You see it every day in the newspaper somewhere.  A failed public sector innovation project that attempted to use technology as the tool to achieve efficiency.  Not that the private sector doesn’t have the same problem it just doesn’t make the newspaper as often.  But when things go awry in the public sector . . . everyone knows.

The problem starts with the call by stakeholders (newspapers, executives, legislators, etc.) to:

  • Automate a manual system
  • Replace “old” technology or an antiquated system
  • Reduce costs

I have never found these to be good places to start in the public or private sector.  The technology companies are all too willing to accommodate the request with either custom or pre-packaged “solutions” that will make things all better.  They usually don’t and in most cases make things worse.  With great waste the consumers of these solutions are left to the contract they negotiated for satisfaction.  Sometimes I  have even seen technology companies give away technology to satisfy a dissatisfied customer . . . just what a company needs is more of a mess as a “solution.”

Yet, public and private sector companies still keep coming back to buy more.  Hoping against hope that the holy grail of technology will save them yet.  The constant product stream from technology companies helps facilitate this false hope with always a new generation of products that surely will be better than the last disaster.

Technology to me is a supporting function, but some how . . . some way it has become the focus of improving organizations.  This doesn’t mean that technology is devoid of value, but it is certainly not a place to begin business improvement. 

The better place to begin is to understand customer demand and purpose, accumulating measures related to customer purpose and redesigning service to absorb the variety of demand that service offers.  Once we understand the work, then we can talk about pulling technology to enable the system to perform better.  Sometimes manual is OK and a better way than expensive and entrapping technology.  I rarely see this deployed for several reasons:

  1. Technology becomes the solution and everything has to “fit”;
  2. Standard work/process/procedure and best practice make coding easier, but does not allow for the absorption of the variety of demand received;
  3. Viewing customer demand from the inside-out rather than outside-in;
  4. Schedules and due dates are achieved to satisfy completion requirements; and
  5. Public and private sector organizations just don’t think this way.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I am hopeful that organizations quit throwing technology at the problem.  They haven’t been able to spend as much on technology during this recession (some worse off than others).  Most are or should be looking for better thinking around how technology is deployed.

Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public).  His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work.  Download free from www.newsystemsthinking.com “Understanding Your Organization as a System” and gain knowledge of systems thinking or contact us about our intervention services at info@newsystemsthinking.com.  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbitt or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.