Vol.13 Taco Time

Who doesn't love a good Taco? Anyone? If you're curious about how tacos have anything to do with the world of business requirements, then this is the volume for you!

The story I'm about to tell you is absolutely true, only the names and location has been changed to protect the innocent. This cautionary tale comes to you based on an actual experience of mine during the last few weeks as of this writing.

A Customer Adventure

I received a request to visit a customer location to work with our SoftwareOne SAP team on a functional assessment. Of course, I answered the call and was ready at a moment’s notice.

The situation (setting the stage, Act 1, Scene 1):

This customer, herein referred as LPQX Partners, is multiple years deep into a flailing SAP implementation. Quite literally $30 to $40 million in sunk costs, with little to show for the investment.

They are spending upwards of $70k/day on external consultants with no end in sight. SoftwareOne has been engaged for to perform an assessment to dive into business requirements, to simply figure things out, with the end game making concrete recommendations of how to reset and rescue the project.

My role in this is to provide strategic direction, help guide the project, and share insights based on a slightly different perspective.

The Organizational Assessment (humans, Act 1, Scene 2):

Without giving away too many potentially identifiable details of LPQX Partners, I will say this: many, many, many people both internal and external have touched this project for a time. There is shortage of blame and no shortage of finger pointing. That said, there is a strong desire to make progress and get it right.

I have seen this situation throughout my entire career, an organization that is relying on people to do the right thing, and yet somehow, things still fail. This situation is a classic example of the failure of people to work together with common purpose and understanding.

There are many pockets of individual brilliance, however, prominent is an absolute lack of programmatic excellence. Looking the face value issues, it’s evident that the organization is suffering from the classic problem of siloization (actual word even though it seems like I made it up ??), fear of change, organizational misalignment, competing priorities, frustration, a lack of empathy, etc.

The Big Table (throwing daggers, Act 1, Scene 3):

After observing and participating in multiple one-on-one and conversations with various levels of the organization, I found myself sitting at an oblong table sitting with nine people in moderately comfortable chairs that had a very slight rocking motion, almost unsettling. Two additional people were sitting against the wall away from the table in those slightly odd chairs.

Against the wall was a 70-inch monitor with a camera hanging below. You know the type, it tracks by voice, a bit creepy, and magnifies the image on the edges making people appear distorted. On the display was a Team's meeting that included another five to six participants along with a PPT deck. The temperature of the room was quite pleasant, we did some brief introduction since there were some new faces in the room.

Once again it became obvious to me that even the people present in the room were having difficulty communicating and connecting with each other. The frustration in the room was palpable.

A large part of the question was about business requirements was the clash of the Titans. I sat back and watched (imaging myself with a big bowl of buttered popcorn watching the story unfold) as four distinctly separate business unit leaders where only debating their individual needs for the project.

This was less of a debate, and more of a dagger throwing competition. There is no winner in situations like that (albeit it very entertaining). I saw very little effort understand the other person’s point of view.

While this may seem a bit of an exaggeration, and maybe it is, this this is what happened and what I experienced.

Meeting End (Pre-lunch, Act 2, Scene 1):

Mercifully, the meeting ended on time. Although there were tense moments, clearly this group of people like each other and can actually work quite well together (given the right conditions). The SoftwareOne team gained valuable insights during the meeting which will actually help shape the recommendations.

Like I said, I observe things through a slightly different lens, Organizational Change Management.

Root causes of fear often boil down the simplest of problems which are usually relate the most complex problem of all - the human element. It does not matter what the objective is or what the technology is, the problems are all the same, people need to work to work together and find common ground. They need to question each other for understanding, clarification, and exploration, not devolve into judgment and division.

While this may sound nice, I’ve often heard, what does this have to do with business? This stuff is too fluffy, too soft, this is business not a social event! ?

Taco Time (lunch plans, Act 2, Scene 2):

The meeting ended in a very typical fashion like most meetings do. Participants arose from their slightly oddly wabbly chairs, were jovial, some laughed, some were checked out, some avoided eye contact, while others just left the room. I stayed behind to speak with two high level business leaders.

One of the executives came back into the room and said, “hey everybody we're all going to go to lunch, anybody up for some tacos?”. One of the leaders I was speaking to said, “absolutely, count me in”. Exec said, “Great, see you there” (then started to leave the room). The leader said, “hey wait, where are we going?” Exec, “you know the usual place”. Leader, “Which usual? There are like 10 places close by”. Exec, “you know the one, at the gas station” Leader, “which gas station?”.? Laughter ensued.?

At this point I interrupted the conversation and said wait a minute, I must point something out. I went on to explain my observations, we just finished a meeting talking about the organizational and learning about actual requirements from different business units.

This moment strikes me as a key example of the problem. How is the organization supposed to figure what it needs when there is so much miscommunication? We can't even figure out where to go get tacos.

Tacos became the perfect example of organizational goals and the need to work together differently. Both the executive and leader looked at me and said you're absolutely right. We make a lot of assumptions that people understand and inherently know what’s needed.

After a bit of laughter, they thanked me for stopping them in that moment to point this out. The exec told me they've had many consultants reference the need for better communication however never showed it as a real-time example. Communication topics are usually heard as blah, blah, blah, (yawn) - this time it was very real.

In the end, the leader didn’t go do get tacos, told me they still didn’t know where to meet.

The CEO (communications, Act 2, Scene 3 - the final scene):

I had a one-on-one with the CEO the next day. We spoke details about the many organizational needs. Yes, this also included failures of communication, the need to understand each other, being comfortable enough to ask clarifying questions, the need to have dedicated resources to work on this project, etc.

Having people work on a project “10 minutes at a time” is not conducive to a successful project. Taking the same approach (and trying again) to solve their huge problem simply won’t work. They need to ‘do different’.

And we also talked about tacos.

Final Thoughts

This situation plays out in organizations around the world. That fluffy topic about how people communicate with each other is actually the root cause for so much loss and unnecessary strife.? It’s a key contributing factor in causes financial losses, project failure, increased burnout, increases in sick leave, risk to reputation, and so much more.

I urge all readers here, make no assumption the person you are interacting with knows what you need, clarify for understanding, listen, listen, listen, then confirm for understanding.

This is not fluff, this is business.

(Now I’m off to get some tacos ??)

Kevin (aka "The Cloud Therapist")

Vol.12 Empty Eggshells was all about my need to take care of myself. I'm grateful for the support of my SoftwareOne colleagues, especially Lisa Smak , Elliot Robia , Leszek Pi?tek , Larry Rodgers , and Marek Antoniuk . Individually we are awesome, together, we are fierce!

Please submit topics and questions for future volumes (I'm listening)

A quick note to my readers - thank you for your feedback, support, and encouragement. I strive to bring you relevant thought-provoking content.?#grateful?that you choose to spend your time with me.

I appreciate your commitment to reading these all the way through. I know they can be quite lengthy. My goal is to bring you unique perspectives and things to mentally chew on.

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