No pain, no gain: driving recovery through trial and error

A staggering 67% of all digital transformations miss the mark¹ — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, trial and error are critical for all organisations across industries, including the public sector. There should always be a margin for setbacks. The opportunity to learn from those mistakes is gold.

Our recovery depends on this progressive facet of innovation to streamline digital services, enable greater accessibility and deliver on visions for sustainability and inclusion. Accepting errors and regarding them as an opportunity will enable resilience in our hyper-competitive and increasingly digitalised futures. Let’s call it failing fast, with grace.

As the public sector looks to unleash digital transformation and benefit from the potential of scalable, agile infrastructures, it’s worth noting the lessons from the private sector. We know that transformation isn’t easy, with 78% of businesses believing digital start-ups will threaten their organisation.² We also know through Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index³ that around six in 10 businesses cannot meet customers’ top demands, highlighting the scope of the challenge ahead. Learning from these lessons and working with industry experts is vital in maximising the public sector’s digital ambitions.

Stepping stones to success

Embracing the right kind of setback is an essential first step. There’s a difference between incremental errors on the digital transformation journey and long-term, business-altering blunders. Acknowledging the need for testing, trial and experimentation is vital in the digital era — and public sector leaders are well placed to embrace this distinction and encourage a culture of innovation — where encountering challenges is part of the evolution process.

Those prepared to make small, consistent changes on the digital transformation journey will encounter bite-sized improvement opportunities they can learn from as they go. This focused, steady approach will generate more impact than those seeking a single seismic shift. Making room for error and evolution often leads to positive change. Those partnerships founded on accepting marginal missteps in the pursuit of long-term innovation have far greater chances of success.

The public sector: one metric at a time

From 2015–2020, the adoption of cloud services yielded an estimated $9.5 billion benefit in improved productivity.⁴ Adopting a multi-cloud strategy can deliver even greater productivity improvements with its flexibility and enhanced capability, which is why getting the approach right now is vital for public and private sectors.

Digital transformations should follow an Agile methodology, breaking the project up into several phases to focus on tangibly improving a metric through continuous, incremental improvement. Organisations that focus on one quantifiable thing can readily see impact and test, learn and refine an approach for maximum gain. This means finding a significant process and then applying advanced technologies to improve that process by 5% or 10%.

Smaller steps require less labour, fewer resources and less finance. And 100 measured steps forward can have a more dramatic and significant operational improvement than one giant leap into the unknown. This was highlighted in our recent work with the Berlin Institute of Health.⁵ The installation of new core servers delivered a 70% increase in processing power from its legacy system. It’s an essential part of the institute’s digital transformation solution for its ongoing research on COVID-19.

Undoubtedly, one of the biggest challenges for the public sector is bringing the vision of healthier, flourishing societies to life with digital transformation. The state finances the public sector, and as custodians of public finances, those holding the purse strings may often feel there is little room for error. Nevertheless, the public sector should seek to embrace that spirit of digital innovation and incorporate an acceptance of improvements along this journey toward a futureproof economy — in collaboration with industry experts and partners.

Recovery: mindsets fit for the future

Pivoting in response to concerns at the early stages of a transformation plan is an invaluable tool, regardless of sector.

While only a third of digital transformations result in material and beneficial outcomes for the business, this statistic should not curb ambition but level expectations to enable innovative mindsets on the pathway to economic recovery. These mindsets should help to cultivate more digital skills and prepare the workforce to adapt to a future in which they will have multiple careers and specialisms.

As we enter the implementation stage of recovery, putting earlier investments into action and getting the most out of digital innovations is vitally important. Embracing opportunities for improvement along the way is more critical than ever as we address this journey and its impending challenges. We need to fail fast together.

As public and private sectors collaborate in their quest to make recovery a reality, failing fast, learning fast, but winning small is often essential. This digital mindset will drive public sector transformations beyond the 4th Industrial Revolution.

^{1 https://www.bcg.com/publications/2021/digital-transformation-in-australia
2 https://www.dell.com/en-au/dt/corporate/newsroom/unveiling-the-digital-transformation-index.htm
3 https://www.dell.com/en-au/dt/perspectives/digital-transformation-index.htm
4 https://www.pwc.com.au/important-problems/australia-rebooted.pdf
5 https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/customer-spotlight/stories/berlin-institute-health-customer-story.html}

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