Sunday, July 16, 2006
Truth in business
Thorton May of Computer World has a great post called "A Deeper Look at BPM" that I enjoyed reading today. Given decade of experience that I have in IT, majority of which is in building business applications, these 4 questions he poses in the post really resonated with me.
I have personally seen companies struggle to solve questions #2 and #3. They don't even get to #4 because if you can't get people to tell the truth and enter it in the system, you don't even get to confront the truth, let alone behaving differently to it.
Your employees use business applications for two reasons.
1. There's no other way to get it done. Examples: Expense reimbursement, travel reservations, HR updates etc., Believe me no one enjoys wading through these applications to submit expense reports. They do it because there's no other way for them to get their money back.
2. It helps them to get their job done. Examples: Templates, document library etc., They see the benefit in using these applications. But typical users begin with consuming value before they think about donating value. However, over a period of time, people tend to donate more.
Most IT organizations typically think like #1. Most employees want #2.
Companies who want to hear truth should also realize that for truth to flow through their business systems, they have to gain employee trust. Give and you shall receive. Unfortunately this is still an anathema in organizations who traditionally think that they can hold their employees accountable. They lose trust and all they get is junk data.
So, how do we address this problem?
- Think about your employees like elusive, fickle web search users. If you don't make it sticky to use, they won't come.
- Provide enough opportunities for user feedback. Don't moderate comments - have a blog or wiki for users to vent, share and voice their opinions
- Take their opinions seriously. Show them that you care about them.
- Answer the question "what's in it for my users" before you slap another business app on them. If there aren't any features in the applciation that helps them, rethink the application
- Do we as a company want to know the truth?
- Will people tell the truth?
- Can we get the truth into the system?
- Will we behave differently when confronted with the truth?
I have personally seen companies struggle to solve questions #2 and #3. They don't even get to #4 because if you can't get people to tell the truth and enter it in the system, you don't even get to confront the truth, let alone behaving differently to it.
Your employees use business applications for two reasons.
1. There's no other way to get it done. Examples: Expense reimbursement, travel reservations, HR updates etc., Believe me no one enjoys wading through these applications to submit expense reports. They do it because there's no other way for them to get their money back.
2. It helps them to get their job done. Examples: Templates, document library etc., They see the benefit in using these applications. But typical users begin with consuming value before they think about donating value. However, over a period of time, people tend to donate more.
Most IT organizations typically think like #1. Most employees want #2.
Companies who want to hear truth should also realize that for truth to flow through their business systems, they have to gain employee trust. Give and you shall receive. Unfortunately this is still an anathema in organizations who traditionally think that they can hold their employees accountable. They lose trust and all they get is junk data.
So, how do we address this problem?
- Think about your employees like elusive, fickle web search users. If you don't make it sticky to use, they won't come.
- Provide enough opportunities for user feedback. Don't moderate comments - have a blog or wiki for users to vent, share and voice their opinions
- Take their opinions seriously. Show them that you care about them.
- Answer the question "what's in it for my users" before you slap another business app on them. If there aren't any features in the applciation that helps them, rethink the application
# posted by Bala Girisaballa : 11:43 PM
