Micro-Disruptions

As CIOs and CTOs, we’re very much used to disruption. I’d hazard a guess that as CIOs/CTOs not a day goes by when things have stayed on the rails and everything’s gone according to plan. Any CIO or CTO worth their salt rolls with the punches, manages change and manage the team’s morale and performance where no week’s planned output is a guaranteed delivery.

Typically, what we hear about are the major disruptions, those things that alter the course of not just the next few hours, but possibly days. As an example, an ex-Client of ours got back in touch to ask for help; a major cyber-attack had encrypted everything including backups and they had no more than three days worth of accessible paperwork before everything would grind to a halt. That sort of disruption has the potential to make or break a business, let alone just the CIO!

Anyway, it got me thinking. Major disruption is something we know all too well, and it should be our aim to know it less! In fact, in a previous article I wrote about eliminating heroes from the team and that’s done mostly by eliminating disruptions. And, given the right investment, that’s a distinct possibility. BUT; what’s very difficult to eliminate are the micro-disruptions; those things that are like a Raven pecking away constantly and eventually driving you nuts.

And like Edgar Allen Poe being disturbed and interrupted by his Raven, there’s not a team member that’s without a micro-disruption or two. Perhaps there’s a process that’s never been properly streamlined, a gate-keeper (by mistake or on purpose) that creates a bottleneck, a lack of access to the right data, someone who constantly changes their mind, a system that always rounds a number in the ‘wrong’ way, I could go on.

These micro-disruptions all cause a business to be less effective than it should be and it’s not just our companies that suffer from micro-disruptions, it’s everyone, including the competition. And if that’s true (and there’s no reason to suggest it isn’t), then if we resolve our business’ micro disruptions, we improve efficiency and people become more productive. And that, in turn, will have a positive effect on the bottom line and a negative effect on the competition.

The team most likely to hear about micro-disruptions is your helpdesk or service desk. Unfortunately, they’re not set up to understand and escalate these micro-disruptions because each one is a minor irritation probably resolved easily at the time as an incident, but the underlying problem is never solved; it’s just not that big a deal and as a result it’s ‘solved’ and closed until it rears its head again a few weeks later. The dots will never be joined unless the Helpdesk Manager is briefed and understands micro-disruptions. With careful analysis, incident data will show patterns that enable you and your Helpdesk Manager to identify the micro-disruptions that are worth resolving properly. I’d also encourage you, or the Helpdesk Manager, attend departmental meetings and just listen. The micro-disruptions that impact the department will be repeated throughout the meeting; once more it's Edger Allen Poe’s Raven tap, tap, tapping.

Hoovering these micro-disruptions up and getting them some attention will have a significant positive impact on the perception of your department, the performance of the business and the ability to keep ahead of the competition; what’s not to like! Now you’ve just got to find someone who will revel in finding these micro-disruptions and sorting them out. They need to be the sort of person who doesn’t let go; a dog with a bone. They need to be good at working out how things might fit together; a puzzler maybe – capable of finding the thread that links several micro-disruptions that leads to a single thing that were it fixed would mean a whole bunch of micro-disruptors removed from the business. They’re definitely a completer-finisher and someone with an eye for detail, perhaps this is where a perfectionist could do a good job.

There’s bravery in bringing some resources to bear on dealing with a business’ micro-disruptors because many will not see the benefit or understand how the investment in time/effort will make a difference. It’ll probably only be when people look back in a few years’ time that they realise what a difference has been made. As a result, it may be easier to run it under the radar for a bit until it’s established and showing reportable results; a micro-disruptor skunk works if you like.

So to paraphrase Joe Pasquale; no-one likes an issue that gets on your nerves, gets on your nerves, gets on your nerves. So, be less Joe Pasquale and get rid of the issues that get on people’s nerves!

Not often an article aimed at CIOs/CTOs manages to include both Joe Pasquale and Edgar Allen Poe, eh!?