The Untold Secret: To win over BAIF!
Ramanathan Subramaniam Passionate Turnaround - Transformation Strategist
Focus Areas - ERP, Audits, Assessments,IT,Change, Processes,Performance, Retail Loss,Automation & Rescue failed Projects
Episode 8: Consequences of Failures – Movie vs War vs BAIF
Before I tell you the rest of the story, I should explain what BAIF stands for in case you haven't heard it before: Business Application Implementation Failure.?
Episode 3 Link : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/untold-secret-win-over-baif-ramanathan-subramaniam-1c
Episode 4 Link: Episode 4 : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/untold-secret-win-over-baif-ramanathan-subramaniam-2c
Episode 5 Link : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/untold-secret-win-over-baif-ramanathan-subramaniam-3c
My linked in profile: linkedin.com/in/srnathan
Failures come in many forms and have a range of effects.
Failures in product research and development will lead to finding the root cause, gathering facts, making do, and making new versions and changes. Failed sales goals drive teams to review, develop, introduce, and analyze processes after gathering relevant data.
When a company fails to fulfil its market share or profit goals, it investigates and establishes new policies.
People often think that the best way to move forward is to accept failure, make rapid changes, if required, to your processes, and quickly move forward.
In contrast, when technology project implementations go wrong, it will result in low morale, dismissal of the ranks, internal hostility, blame games inside the organization ranks, and finger-pointing at technology and technology partners.
Consequently, multiple perspectives have existed and will exist for errors in technology deployment. Those who engage in silent sabotage tend to like them more because of the severity of the consequences.
The above is what I liken to a situation of a losing war.
A different analogy related to this is comparing a movie's success or failure. Everyone says nice things about a good movie's director, music, photography, acting, lyrics, dialogue, editing, story, actor skills, stunts, and other aspects of the film. In contrast, if the movie fails, everyone or every department will blame each other. This comparison carries itself across other domains and industries and also holds when technological projects fail.
Therefore, organizations must exercise extreme caution when implementing technologically driven, enterprise-wide initiatives involving people, processes, or technology.
Many companies have used and still use tried-and-true pre-implementation preparation strategies or processes with great success. Before embarking on significant technology-driven implementation projects/programs, I have outlined below a value-added approach to retaining a failing team for any firm to consider. The elements that follow are in addition to those mentioned in the introduction.
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A value-added approach to be considered by organizations before product evaluations
Most companies have a CIO or CXO and several other ranks and jobs as part of their internal IT function hierarchy.
Technology, technical requirements, implementation, users, business processes, automation, and support will always be important to the task, whether done with one or more technology products. Each aims to address or improve the organization’s identified business functions.
Considering this, a suggested approach would be:
a)?Those businesses host technology awareness courses in a way analogous to that of "finance for the non-financial professional."
b)?Next, invite business and function leaders, key users, and process owners to discuss this in more detail so they can learn about the latest technology used in their fields.
c)?Help your teams make sense of the technologies you're using and those you're planning to implement with a high-level overview of the components and layers involved.
The internal business team will understand things better by examining case studies of specific business processes that use new technologies.
As a result, they will be better able to connect their thoughts and perceptions with the suggested technologies. If not, it will always be Greek and Latin for people who don't use technology, and a lack of programs like the above would widen the digital divide and could even make them believe what they see in ads.
In the framework of Supply Chain Management (SCM), to make it more plausible:
For instance, if someone suggested that SCM could benefit from blockchain technology, I would recommend the following:
·???????Several businesses in related industries are utilizing blockchain for shipment tracking. Compile these as case studies with examples of their use.
·???????Procurement functions use smart contracts; this technology will replace your manual contracting procedure. Case studies demonstrating real-world applications and detailing the underlying technologies behind intelligent agreements are possible.
·???????How logistics are using advanced technologies
·???????What is IoT, and how is it utilized in a large warehouse?
Workshops or proofs-of-concept in uncomplicated language should clarify the above. The above activity would enable an organization’s internal user group to understand and apply technology to a specific business function or enterprise.
How to retain unsuccessful team members?
Organizations must recognize that failure is not the end of the road; instead, it can lead to additional learning and value additions in the following days.
The lessons learned could be eye-opening for several future programs or projects. Success involves failure. I know this because I've helped revive several failed projects and implementations in my career.
I value project participants who have seen and experienced failures because they may know what went wrong and how to fix it.
Find out what went wrong and why, and make sure everyone knows and accepts responsibility. Then, upon completion, ensure that these project participants are emotionally driven on the right side and redeploy them. They may need mentoring and morale-boosting. The senior management team may push them to perform and make things happen.
Ultimately, retaining the good apples while discarding the less desirable ones is necessary.