Are you buying platforms instead of solving problems?
When you are a growing business you very quickly have to contend with the need to transform how you operate. This may be because the market demands that you change, that you’re position in your market has changed or that your success has lead inexorably to the need to operate more effectively.
How you become more effective can take many paths. One that I see occur very often is that a new tool or platform will be recommended in good faith as the solution to all your problems™. Technical solutions are very appealing as they offer clearly identifiable deliverables, can be more easily offset as Capex and usually come with a plan and a date which allows all the stakeholders to point at a date on a calendar and say “all our problems will be fixed on this day”.
Sounds good right?…. Maybe too good!
Before my friends and colleagues who work in technical dark arts take umbrage at my opinion, let me state that often there is a need for new shiny things. I love new shiny things and, much to my wife’s despair, will update my laptop and/or phone most years without any real reason to apart from ‘I want to’.
Sometimes you can’t avoid technical changes being required. Many years ago I worked on a project where the entire IT stack was built on such an old instance of Oracle that everything had to be changed en masse which was both expensive, complicated and not without risk.
The tarnish I refer to occurs when the scope is limited to just being a technical exercise. All platforms are, for now, used, supported, owned and paid for by people so the people element must also be a factor. How the human element is delivered can come in several levels from apathy to cultural adoption. Let's walk through some examples:
1 - Here’s your new toy. You should be ok. Call us if you break it.
2 - Here’s your new toy. We’ve scheduled some workshops for training.
3 - Here’s your new toy. We’ve done UAT with management and scheduled matrix training for roles and departments
4 - Here’s your new solution. We’ve aligned it to your original requirements and your team have tested it and trained on it. We’ve got some feedback for a version 2
5 - Let’s clarify the problem you, your team and your business have and then work out what the best holistic solution is
I’ve often observed that business leaders feel vulnerable when they don’t know, with perfect clarity, what the problem is. Ask yourself, how often have you come across a well defined and executable problem statement that lends itself to a good outcome? Often the easier option is to focus on the solution to a problem and not the problem. Doing so meets many business management books core driver which is that action is better than no action as no value can be derived from sitting still. I disagree.
Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying “ Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”.
In modern business we have lost sight of the need to consider our starting position, our destination and how we will travel from here to there (or more accurately now to then).
For further insight around how we can identify and clarify the problem before it becomes a fully fledged, time consuming and expensive issue, you can contact SHE Ltd via patrick@slaughter.ltd (metaphorical axe sharpening is included).
Whatever type of organisation you run, whatever its goals and targets are, a fine tuning or even a complete departmental overhaul can unlock hidden benefits. SHE Ltd can shine a light on these needs and both help with the design, the communication and the roll out to people across all personality types from those that love, and those that hate, change.
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