Overview

The Professional Diploma in Leading Digital Transformation is a part-time programme taken over eight months. The programme has two intakes per year: one in Autumn and one in Spring.

Purpose

Most digital transformations fail: in today’s digital landscape, successful transformation is not just about technology—fundamentally it is all about people, culture, and leadership. Whether you sit at the senior management table leading an organisation’s full-scale digital transformation or you are in a middle management role leading a key project, the challenges are complex.  More than technical knowledge or skills you need the capability to successfully navigate organisational culture, manage resistance, and effectively engage various layers of organisational leadership with digital initiatives.  You need to be able to makes sense of the unique context of contemporary digital transformation and its key enablers.  Time and money invested in transformation by an organisation must be worthwhile; the right transformation must be achieved for the right reasons, and informed, effective leadership is crucial in achieving this. 

Who Should Enroll?

This programme is ideal for anyone leading digital transformation, whether you are at the organisational or project level. It is designed for those who need to refine their leadership skills to master the complexities of digital change and how to negotiate an organisation’s culture to deliver better performance.  Participants should have a minimum of three years managerial experience.

The programme aims to build on participants’ broad professional experience equipping them with cognitive and strategic skills necessary to understand and communicate not just how digital capabilities are powerful enablers of organisational change, but also which organisational problems are best solved with digital solutions and indeed how to assess various digital solutions. Participants will learn to navigate the complexities of digital transformation, learning how to identify and analyse organisation problems for which a digital solution is appropriate and thereafter understanding how to align cultural dynamics, address resistance, and engage senior leadership effectively.

As digital roles like Chief Information Officer, Chief Data Officer, and Chief Digital Officer become increasingly central to boardroom discussions, the need for leaders at different levels within an organisation who can integrate digital strategies with organisational culture to deliver for the business is more critical than ever. This programme recognises that digital leadership goes beyond optimising IT resources; it involves identifying authentic fit for purpose digital solutions for real problems and through solving them in a digitally transformative way, creating new opportunities that exceed customer expectations and critically drive business growth. 

Why This Programme?

Be in the 25% of Successful Digital Transformation implementations.  Technology implementation is not digital transformation.  Whether it is about choosing the right technology or identifying the right organisational problem for which there is a digital solution, investing the time to have a coherent and thoughtful understanding of the digital change environment, its drivers and enablers, will produce real value for organisations.

IDA Ireland and Skillnet Ireland  in their 2023 Study of data and digital skills for all non-IT roles across multiple industries reported that “leaders overseeing non-IT functions play a key role in data and digital skill development and it is therefore critical that they role-model proficiency and comfort with data and digital skills and tools. Furthermore, leaders who actively create a culture that is data-driven and values lifelong learning are best placed to successfully manage their teams through digital transformation.” This programme is positioned to deliver on that leadership need.  Understanding the relationship between data and information; AI – its uses, misuses and abuse are essential for contemporary leaders.

Programme Requirements

For information about modules, module choice, options and credit weightings, please go to Programme Requirements. 

Programme Requirements

Module List

Code	Title	Credits
Students take 30 credits as follows:
Core Modules
IM6034	Digital Leadership and Strategy	5
IM6035	Digital Disruption and Transformation	5
IM6036	Digital Innovation	5
IM6037	Digital Transformation Project	15
Total Credits		30

Examinations

Full details and regulations governing Examinations for each programme will be contained in the Marks and Standards Book and for each module in the Book of Modules.

Programme Learning Outcomes

Programme Learning Outcomes for Professional Diploma in Digital Leadership (NFQ Level 9, Special Purpose Award)

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

• Identify and analyse drivers and authentic enablers of contemporary digital transformation within businesses and other organisations.
  
• Understand and navigate organisational culture in a digital transformation context, critiquing patterns of resistance, addressing false solutions, drawing on the strengths of diversity and how to balance agility with stability.
  
• Apply design thinking and critical thinking to enable digital transformation, empathising with stakeholders, co-creating solutions, anticipating challenges, to enable the effective and ethical management of cultural impacts and disruption during digital change, ensuring transparency and trust.
  
• Educate and align senior leadership on the cultural and human aspects of digital transformation, addressing areas of naïveté, ignorance or resistance, sense-making and fostering informed decision making for sustainable business or the implementation of appropriate organisational solutions.
  
• Develop and implement user-centred digital strategies that address real organisational problems, are authentic innovations cognisant of cultural dynamics, the promotion of inclusivity, and empowering employees to drive transformation which actively contributes to the purpose of the organisation.
  
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders, using design thinking and a human-centric approach to create shared understanding, mitigate resistance, is responsive to user feedback and supports needed and fit for purpose innovation.
  
• Assess and mitigate risks, balancing authentic innovation with sustainability while empowering employees to contribute creatively to digital initiatives and manage disruption.