IT Implementation Failure

I've been around for quite some time throughout my career as a management consultant, and I've been involved with companies and organizations that implemented IT systems to support their operations.

And I've seen them fail miserably.

Just think about it : An organization spent hundred thousands of dollars to purchase and install a high-tech IT system to improve their manufacturing and supply chain operations. But in the end they suffer, generally from being unable to utilize it as they expected it in the beginning of the project.

See, this is the main problem of IT implementation : A radical change of mindset, work systems and management control systems is mandatory, which needs a thorough change management program to lead all the people towards the desired change of behaviors . . . and this is what IT implementors don't have in their protocols and methodologies. At least here in Indonesia.

What IT implementors need is to integrate people development programs in their methodologies, which involves - among others - change management. We cannot simply install a new system and setup training sessions to teach people HOW to use it, we also need to lead the people to WANT to use it appropriately. We need a plan to make people LOVE to use the system, which then lead them to utilize it and improve it.

We need to change people's mindset so that they FULLY TRUST the system.

Let me give an example : In one of the Productivity Improvement Projects that I'm involved in, there was this organization that installed a hundred-thousand-dollar Supply Chain Management software that was supposed to simplify access to up-to-date data, like, it should help a manager to find out today's production output from a specific production line at specific time and location. But in reality, they still need to go down and check it on the production floor where the WIP was placed. The problem lies on the admin at the production floor who was too lazy to make the input 30 minutes before the shift ends. Oh, the admin DID input the data into the system, but he didn't seem to see the benefit of the system. The organization had tried many ways to make the admin do his job at the designated time, but failed every time. Or maybe they succeeded and the admin DID do his job at the designated time, but the manager still can't believe it and keep checking it on the production floor, or through a manual report generated and sent by the supervisor.

The problem is that they didn't involve change management in their IT implementation, that is, to shape the people's ways of thinking to make them see the benefit of the new system. And that's just one among many things that need to be changed in order to make people want to use the system, like changing people's behavior from doing their paperwork manually to doing it through a computerized system, make people committed to follow the new instructions that's not there before, etc.

It's people we are dealing with. You can simply install softwares to our PCs and expect them to work as expected, given that all compatibility checklist is all green. But with people, it's a whole different story.

The Apple's Antennagate

Everybody should know about the woe around Apple's iPhone 4 antenna. Now that Steve Jobs held a press conference explaining about this, it means that the problem is real and they are taking serious effort to correct it.

There are some things from the conference that interest me. First of all, Jobs said it himself : "Apple isn't perfect". And the next best thing, he indirectly said that iPhone is not perfect just like other smartphones.

It always baffles me that many Apple products users seem to believe that Apple products are flawless, perfect and superior to other products of its peers. And some of them even condescend and look down to other products, even to the extent of treating non-Apple users with disdain. There's even a saying "Apple and non-Apple products".

Putting Apple aside, there's a good lesson we can learn from this case. You see, I've seen many superiors, or hear stories about superiors who see himself as someone who deserves the position. They feel that they are always right, people should look up to him, or worse, he look down to other people, specially to their subordinates. This is also the case in seniority. And being superior or senior, they have the power to behave that way.

These people tend to protect the image, and become perfectionist. They don't allow themselves to make mistakes or look "weak". When they make mistake, they try to look for a scapegoat to blame, or make it so that it's something normal and not a big deal. Oh, BTW, Jobs showed similar signal-drop case on OTHER smartphones and platforms.

Silly, isn't it?

What I'm saying, I remember I posted something similar, higher position does not give us power to do anything freely as we like. Higher position gives us opportunity to do MORE good things and good deeds. When we continuously make condescending remarks to others - or subordinates, or look down to them, people would love to look for our flaws. And when they DO find one tiny flaw on us, they will make it so big, it matters. And we will end up trying our best to look for justifications, which might make us look even sillier.

So, again, we may be a superior, be it a supervisor, manager, president director or anything. Even a teacher or a senior trainer. We may even be a smart guy who deserve our position. But that's not a reason to behave in such a way that we look down to others. Learn to be a good leader, and make your team a good team.

The Two Glass Bowls

I created this illustration on one of my management training in Medan.

I presented two glass bowls to the audience, and told them to think of a way to move the bowls two meters on the floor, but they are not allowed to move themselves.

One volunteer tried to slide the glass bowls on the floor to reach the desired distance, and succeeded. Another one tried to roll it, but found that the bowls, being only half a ball, rolled to the left and bumped the wall. Good thing it didn't break.

When the audience were out of ideas, then I proposed another way involving duct tape : I put the lids together to form a kind of glass ball - not a perfect ball, but at least it's close to a round tire - and bound it with the duct tape. Then, I rolled it on the floor, made it reach the two meters target, and roll beyond the line.

At work, people consist of two, completely different sides : Technical and tactical. People can be taught and trained about technical things, like - for example - good soldering methods, sewing techniques, SAP implementation, etc. People develop skills from years of experience doing his work, enabling him to do nice acrobatics through it, like, a mechanical engineer who can manipulate and modify the mechanisms of broken and malfunctioning machineries, or a machine operator who's able to make temporal adjustment to his workstation to keep it productive while waiting for the mechanics to come, etc. All that are the technical side of human being : There's no limit to what we can develop from people, thus we can keep filling the glass with knowledge forever.

The second part is the tactical part : Feelings, motives, courage, creativity, etc. People DO need to be encouraged. People DO need something to drive them to do their work.

But unfortunately, many organizations treat their people like robots, that is, only focus on the technical side. Companies arrange tight and intensive training program on how to operate the production machineries, upgrade their knowledge on new specifications and features of the company's products, or invite experienced and professional gurus to conduct a series of courses and training sessions, etc., while putting aside the fact that they also need to persuade and encourage the people to correctly and appropriately implement the knowledge in their daily activities. Not to mention to keep them loyal and implement their newly-acquired knowledge to the benefit of the company.

Treating people like robots is like sliding one bowl on the floor. While the bowl would eventually develop scratches, people will eventually develop stress and demotivation. Can people achieve when they are treated like robots? The answer is YES. Of course highly-trained people can achieve their goals. For example, a woman with countless hours of experience in sewing and spent many sessions on sewing methods training, will undoubtedly reach the pieces per day targets assigned to her. Or, a supervisor who just came back from his 3 months ISO training in the US would flawlessly know how to learn and implement the local company's standard operation procedures and management control systems. But it's people we are talking about, here. People may be able to keep their ideals high and do their work flawlessly after they walk out of the training room. But people will eventually face problems and obstacles in their everyday activities. Even an easily predictable problems can bring down people's courage.

And at time like this we need to help people back on their feet. Some problems are work-related, and some others are non-work-related. Even a brief argument with the spouse in the morning can cause a whole day of bad mood and unnecessary mistakes. Thus, it needs a good leader to come up with ways to tackle this kind of problems and bring him back to work.

So this is what duct-taping the bowls means : While we keep our employees technically updated, we also need to keep their spirit and morale up. Keep doing this, we will find ourselves see productivity improves with relatively smaller effort. We would start to see them exceed their targets because they want to give more. Remember the story about the two employees in the Toyota factory? Both guys have the same, simple job description : Pulling levers to mechanically and manually continue a small part of the assembly process. When asked about what they are doing in the booth, one guy said plainly, "I'm here only to pull these levers", while the other guy answers "I'm making Toyota!". I'm sure that the first guy never get encouragement and positive feedbacks from his supervisor, while the other guy keep getting positive inputs and encouragement from his superior.

So you see, it's all a matter of treating people as a complete human being. Hard? Yes. But it's learnable.

I don't want my people to do their best. I want my people to WANT to do their best.