Recycled Bullsh-IT

For those of us easily amused, watching videos of sad people falling off bikes, or having their crown jewels kicked by a kangaroo, is a harmless way of passing the time while our colleagues drone on endlessly during the interminable Zoom calls. However, it struck me (not the kangaroo, luckily) that the winners are the people behind the camera, who get the fame for uploading to TikTok or YouTube, not the schmucks conned into injuring themselves to get just 15 seconds of infamy.

 This reminded me of a lot of process improvement projects I have been involved with recently. The schmucks are the people who have change done to them, or have to make the change happen in challenging circumstances, where a cricket box is standard issue, and where the ability to ride a unicycle while juggling a load of balls (otherwise known as the business case) is a necessary survival skill. The winners tend to be the sponsors and their lackeys, sorry senior managers, who are there to take the credit for success, but ready to blame the users or project team for any whiff of failure.

 So, it is not surprising that very few people want to get involved in a change or process improvement project, because they have seen the merciless videos of their colleagues being framed, blamed and maimed by the experience. Indeed, most people would rather box the kangaroo than take the poison chalice of being subjected to an ‘improvement’ programme.

 It still amazes me that some of the last people involved in the design and acceptance of a new system are the staff who will have to use it. Typically, by the time the board, senior management, line management, HR, Health & Safety, Facilities Management, IT, etc. have had their say, there is little input left for the staff. Whatever the rest of the stakeholders think, it is the staff who will either make or break any new system introduced. Involving enough staff throughout the whole change process is vital to the success of the project.

 Of course, in an enlightened environment we find a collective ownership of both the benefits and the risks of the exercise. People share in the winnings, because the project has been designed and managed to be both inclusive and successful. Inclusiveness means that we laugh with our colleagues, not at them. We ensure success, because we have identified what success means to all the participants and have agreed strategies to maximise our chances of everyone winning.

 If we do this, everyone will want to be in the final video, and we will all share the spoils – although no one is going to pay much for your YouTube entry of a happy, clappy team, grinning from ear to ear. Still, we could always incorporate some magic tricks or a singing dog to jazz it up our Benefits Realisation presentation.

John “Dyna” Moe