What Keeps Organizations from Being Intelligent?

Building Organizational Intelligence in Today’s Data-Driven World

By Kevin Craine, MBA

Organizations of all sizes and every industry depend on information to fuel everyday operations. Choose any important business process and you will find that information drives the workflow. The effectiveness of that activity is a direct result of how well information is managed, and how well technologies and people work together with information in the effort.

There are a great many challenges to managing information, but there are also a great many opportunities to leverage information in ways that inspire innovation. Now, more than ever, organizations must adopt new approaches and strategies focused on bolstering what can be called “Organizational Intelligence.”

What is Organizational Intelligence?

Organizational Intelligence is the ability to use information, technology, and people in ways that improve an organization’s performance. This is essential for organizations to compete as demands for new digitally-enabled ways of working disrupt every aspect of doing business today; creating new markets and new competitors that were unforeseen just a few years ago.

The essence of Organizational Intelligence is being smart about how the organization uses information. In other words: If you’re not using information, systems, and people intelligently, it’s unlikely that you’re doing much to improve performance and innovate.

Organizational Intelligence is the ability to use information, technology and people in ways that are intelligent and optimal, and make a progressive impact on performance.

Connected Thinking

Organizational Intelligence is about making a connection between knowledge and people. The goal is to create a workforce of “connected thinkers” who can tap into information and access it at the point of need so that the organization becomes, quite literally, more intelligent in the way it operates across information, process, and people.

What Keeps Organizations from Being Intelligent?

Information is hard to find – one of the biggest roadblocks to building Organizational Intelligence is that information continues to be hard to find. It is not uncommon for organizations to have multiple data repositories, line of business systems, and records archives located across the organization; all housing critical information that is often isolated in discrete silos of process, application, and ownership. Without a holistic view, it can be difficult if not impossible to understand exactly what information you have, where it is stored, and what it means.

Increasing competitive pressure – Organizations must be more agile and intelligent to keep pace with their competition. While customers gain the power of information and choice, digital technology dramatically improves the economics of the business. These economics are the primary drivers of digital transformation for many businesses. As a result, executives and technologists feel the very real demand to apply information, technology, and people in ways that innovate, compete and grow. Every industry has this unique digital transformation challenge/opportunity.

Changing workforce demographic – The U.S. Census Bureau projects that one in every five U.S. residents will be older than age 65. This means that many experienced older workers will exit the workforce in the next ten years. Older, experienced workers will be replaced by the rising population of Millennials and Generation Z workers. Without a strategic approach to capture the uncodified expertise of these seasoned workers, organizations risk losing a body of intelligence that may be essential in the future. At the same time, younger employees expect the kind of modern, digitally-enabled tools and capabilities they need to be productive. A modern work environment –with agile and intelligent tools - is a top differentiator when recruiting and retaining top talent. ?

Organizational Intelligence is built with tools that enable business processes to be more effective and innovative by improving the interaction of information, technology, and people.

How Can Organizations Be More Intelligent?

Content Integration – It can be difficult to leverage information as an important organizational asset when you are unclear on exactly what information you have, where it is all located, and what risks and opportunities it represents to the organization. Content integration, therefore, becomes a huge differentiating factor when it comes to advancing Organizational Intelligence. A great deal of tactical and strategic advantage is gained by integrating access to information across multiple systems so that end-users and decision-makers have a single view from which to analyze, plan, and execute process improvements and product/service innovations.

Strategic Classification – A strategic approach to tagging and metadata is a powerful tool to cultivate Organizational Intelligence. This requires addressing both people and technology. People and processes must be attuned to the critical need for consistent and accurate tagging of information, and technology and systems must be easy to use while driving the process in ways that ensure the correct metadata is achieved. From there, the organization is enabled to perform any number of precision searches that result in things like better service and improved workflow while bringing about better business intelligence and strategic decision-making.

Understand Process Bottlenecks – All of these Organizational Intelligence techniques are best applied using a process analysis approach that examines each key activity to uncover gaps in performance and bottlenecks in the workflow. It is critical to involve IT along with cross-functional teams consisting of business unit personnel and other stakeholders. In this way, your efforts not only address the technological changes that may need to happen but also the business-focused organizational aspects essential for improvement as well.

Examine New Tech Opportunities – Innovations are moving so quickly that it is easy to get caught behind the curve. For example, cloud-based approaches are the new infrastructure of business today, and developments in things like Artificial Intelligence and data analytics have opened up new opportunities for process improvement and innovation that were simply not possible a few years ago. To help in making adoption easier and more cost-effective, developers are working hard to provide process-focused solutions tailored for common business activities in areas like finance, human resources, and onboarding that all companies must manage.? ?

Moving Forward

Organizational Intelligence is a new paradigm that is based on a thoughtful approach to how information, technology, and people must work together to bring about improved operational performance. Any number of solutions and techniques can apply, but the overarching approach is focused not only on technology, but also on how the capabilities and innovations that make a difference in the way business is done every day. Look for providers and partners with the right mix of vision, capability, and expertise to make the most of your efforts.

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Kevin Craine is a business technology journalist and internationally recognized reporter on digital transformation. He was named the #1 Content Management influencer to follow on Twitter. Find him at CraineGroup.com .