Why industry 4.0 will fail if we don't change how we do change.

Every image & every infographic I see about industry 4.0 paints a picture of seamless automation using machines. Most have no people represented anywhere - that got me thinking, are people being overlooked?

There seems to be a collective amnesia about the truth of making technological change stick - we need new behaviours in the people that engage with the tech to embrace it and make wise decisions. I've seen technical innovation fail and most often it's because a people transformation process doesn't accompany the project.

There are a number of fundamental driving human factors behind this:

1. Our brains use 20% of our bodily energy to work. The human body is designed to conserve energy so there is a biological inertia to engaging with change.
2. Our brains don't like to feel they don't understand (it takes a lot of energy to figure things out), it needs to feel in control of its environment so we naturally develop our own processes to make sense and feel more comfortable.
3. Emotion also takes energy. Once data becomes visible, people become accountable for the results. Feelings of blame and inadequacy or sense of being judged take much more energy - it's easier to blame the veracity of the data / system than take personal energetic action or responsibility. Deflecting blame can be less painful than owning it. Mr Covey told us to seek to understand and then be understood. A deflecting brain does the opposite.

I see many tech systems and processes in my role, designed to make data visualisation easier to understand and therefore in theory actionable. The reality is, these systems are often configured by a project team, launched on the organisation with little thought to the processes and routines required to drive real tangible business benefits. These systems therefore often become retrospective reports of little benefit than a commentary.

Technology is often driven into organisations by a few that don't ensure it is embraced by the many. When the project team inevitably moves on and those that supported the change leave (25% turnover in many leadership teams at present) - the initiative fails and the organisation has to relearn.

Those that are thriving and winning in this space know that wholesale culture change is required to make the technology an enabling tool rather than (often) just a stick to beat poor performance. When a leadership team can have the candour to face into difficult conversations, take forward thinking decisions based on past data. When the whole organisation is empowered to make good decisions to drive effectiveness with the enablement of the leadership team. That's when change starts to stick

That's why at LineView our software solutions are just tools that supports the change work we do when we partner with our customers. We are passionate about helping you succeed and deliver the results you're tasked with by an ever more demanding environment.

Please don't hesitate to make contact if you'd like to collaborate about making change stick in your organisation.