There’s a huge difference between how companies’ executives believe they are encouraging a digital culture and how employees think their leadership is doing, according to a recent survey from Capgemini and Brian Solis, a prominent digital analyst and author. The resulting report, “The Digital Culture Challenge: Closing the Employee-Leadership Gap,” reveals that cultural issues create the biggest hurdle to a digital transformation. Leaders, for example, are convinced that collaboration flows freely throughout functions and business units, but employees said that isn’t the case. Leaders also think they’ve cultivated a culture of innovation, experimentation and risk-taking, while few workers agree. Findings indicate that similarly differing impressions linger with respect to stifling bureaucratic channels, a lack of opportunities to share ideas with executives and a reluctance to invest into the digital capabilities of staffers. “Digital technologies can bring significant new value, but organizations will only unlock that potential if they have the right digital culture ingrained and in place,” according to the report. “Currently, that is not happening. Employees are being sidelined and disenfranchised in the culture change journey, and the gap between leadership and employee perceptions is stark. … Organizations that invest in people, and align the values and mission of the company to employees, set the stage for working with purpose. Ultimately, this creates an ecosystem that promotes learning, experimenting and growth.” More than 1,700 global senior executives, managers and employees took part in the research.