I was writing a response to a blog post this morning explaining why SociaLens helps its clients to focus on digital fluency first, whenever possible before they choose a digital collaboration or marketing tool or formulate a strategy or put policies into place. The following metaphor came to mind:
Helping an organization to become digitally enabled without first ensuring that their people have a level of digital fluency is like helping a developing nation of fisherman to become a naval power by giving them a bunch of warships and sending them out to sea.
On the one hand, it would be a mistake to assume that fishermen lack all of the skills to be successful. In fact, a fisherman might be better at reading the weather and the currents, dealing with harsh elements, etc. than a typical naval sailor. On the other hand, there are other tactical and strategic skills which need to be developed even before choosing what kinds of warships to use, what strategies to use, how to allocate resources, who to put on what type of ship, how to recruit and train, etc.