Between "Smart" and "Remote," the real challenge for the New Ways of Working still lies in the attitudes of each individual.

According to Gartner, in the near future—or perhaps as early as tomorrow—the most successful companies and those that are most attractive to their employees will be those capable of improving digital dexterity of every individual within their organization. However, the concept of digital dexterity is not limited solely to technical skills but also—and above all—to the ability to contribute to the company’s growth by working to foster the necessary aptitudes to make this happen.  

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In other words, the future belongs to those organizations that will enable people to help shape digital transformation and its various paths.

These trends also emerge from a survey conducted by Manageritalia and CFMT, as reported in a recent article in *Il Sole 24 Ore*. In fact, the survey revealed that 64.9% of managers identified the ability to adapt to the current environment—which is now a hybrid of physical and digital elements, with varying proportions of each both within organizations and in the external ecosystem—as the skill most in demand by the market.  

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Digital transition? It's all about mindset!

Therefore, the key to fully realizing the digital transition still lies in the mindset of the people within an organization and in technology that truly puts people first, while remaining a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Studies conducted by the Digital Attitude research center (Habit Studio) also point to the same paradigm.  

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The Company's Mission Digital Attitude —founded by Luca Argenton and Simone Lusenti in 2017—is to make it easy to adopt new technologies and digital habits, going beyond conventional paradigms of training and work, thanks to the hi | habit-inspiring platform.  

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The platform's approach is based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the contextual nudging. Thanks tothe “gentle nudge” mechanism theorized by Richard Thaler (2017 Nobel Prize in Economics), people are guided through a journey designedto bring about behavioral change and, consequently, make the digital transition truly effective.  

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The priority placed on research and development—and thanks to the work of the team of neuroscientists, psychologists, and behavioral designers, has revealed that the“nudge” mechanism(which underpins the platform’s algorithm and is now one of the leading trends in new models of training and behavioral change internationally) must always be accompanied by a form of positive control—that is, active engagement—on the part of the end user in the action and behavior being encouraged.

Digital Attitude's Research

Analysis and research by Digital Attitude—conducted in partnership with Microsoft to support over 200,000 people in companies across 12 different industries as they adopted the new Digital Workplace —has shown that what matters most to people when adapting to new ways of working are engagement and involvement, starting with their experience in small, everyday actions and activities (prompted by a nudge) in which they prefer trust and transparency over top-down command and control.

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What emerged from the tests conducted by the research group was, in fact, that“nudging”is effective only if users are given the opportunity to personally control that action—and not merely through a method that users perceive as strictly “push”-based or forced. These results were made possible byiteratively listening to users, thereby improving the user experience with the technologies and fosteringengagement a process of developing new attitudes that spontaneously drive digital evolution and the acquisition of related skills.  

This research also prompts reflection on the role of the HR team in employee engagement. The question we must ask is: How can we engage the people in our organization while still making them feel empowered and in control of their own activities?  

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Redefining Attitudinal Paradigms

One possible solution is to adopt bottom-up strategies that focus on each individual and on listening to their needs, challenges, and interests. This is the path toward moving beyond a paradigm rooted in the workplace—whether “smart” or remote—and instead recognizing and emphasizing the importance of theInternet of People: a technology of people and for people, where technology is shaped by users and in which HR plays a fundamental role as the conductor of the company’s digital transition. This is because it is no longer just a matter of learning new digital hard skills but of redesigning an attitudinal paradigm.  

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