The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI

The pressure to "be digital" has never been greater, but you can meet the challenge.

The digital revolution is here, changing how work gets done, how industries are structured, and how people from all walks of life work, behave and relate to each other. To thrive in a world driven by data and powered by algorithms, we must learn to see, think, and act in new ways. We need to develop a digital mindset.

But what does that mean? Some fear it means that we all need to become technologists who master the intricacies of coding, algorithms, AI, machine learning, robotics, and who-knows-what's-next.

That's not the case. You can develop a digital mindset, and this book shows you how. It introduces three approaches—Collaboration, Computation, and Change—and the perspectives and actions within each approach that will enable you to develop the digital skills you need. With a digital mindset, you'll ask the right questions, make smart decisions, and appreciate new possibilities for a digital future. Leaders who adopt these approaches will be able to develop their organization's talent and prepare their company for success and continued digital transformation.

Award-winning researchers and professors Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley will show you how to do it and let you in on the surprising and welcome secret: developing a digital mindset isn't as hard as you think. Most people can become digitally savvy if they follow the "30 percent rule"—the minimum threshold that gives us enough digital literacy to understand and take advantage of the digital threads woven into the fabric of our world.

A digital mindset will future-proof you, your career, and your organization. Learn how to develop one here.

About The Authors:
Paul Leonardi is the Duca Family Professor of Technology Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is an expert on digital transformation and organizational change. He advises senior leaders on how to organize their workforces to compete with data, analytics, and new technologies and consults with companies such as Google, Microsoft, General Motors, and Discover about using digital tools to enhance internal knowledge sharing, how to structure global product-development operations, and how to manage the human aspects of new-technology implementation. He is also a regular keynote speaker for corporate training and user conferences on digital transformation, innovation, and change. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Wired, and other major news outlets.


Tsedal Neeley is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and an award-winning scholar, teacher, and expert on virtual and global work. Recognized by Business Insider as one of the 100 people transforming business by innovating, sparking trends, and tackling global challenges, she regularly advises top leaders embarking on virtual work and large-scale change that involves global expansion, digital transformation, and becoming more agile. Neeley is the author of Remote Work Revolution and the award-winning The Language of Global Success. She serves on the boards of Brightcove, Brown Capital Management, Harvard Business Publishing, and Partnership, Inc. She is also on the advisory board of the People & Culture Lab at Rakuten. Neeley's work has been featured on the BBC, CNN, NPR, on MarketWatch, and in Forbes, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Nikkei, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and many other outlets.