Many companies utilize the tools offered with technology to solve current issues that exist in an organization. From one point of view this makes objective sense. Technology is predictable. If you purchase a bigger space, redesign the workplace, get a new machine or buy new software or systems it is a solution that can be measured, the cost is fixed and there are a host of support functions that usually come with these that offer expertise and guidance.
But another point of view suggests that in tandem with current processes and the people resident in an organization, technology implementation alone is viewed as the a passive aggressive means for communicating a sobering message – what is currently being done will be replaced by a solution that does not consider the process that exists or the people who make it work. No matter how this message is communicated either through lofty presentations or hard line edicts, change is happening and the control resides outside an organization’s current spheres of influence.
It is much the same with process. If leaders or experts are brought in and assign a new process or make changes to a current process, the message remains the same – there will be a new order for which many have not had a say and whose future looks uncertain.
What do you think?
1 comment:
I may be reading too much between the lines, but it definitely sounds like there is more going on here than related in the post. That being said, my initial thought is that anytime executive management is making large infrastructure changes, capital investments, or engaging consultants on a strategic level, without communicating the driver for the project and the deliverables, then there is bound to be at least suspicious if not outright dissension.
There may indeed be hard decisions to be made or strategic changes required for survival. Not everyone is pleased or served by every change. However, my two cents would be communicate, communicate, communicate. The trendy word here is transparency, but I just keep coming back to communicating openly and honestly.
Any time a leader can't communicate directly with me to explain the need and desired outcome of a strategic project, then that leader is leaving to my imagination to create those.
I find most people have a very active imagination in these situations, and it is usually not positive.
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