Leading through Technology Failure
myPerspective...by John Ragsdale
This post, the first of a series dubbed myPerspective, is about leading through technology failure. Today, I share myPerspective by taking you down the path of leadership readiness to ensure your teams are prepared for responding to technology disasters when they happen. I’ll use an example from the healthcare industry, with references to principles I follow from The Empowerment Dynamic (TED, www.powerofted.com) methodology.
Reliance on technology in the workplace is mission-critical for most businesses and industries. In healthcare for instance, technology is at the epicenter of transformative healthcare delivery. Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Practice Management (PM) systems enable real-time collaboration among physicians, medical assistants, nurses and patients in day-to-day delivery of care. When these systems fail to meet user expectations (i.e. system slowness, crashing, errors/bugs, outages, etc.), physician practices and other healthcare organizations can often become less efficient and productive; patient experience and satisfaction suffer along with practice revenue, staff morale, and the list goes on and on.
As a result and for good reasons technology users can become VERY frustrated when technology does not meet their expectations. Ready for myPerspective when this occurs?
First, let's review a few facts and expectations. Technology will fail at some point...and then again at another point, and then again, and yet again. Yes, we in the technology industry strive to make technology more and more predictable through redundancy, proactive maintenance and monitoring, but failure is part of the technology experience. The constant and more frequent change and evolution of technology fuel the probability of failure. Take for example the iPhone. What a marvelous package of technology it represents. Yet, have you ever been to an Apple Store that isn't packed with customers experiencing at least a handful of issues? In fact, it is nearly impossible to schedule a same-day Genius Bar appointment.
Given that failure in technology is part of the technology experience, what are we to do? I recommend a ‘creative’ approach, especially for leaders. As highlighted in The Empowerment Dynamic (TED, www.powerofted.com), leaders should become a ‘creator’ when technology fails, and here are 4 suggestions on how to do this.
- BE PREPARED...Develop, test, and practice creative solutions, work-arounds, and communication plans with your teams and departments in preparation and expectation of future technology failures. Then, when failure occurs, the organization is prepared and knows what to do…as opposed to the opposite which creates a lot of ‘drama’.
- MAINTAIN PERSPECTIVE...When failure occurs, and it will, rise above the situation and be a leader. Know that people are watching. Whether you are a leader by role or by choice, positive behavior is the best choice for you and everyone involved. That doesn't mean we don't acknowledge the issues. We do acknowledge them and prepare our minds and hearts for solutions.
- COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE...Ensure timely and appropriate communication among all stakeholders (end users, leadership, technology team, consultants, etc.) explaining the situation, status, timelines, ETA, and resolution.
- Provide visible support and encouragement (verbal, written, physical, etc.) before, during and after the situation to the technical resources working to solve the problem(s). Remember they are your most valuable resource in solving the problem.
- Make sure technical terms are not a barrier to communicating. Translate such terms into terms understandable by non-technical people.
4. ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY...Appropriately hold your technology resources accountable for system performance/management. Make sure the technology team consistently learns from failures and implements systems, tools, processes, etc. to prevent similar issues in the future.
I have found within my own career, home life, at church, work groups and wherever technology goes that teams or leaders are not immune to this situation. Do you have a proven method not included in the list? Drop it in the comments! And remember when technology fails in your life, avoid common ‘drama’ and ‘victim’ mode behaviors. Be a ‘creator’ instead! Your teams, customers and colleagues will thank you.
Follow me on social media for IT, leadership and networking discussions! Twitter:@JohnOnIT LinkedIn: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/johnonit
Services Consultant - DFW Region at World Wide Technology
5 年Great article, John! The project I learned the most on was a tokenization project. We had an 8 hour deployment that we had to rollback because the vendor had configured production environment differently than QA. So getting things working in lower environments is key to success before building out upper environments.
Managing Partner at JRJ Search Group
5 年Having an advisory group of trusted peers can help leaders manage tech failures.? Great article and perspective!
Senior Director, Infrastructure Operations and Security
5 年You hit the nail on the head with #3. I have seen multiple businesses, departments and relationships fail due to a lack of communication.
We train and coach sales professionals and companies. Founder/CEO, Certified Sales Coach, Licensed CIQ, Fractional VP of Sales, Sales Process Developer, Certified Sales Trainer, Author, BizDev
5 年Great article John.