Our voyage of discovery continues. It would seem that all of the messages are just not getting through. It’s not just us though. This is not an ICT services problem. The delivery services have the same problem as well. People do not know why we have bought a specific system. They do not understand the implications for their service. They do not feel as if they have contributed and they have not been listened to.
It is a perennial problem and typical of any large organisation like ours. With so many people to get round and so much change going on, communication is always going to be a problem or is it. It is something we have to improve upon.
I know this as I attended to get another meeting as part of a transformation preparation. There were representatives from each of the service groupings. There was a lack of consistency in their understanding of what is going on. Everyone knows something yet nobody knows everything. Surely this is to be expected, there is just too much to hold in one brain, yet from the meeting it is clear that people did not know things that perhaps they should have done.
So what is the answer? A great understanding of the problems we face and how services operate before we buy any systems would help greatly. Of course this is not always possible. Sometimes there are time scales outside of our control which dictate our actions. Market trends, technology innovation and compliance regimes all contrive against us but it is obvious that an improved understanding will lead to better outcomes.
For me though the conclusion of the meeting was clear. We need more business analysis and to explore our data better. We need more business and data analysts.
If only it was as simple as that.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 