The Importance Of Aligning People, Processes and Technology Amid Transformation Initiatives

Greg Kihlstr?m is a?marketing technology keynote speaker , advisor, and?consultant to Fortune 500 companies on marketing technology , customer experience, and digital transformation. This article was originally written by Greg Kihlstr?m for?Forbes Agency Council . You can?read the full article here .

Transformation initiatives of many kinds are currently in progress across the business world, and they all have the intention to fix some or all of the challenges that currently plague the organization. In business, as in life, though, there is rarely a silver bullet that can fix a challenge all by itself. Instead, the solution is usually a combination of things working together. For instance, have you ever overheard someone saying something to the effect of, “Once we have [insert software product name] in place, everything will work better”? Or maybe, “Once we finish this project, things will go smoother”?

While in these hypothetical examples software has a tremendous ability to affect change for the better,?it takes more than a new technology platform alone to make positive changes take place. In addition to technology solutions, we also need to ensure that the?people?using them and the?processes?that are used to work, coordinate between teams and continuously improve them are in place.

In my work as a consultant, I’ve seen many such instances over the years where initiatives with the best of intentions are derailed, delayed or eventually discarded because people, processes and technology were not coordinated from the start. In this article, I’m going to discuss the importance of ensuring alignment between your people, processes and technology to ensure the success of your current and future initiatives.

People

Quite often within a business, technology changes and improvements are thought of as the most complex components of a transformation or new initiative. Instead, aligning the people who must either implement the changes, adapt to them or evangelize the benefits to others on their team can be the most challenging aspect. Because of this, it’s important to plan for this from the very beginning.

It is not enough to simply assume that once a new system or process is in place, employees will suddenly see the logic and adapt without hesitation. There are good reasons for this.

First, there are probably very good reasons why current processes and platforms are being used in the first place, and the way things are currently done was probably the result of some type of change initiative some years ago.

Second, the thought of changing someone’s entire job or role can be quite daunting, even if, on the face of it, it is a net improvement over the current state. What makes change even more difficult to get on board with is when an employee doesn’t understand the reasons behind it and has no say in its execution.

Empathizing with your team members that any type of change is never easy, and then helping them to understand the rationale for change, can ensure that your people are aligned from the start and are there to support the initiative in the long term.

Processes

Even if you have done the important work of ensuring buy-in from your stakeholders and employees, if no one knows what they need to do (or how they need to do it) once a change needs to be initiated, it will be difficult to achieve either short- or long-term success. For this reason, the processes related to your change initiative are also critical to their success.

For instance, the perfect software solution to a challenge could be launched and available to your teams across the globe, but if the appropriate operating procedures aren’t rolled out correctly, including training as well as ways to seek support and suggest improvements, that software may either lie dormant, cause inefficiencies or even create unhappy customers due to internal miscommunication and misunderstandings.

While it is important for people to understand?why?a change or transformation is needed, it is just as important that they understand?how?the new platform or tools will be used in order to achieve success.

Technology

Last but certainly not least,?we come to the technology component. The role of software and technology solutions continues to increase across organizations, and with good reason. So much of the work performed relies on successfully sharing information and data between teams.

As I noted previously, however, technology solutions are often thought of as a holistic solution to a problem, as opposed to a piece of the solution. The user experience, as well as the long-term plan to optimize and improve a software solution, is critical here so that the software component can continue to play a vital role within the context of the people and processes used to implement them.

It is also worth noting that while software and technology solutions can often take a long time to implement, the best approaches often start with getting people on board with the change before a large project begins. Another way of approaching this is to do smaller, pilot projects that enable team members, as well as stakeholders, to begin to see the benefits without having to wait for a large-scale project to be completed.

Technology has tremendous potential to make things more efficient, enable better communication and provide more visibility to critical data. Despite this importance, software and platforms are never the only factors that contribute to the success of a change or transformation initiative. Ensure alignment with the people who will be performing the work and the processes used to achieve long-term success.

It’s not enough to just get one element of people, processes and technology correct. All three elements need to be aligned to ensure both initial and long-term success. By keeping this in mind from the start of any initiative, you have the best chance to realize the potential of your change or transformation initiative.