management and improved operational efficiency as two immediate examples. 

Software Interoperability: Ensuring systems can communicate effectively enhances human connection and collaboration, increasing efficiency across projects. This becomes even more significant when you have global teams, across a multitude of organisations and locations, collaborating on projects.  

Technology Integration:  Integrating new technologies into existing systems and processes, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance capabilities and efficiencies.  

Client-Centricity: Placing the client at the forefront, we can unlock positive impacts through the adoption of digital tools. Whether that be better project outcomes, cost benefits, quality or visualising concepts, among other benefits.  

The interconnected necessity of these pillars is clear, and it’s vital that organisations understand and place equal value on developing these themes as they navigate the generational change within engineering consultancy. 

The secret sauce: A human centred approach to digital enablement  

A human-centred approach to digital transformation places people at the core of technology integration, ensuring that solutions are designed to meet user needs, enhance their experiences, and align with their behaviour and values. It is also through applying a human-centred lens of experience, that we see the best results from the adoption of digital tools, and the effective integration of them into our workplaces.  

Social nuances and regional context can create complexity which cannot be resolved by technology alone. Likewise, decades of major project experience – spanning the globe, remains critical to the interpretation of digital tools and data, and their subsequent use.  A human-centred approach emphasises that technology is not just an additional tool, but rather a mindset in how we best understand and utilise these new capabilities to ensure meaningful human connection, enhance efficiency and ultimately deliver exceptional outcomes for our clients and communities.   

Aligning technology with user needs

SMEC and the SJ group, routinely utilise digital tools to enhance engagement with stakeholders and communities. Prioritising stakeholder engagement throughout the project lifecycle, from ideation to completion coupled with the thoughtful incorporation of digital technologies, enhances usability, accessibility, and empowerment. This approach helps bridge the gap between digital advancements and meaningful user adoption, ensuring solutions are practical and resonate with real users. By highlighting the benefits of different approaches, organisations can better align their strategies with project objectives, ultimately creating digital solutions that are both effective and user-centred.    

Fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing

The critical point here is that collaboration and knowledge sharing must happen on all levels of the organisation and it must run in multiple directions. Senior engineers and Chief Technical Principles are not only sharing their decades of experience and learnings with new engineers, but they are equally willing to learn and adopt new technologies being introduced by newer recruits. The power of knowledge share is best unlocked when we are able to combine both the how (digital advancement, new technologies, coding, AI) with the why (decades of delivery experience, community centric approach to innovation and client considerations). Furthermore, knowledge sharing needs to be cross-discipline, cross-sector and cross-geography. Data accessibility and granularity and systems integration help unlock access to these learnings across global organisations. And critically, employees must feel empowered to search for these solutions in a digital culture that encourages exploration, experimentation and innovation. 

The Big Data challenge

In the realm of big data, the sheer volume of information generated can be overwhelming, leading organisations to focus primarily on sourcing and collecting data. However, the true value lies not just in data acquisition but in the human approach to interpreting and applying this information effectively. Human experience and insight are crucial in distilling big data into actionable insights that resonate with real-world contexts. While algorithms process vast amounts of data, they lack the emotional intelligence, empathy, and contextual understanding. A human-centric perspective allows analysts to ask the right questions, search for patterns, and interpret data within the nuances of human behaviour and societal trends. Human insights transform raw numbers into meaningful narratives that drive informed decision-making and foster deeper connections with stakeholders. It is this blend of quantitative analysis and qualitative understanding that empowers businesses to leverage big data effectively, ensuring that insights are not only accurate but also relevant and impactful. 

Reducing hesitance to change

A significant barrier to adopting a digital mindset is resistance from users who may feel overwhelmed, sceptical, risk adverse, or simply too time poor to adopt new practices given project deadlines. A human-centred approach to digital literacy helps address this challenge; involving users early in the design process, creating ownership over the tools being developed, and demonstrating how new technologies simplify workflows and improve efficiencies is key. A common data environment that makes collaboration simple and sharing case studies demonstrating time and cost savings can be influential in shaping human behaviour and encouraging an openness to a digital mindset.  

We are essentially a people business

A human centred approach to a digital mindset needs to exist in both internal and external contexts. In house, cross sector, cross regional and cross discipline teams need to all be involved in the use and application of digital tools, but equally externally, working closely with industry, clients, partners and communities we must share these digital findings and tools, and collaborate to achieve the most appropriate outcomes – this not only leads to more intuitive solutions but also fosters innovation through incorporating diverse perspectives.   

Ultimately, a human-centred approach to digital application serves as a competitive advantage, enabling organisations to best utilise their technical excellence and deep project expertise to upskill all employees, simplify complexity and deliver digital solutions that are not only efficient and functional but also inspired and innovative, aligned with the aspirations and challenges of their clients.  

Still not convinced?    

Embracing a digital mindset, with human enablement at its core, is essential for several reasons:  

Competitive pressure: As new entrants leverage technology more effectively, established firms risk losing market share if they fail to innovate. The consulting landscape has transformed dramatically due to technological advancements; firms must continue to adapt or risk obsolescence.  

Client expectations: Clients increasingly demand innovative solutions that leverage technology, and they are looking to consultancies for leadership in this emerging space. Firms that can demonstrate proficiency in digital tools and a holistic approach to digital delivery are better positioned to meet these expectations and deliver superior value.  

Cultural transformation: A digital mindset requires deliberate cultural endorsement within organisations. Leaders must foster an environment where experimentation is encouraged, failures are reframed as learning opportunities, and continuous improvement is the norm. The benefits an organisation will see with this cultural shift spans internal and external stakeholders, from talent retention and acquisition to positive client relationships. Firms that adopt a cultural transformation and enable a digital mindset will harness an incredible competitive advantage.   

Navigating Change: Strategies for Implementation

To successfully cultivate a digital mindset, consultancy firms should consider the following strategies: 

• Invest in Training and Development: Providing ongoing training in digital tools and methodologies, creating a greater level of digital literacy across the board for all employees ensures that everyone is equipped with the necessary skills to contribute effectively and identify opportunities.  

• Find your champions: Identify your early adopters across the business and empower them to bring their enthusiasm and dynamic thoughts to all manner of projects. Think of these people as ‘a crucial strand in a spiderweb’ gradually creating a structure that strengthens over time, providing stability and resilience, spreading a network of acceptance for new ways of thinking.  

• Encourage Experimentation: Create safe spaces for teams to experiment with new technologies and processes without fear of failure. This can lead to breakthroughs that significantly enhance project delivery.  

• Measure Impact and ROI: Establish metrics to track the effectiveness of new digital initiatives. Understanding the return on investment (ROI) from these changes helps build buy-in from stakeholders at all levels. 

• Foster Collaborative Partnerships: Engaging in co-innovation partnerships with clients can accelerate technology adoption and enhance service offerings while sharing risks and rewards. 

Conclusion  

Enabling an organisation wide digital mindset, through increased digital literacy, system integration, AI experimentation and data granularity is imperative for survival in today’s competitive landscape. By fostering collaboration across roles, embracing flexibility in responsibilities, focusing on scalable innovations, and committing to human-centred creativity, engineering consultancies can unlock limitless potential.  

The continuous journey of digital advancement means there is no end point in discovery, we must remain curious and nimble in our ability to stray from conventional project plans or established roles, understand that best practice today is rapidly evolving, and embrace the concept that failure is in fact a positive form of experimentation. The potential rewards—enhanced client satisfaction, improved operational efficiency and decision making, innovative thinking, a highly engaged and motivated talent pool and ultimately a superior outcome for our communities —are well worth the effort.