PD book: Shaping technology for transformation

When it comes to technology, success isn’t about chasing the latest trend. It’s about building an organisation’s underlying strength - a "muscle" that determines its fitness to compete and survive. This muscle has two critical functions: the adaptability to navigate constant change, and the resilience to withstand inevitable shocks. This isn't a technical problem for engineers to solve alone. It's an organisational capability that grows out of the conditions created by leadership.

Very few organisations are starting with a blank slate. Most have developed layers of systems and processes - what we call “digital geology” - which inhibit speed and agility. This technical reality is often the symptom of a deeper issue: “leadership-debt”, which describes the accumulated cost of decision making, generations of frameworks, and outdated ways of working that prevent teams from building the robust, adaptable and modern services they need.

This collection of articles from experts at Public Digital offers a guide to paying down that debt and building your technological strength. From establishing the foundations of culture and ownership, to building the proactive muscle of adaptability, and finally, to embedding the defensive strength of resilience, these articles are designed to take the reader on a journey from merely reacting to urgency and failure to proactively preparing for it.

In today's world, technology is the business. Its strength or fragility is a direct reflection of leadership. Building this capability is no longer a nice-to-have, but a fundamental responsibility. That’s because in an era of constant flux, achieving meaningful change starts not with what you buy, but with how you build.