‘Digital strategy’. ‘Digital transformation’. These terms have become so commonplace that nobody stops to consider what they actually suggest: that there is a fundamental difference between a digital and a ‘regular’ strategy. That digital is something separate, its own domain, its own logic, its own track, and above all an end in itself, rather than one of many means to fulfil your mission. As long as this misunderstanding persists, organisations will keep getting stuck on it.
Here’s what typically happens: an organisation finally decides to get serious about ‘digital’. A working group is formed, courses are taken, consultants are hired, reports are written. The rest of the organisation leans back: that’s not really our thing, is it? Meanwhile, a gap grows between those who ‘do digital’ and those who ‘just do their jobs’, as if those were two different things. And after all that effort, an uneasy feeling remains: we know we need to do something with this, but we still don’t know how, or how to integrate it across the whole organisation. The term has drawn attention away from what really matters: the organisation’s mission, the reason it exists.
What’s more, the term ‘digital strategy’ pulls focus towards tools and technology, when the real questions are about shared goals and the working processes and collaboration that follow from them. A new CRM system solves nothing if nobody knows what it’s for. A new website won’t attract new audiences if the organisation doesn’t know who it’s actually trying to reach. The frame directs energy to the wrong place. And that comes at a steep price, in terms of time, money and frustration.
We’re not saying you should never use the term ‘digital strategy’ again. Sometimes it’s useful shorthand — for funding applications, conversations with boards, or external communication. But internally, in the way you talk about this with your team, it’s worth letting go of the frame.
Because digital is not a strategy. It’s simply a means. Just like a physical venue, a partnership or a marketing campaign. Once you start seeing it that way, the question shifts from ‘how do we build a digital strategy?’ to ‘how do we use all the means available to us, including digital ones, to fulfil our mission?’ That’s a very different question. And a much more productive one.
A different starting point
At Tò Mò, that’s the question we work from. Which is why we prefer to talk about transformation in a digital age. Not a digital transformation, but a transformation of the way you work, with the goal of building an agile organisation that uses digital tools where they’re useful, not because it has to, but because it helps. It sounds like a subtle difference. But it changes everything about how you approach a process.
Because when you start from the mission rather than the medium, everyone in the organisation starts asking different questions. Not: ‘should we be on TikTok?’ But: ‘who do we want to reach, and where do we find them?’ Not: ‘do we need an app?’ But: ‘what would make it easier for our audience to engage with what we make?’ Not: ‘how do we digitalise our processes?’ But: ‘where is our team losing energy, and how do we fix that?’
These are the questions that lead to real change. And they all start in the same place: not with technology, but with the mission.
So what should you do?
The answer is not a new or separate strategy. Our suggestion: make your existing organisational strategy agile. It’s the same strategy you’ve always had, but with a few new characteristics and adjustments that keep you adaptable, whatever changes. And in this digital age, change is a given. The building blocks of an agile strategy are:
- A Shared Mission
Start with the mission. Make sure everyone, from the director to the front-of-house team, understands it in the same way. A mission is short, powerful and stays in place long enough for the organisation to truly live by it.
- Clear Annual Goals
Set clear annual goals, always keeping the mission in sight. These can be abstract or artistic goals, or concrete ones, like selling a certain number of tickets or reaching a specific audience.
- Defined target audiences
Know who your audience is. Define concrete target groups and keep the number manageable; the best results come when an organisation focuses on two to five audiences. Only then should you decide which means to use to reach them. Digital or physical, large or small, that follows naturally from the combination of mission, goals and audiences.
- Separation of strategy and execution
Execution should always serve the mission, and strategy should always offer guidance for execution. But your organisation is full of smart, enthusiastic people. Give them autonomy. Make space for everyone’s expertise and offer support where needed. Make sure the mission and goals are understood and embraced by the whole team, then let them decide how to get there. That creates far more momentum when change is needed, and a lot more job satisfaction along the way.
- Stay Sharp
Once you get going, you learn, and that evolving insight is allowed to influence your strategy. That doesn’t mean putting your mission up for debate every week, but it does mean checking in regularly: are our activities still contributing to what we’re trying to achieve? Tools like roadmaps and retrospectives help with this. Schedule them in advance – every three to six months works well – and use them to reflect on what’s working, what to stop doing and what to do differently. That way you keep steering consciously, rather than realising after the fact that you’ve drifted off course.
Is it really that simple? Oftentimes, yes. A shared mission, clear goals and defined audiences create cohesion within a team. Silos disappear and the question ‘are we doing this right?’ becomes ‘does this contribute to our mission?’ When big changes come, you can move quickly as a team. That’s agility.
Conclusion: focus on your mission and get started
When organisations come to us asking for help with a digital strategy, we always ask a different question first: what would you most like to achieve? Sometimes it takes a few conversations before that answer truly surfaces. But once it does, the solution rarely turns out to be as digital as expected.
What organisations need is agility: the ability to adapt quickly when the world around them changes. Digital tools can help with that. But they are never the starting point.
As the way we work and share information changes at breakneck speed, theatres, museums, concert halls, companies and everything in between need the tools to make agile decisions. All roads lead to Rome. But the first step is always the same: get started. Even when it doesn’t feel comfortable yet.
Photo: Jelmer de Haas
