If Change Were Easy…

May 9, 2008 · Filed Under Business, Change, Culture, Technology 

At my current employer, I have had the opportunity to build a network connectivity team to complement and merge with the hardware break/fix team. That was a brutal transition, and at a several points I almost didn’t make the cut.

Our culture was resistant, our customers didn’t understand why things were changing, and there wasn’t really a clear roadmap to follow. It was even tougher because we had the makings of a great team, but there were positions where individuals still existed - not team players.

Over time, and with patience, we worked through many of the issues. I then handed my team off to another set of managers, and began the road of building a call group, a professional services group, and a training group.

Today, I had an interesting conversation with another of our managers. Basically, a large customer’s request had not been met, and I ended up being on the receiving end of the customer’s frustration.

I could tell that my previous trials had helped me grow as a problem solver. My first instinct was not to blame or harass anyone; it was to first ensure everyone understood the call process procedure and then begin to assess if there were any ways to augment a great team with some tweaks to any of our processes.

What I and the other manager ended with was a scheduled meeting where both of us would trace through our call process and find ways to streamline the process - asking tough questions and playing devil’s advocate as necessary.

What I find interesting about these types of sessions is we do not solely focus on a single aspect of solving an issue, nor do we allow the one customer drop to dictate an entire process. We review all options from personnel to technology in order to determine what the most value-added options are.

Some decisions will come back as too expensive to implement, some will show as flawed, and some just plain won’t be adopted no matter how well intentioned they are. We have to demonstrate the laser-focus on our mission and goals.

Keep your Vision in sight at all time and demonstrate a real desire to listen to the needs while resisting the first impulse to start “swinging axes”.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

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    • You are welcome to change...

      ChangeForge is a place where business and technology collide with a desire to alter a paradigm and improve how we perceive those things around us. This site is built upon the premise of offering a platform to share ideas and start conversations. This site focuses upon change and shifting paradigms, offering perspective on how technology can be applied to business problems while maintaining a people-friendly perspective. ChangeForge covers a wide variety of topics, but will primarily focus on strategies revolving around bridging technology and business, hosting authors from different walks of life and offering brain-fodder on many different fronts.

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      In this day and age, people don't seem to get that you can have an opinion of your own, and that people are entitled to a responsible opinion. As such, ChangeForge is a place for me to post opinions on various things relating to business and technology. These opinions are those of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of respective employers, co-workers, or those referenced within this site. If you take issue with these opinions, you are most welcome to move on to another slice of the cloud. My hope, however, is that you will engage in some level of an intellectual debate in an effort to learn something, teach me something, or simply make the world just a little better...
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      ChangeForge... a catalyst to affect the paradigm by Ken Stewart is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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