Following on from last week's episode, Jason and Joe continue the conversation with Mari Milsom and Simon Brown as the panel share their experiences in hiring people with essential digital business skills and how to fill some of the most challenging skills gaps in the digital world we now live and work in. They also share some really practical advice on attracting, selecting, and retaining the most valuable skills in the market.

So far during our panel debates we've looked at organisations' initial response to the pandemic, the long-term effects of recent changes to ways of working, and the skills and capabilities needed to thrive in an ever more digital world. This week we're focusing on buying digital business skills from the market. Our expert panel, Mari Milsom, Simon Brown and Joe Ales discuss their experiences of obtaining the skills needed to successfully deliver enduring digital change.

In this week's episode Joe and Jason reflect on some of the discussions and insights from the recent panel debates, share their definition of digital transformation, and look at the macro trends driving digital transformation.

Last week we looked at the skills that employees across the organisation need in order to prepare for a post-COVID digital world. This week, we're joined again by special guests Emma Lucas, Rachel Kay and Craig McCoy to discuss the capabilities needed within HR to support organisations during this transition, and beyond.

This week we are joined by three special guests, Emma Lucas from M&S, Rachel Kay from Capita, and Craig McCoy HR Director and Chair of the London HR Connection. Join our expert panel as we peel back another layer of the future of work and discuss the skills, competencies and behaviours that organisations, and the people that work in them, need to thrive in a post-COVID digital world.

In this second episode on the Future of Work and the impact of the pandemic, Jason and Joe are once again joined by special guests Richard Phelps, Steve Hunt, and Marc Weedon, this time to discuss the medium to long-term implications of the recent changes that many businesses have been forced to implement. They explore the potential pitfalls and opportunities organisations will have to face and question whether organisations will simply return to 'business as normal' once they're able, or has the pandemic fundamentally altered the way we view and operate at work?

In this episode, Joe and Jason are joined by a panel of senior HR experts to discuss the Future of Work and the impact of the global pandemic. The future of work has been a hot topic for some time, with challenges and opportunities around automation and A.I., through to flexible project based working and the gig economy, along with visions of a potentially new social contract that includes universal basic income. But has the coronavirus pandemic simply accelerated an inevitable change in the way we work, or has it presented an unprecedented existential threat that organisations and individuals are going to have to grapple with, and adapt to as new ways of working continue to unfold?

Joining Jason West again this week is Lucy Finney MBE, former Major in the British Army and now Head of Leadership Development at Underscore. This week we’re going to going to get a bit more personal and talk about the psychological and emotional impact a crisis has on us as individuals. Specifically, we’re going to delve into the fascinating area of mental toughness and how we can apply learning from this field of academic study to better manage a crisis.

In the space of a few short weeks, life across the globe has changed beyond recognition. Over a quarter of the planet’s population is in lockdown and over a hundred thousand people have already tragically lost their lives. The pressures put on businesses and governments have raised stark questions about technology, supply chains, staffing, leadership, sustainability, skills and resilience. Now, more than ever, business leaders need to solve complex, novel problems at pace in a highly volatile, uncertain world. Joining us this week is Lucy Finney MBE to share her insight into the tools and techniques used by the British Army to manage battlefield operations and humanitarian crises. Lucy has developed a Crisis Management & Recovery Toolkit that applies these proven crisis management techniques to the commercial sector and combines them with virtual training on crisis leadership skills and effective teaming in a crisis.

In order to deliver a successful transformation, you need a clear and robust governance structure. Successful governance requires having the right people, in the right roles, meeting regularly, reviewing the right information, and being empowered to make decisions quickly. In this week's episode, we explore why it's essential that everyone playing a role in your governance structure needs to be 100% clear on the purpose of their role, why you need to need to document the terms of reference for each of the decision-making groups within your structure, and why you should consider the thinking styles of the individuals involved.

In this week's episode we consider one of the foundations of business transformation: Target Operating Model design. It's a topic too often shrouded in mystery but it really is a pretty straightforward process. Jason and Joe lay out a simple, step by step approach, the people to involve, and a description of the workshop sessions that will help you define your destination.

In last week's episode, we discussed how testing covers a lot more than just systems, the need for an experienced test manager as well as a clear strategy and testing plan, and we covered some of the different phases of testing. This week we consider what steps a programme sponsor or transformation lead needs to take in order to co-ordinate all of this activity, and help you develop a plan to keep a track of all this activity when you’ve got Process Owners demanding changes, test teams identifying defects, and functional consultants making changes across your new system.

One of the fastest and most assured routes to transformation failure is to short cut testing. It's an absolutely essential, yet often overlooked aspect of transformation. In this week's episode, we aim to give functional leaders, who may be new to transformation and large scale system implementations, a broad introduction to testing and how to avoid the common mistakes that cause programmes to fail.

Data is the lifeblood of business, it helps you understand past performance, predict future performance, and informs decisions every day. Implementing new systems as part of a transformation initiative shines a spotlight on your data architecture and data maturity. This week we explore why having a good understanding of the data you have today, the data you need tomorrow, and how you’re going to extract data from your current systems and load it into new ones, are essential to the success of your programme.

The advent of Software-As-A-Service cloud technology has opened up new opportunities to automate, streamline and deliver data-driven insight to the worlds of Finance, HR and Procurement. But this revolution brings with it a new wave of risks; the top three centre on integrations, data and testing. In this episode, we look at the first of these technology risks, how it can be mitigated, and explore the vital role that reporting and integrations play in the delivery of your business transformation.

A common challenge facing business transformation programmes is the misunderstanding and confusion around the roles that external suppliers should play, versus those of your internal programme team. External suppliers can include management consultants, technology vendors, and integration partners - all of which have an essential role to play in delivering successful transformation. In this episode, we discuss how, as a programme sponsor, you can reduce the risk of selecting the wrong partners for your needs, and avoid the confusion that arises when you ask the wrong people, whether external or internal, to take on the wrong tasks in your transformation.

Solution design often seems like the 'fun' bit of transformation. It's where you get to decide what your new systems or processes will actually do. But just as you wouldn’t, or at least shouldn’t, consider building a house without a set of plans or blueprints, it’s the same with business transformation - in order to reach your end point, you first need to agree where you’re going. In this week's podcast episode we delve into the vital, but complex issue of solution design, and discuss the common challenges and how to avoid these through careful planning and decision making.

Change is, by its nature, uncomfortable. Our initial reaction to hearing about any major change is rarely a wholly positive one, even when it will directly benefit us. In this episode, Jason and Joe look at the common pitfalls when managing change during a transformation programme, why it's essential to bring change expertise in early, and the practical steps you can take to ensure change embeds throughout your organisation.

"Establishing a robust technology support model is something that gets overlooked in a surprising number of transformation programmes. And yet, your ability to deliver the business benefits promised by your business case rests on how effectively you construct your technology support model." In this episode, Jason and Joe discuss why a technology support model is so important to the overall success of your transformation efforts, how to build one, and the different capabilities required to ensure long-term success.

“You would assume that securing the best team to work on the transformation would be top of the to-do list. But frankly, on too many occasions, we see that resourcing the programme team is really rushed through." Jason West To kick off season two, which focuses on the Build phase of transformation, Jason and Joe discuss the absolutely critical step of properly resourcing your programme team. We delve into the need to balance internal knowledge of your organisation with external programme expertise, and discuss the 37 roles that every successful transformation team needs to fulfill.