You Keep Saying 'You Need Better Technology' ...
The technology will fail to deliver without the right process and the right people.
The familiar adage: people, process, technology has been around since the early 1960s. For anyone who has worked in the technology space for any amount of time, you are well aware that inserting the old trope of “people +process + technology” into the discussion is likely to get a collection of eye rolls or even face palms.
But that is not to say that because you’ve heard it a quadrillion times that it isn’t true.
The “Three- Legged stool”
If one leg is taller, shorter or nonexistent, the entire stool can tip over.
All three factors are critical to long-term success.
One of the most common mistakes organizations make is assuming that changing to better technology will improve things, without recognizing that changing processes and acknowledging the impact people can have on data management.
“Using technology to enable or automate bad processes — just allows you to negatively impact your business ... faster.”
Technology is not the solution for bad processes. Developing the right strategies and the right processes for your organization has to come first. The business gains efficiency and capacity through enabling technology. Many businesses throw new technology and fancy tools at their problems. However, technology is only as effective as the processes utilizing it and the people who handle it.
Consider the scenario: an organization is looking to change systems and all of its integrations, in part because their stored data was so bad that no one trusted the tool or its reporting.
A deeper discussion with staff shed light on a few key issues: team members were not following rules and guidelines for how and when the data was captured, and the way the data was entered into the database. How the organization collected data and which field the put that data into resulted in inconsistent results.
Furthermore — the definition of data elements varied from department to department and even more so by the field personnel. Next, the lack of available training perpetuated this issue. Queries and reports set up in the database over time were all looking at different data, so of course — the numbers didn’t match.
The primary issue is not a technology issue at all. Having much more clearly defined business rules and processes, and ensuring that these rules are clearly communicated, consistently trained, and routinely followed throughout the organization is essential.
When organizations look to fix people and process problems with new technology — it could end up a costly, disruptive, time consuming, demoralizing project.
It doesn’t mean you don’t need new technology.
However technology alone will not solve the problem.
“Building a system without a process is like building a highway without a destination. It doesn’t matter how good the road is, it’s never going to get you anywhere.”
If organizations don’t implement strong processes, the actions of the people will be highly ineffective. They’ll also waste a lot of the value delivered by technology. If people don’t know how to use the technology properly, then the company won’t create value from its investment in technology. There will be a similar outcome if the new technology doesn’t integrate with the processes. On the other hand, if the organization obsesses too much about the process, then they’ll end up with a good plan on paper but without the right people or the technology to support it. Thus, businesses need to find the right balance between these three critical components.
So the next time you think “We need better technology!” make sure you’ve taken care of the other two pieces of the pie: don't overlook the people element and process tends to be the easiest to fix and often will have the most immediate impact.
PEOPLE + PROCESS+ TECHNOLOGY
3 Elements of Successful Organizational Transformation