Technology Shouldn’t Make Better The Processes That Shouldn’t Be Done At All

Company A has very crappy corporate and operational processes. One of the managers, John Doe, knowing about these process issues, decided to tackle the problem by changing tech System X for tech System Y. He promised the company that such migration would yield increased productivity and efficiency.

Mr. Doe had explained that the migration was the answer to the process problems they were dealing with. He calculated the costs of such migration in the thousands of dollars. And in his calculations, the benefits outpaced the costs by large.

Of course, John Doe didn’t fully understand that the processes the new technology was supposed to support were terrible. And at the end of the implementation of System Y, instead of making the company more productive and effective, the solution actually amplified the problems that existed before.

Now, Company A has not only the same crappy processes that it did before, but the problems are now “augmented” with the new technology that was supposed to help. On top of that, and to make System Y work, additional processes were put in place and total costs increased because of the additional hours needed to make things work.

The other story

Company B had a very different approach.

Mary Jane was assigned to manage a project under similar conditions as John Doe in Company A. The previous project manager told Mrs. Jane that they had already selected the new technology to be implemented. All that was needed was her final approval.

Mary Jane halted every single step associated with the migration and implementation.  

Not only Mrs. Jane wanted to look at the technological solution itself but, more importantly, she wanted to understand all the processes that the system was supposed to support.

Upon her review, she found that there were several processes that were crappy (as in Company A), meaning that they were preventing the company and its people to truly achieve higher productivity and performance.

Instead of changing the technology, Mary Jane decided to begin by rethinking, redefining and redesigning the very processes that were causing most of the acute problems the company was experiencing.

Mrs. Jane knew that it was fundamental to work on the basics, the assumptions, the models, the processes, the foundations, before getting into the tools to be used. She knew that it was extremely inefficient to improve things that shouldn’t be done at all.

At the end, Mary Jane transformed not only that project, but she helped changed many operational and corporate processes that were just a big rock in the company’s shoes.

What’s even more interesting is that she and her team decided not to purchase the technological solution that was initially handed over to her. Instead, they found something much better for the company's needs, at a small fraction of the original price.

Mary Jane and her team invested hours in this endeavor, but ended up saving thousands of dollars in technology implementation.

The difference...

This story happens over and over again, across industries, in small and big companies. And yet, several project managers and business leaders don’t seem to understand one basic principle:

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” (Peter Drucker)

That principle applies to processes that shouldn’t be made more “efficient” when the best thing to do is not to do them at all. But the principle also applies to the technology that is supposed to enhance those processes.

Don’t use technology to amplify crappy corporate and operational processes. Change the processes. Transform the way the company operates. Only then think about technology.

Technology is usually the last stage to be decided.

• What is preventing your company from higher performance and productivity?
• What are the rocks in the shoes of your company and people?
• What processes should you stop doing ASAP?
• Who do you need to get involved?
• What processes are important, but need to be redefined and redesigned?

#productivity #performance #process #innovation

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About the author:

Enrique Rubio is a Tech and HR Evangelist. He's passionate about Human Resources, People Operations, Technology and Innovation. Enrique is an Electronic Engineer, Fulbright Scholar and Executive Master in Public Administration with a focus on HR. Over the past 15 years Enrique has worked in the HR and tech world. A lot of his research and work revolves around the digitization of the workplace and Human Resources. Enrique currently works as an HR Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank. He's also the founder of Hacking HR. Enrique is currently building Cotopaxi, an artificial intelligence-based recruitment platform for emerging markets.

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