Last week I argued that a detailed variance report is not very helpful before and during the forecasting and budgeting process. That post continues to be one of the most popular ones recently. But why not take the basic ideas a few steps forward and create a dedicated forecasting dashboard? A dashboard allows us to view the critical information that we need to get our job done (i.e. create the forecast or the budget) in a single place. Conducting forecast analysis with this dashboard becomes easy and is less time-consuming than analyzing hundreds of variances in a spreadsheet.
A COGNOS 10 DASHBOARD
My colleague Paul took the ideas from the last post and he created an awesome forecasting dashboard in Cognos 10. Take a look (click on the image to enlarge):
Forecast Analysis with IBM Cognos 10 – Business Insight
This forecasting dashboard is geared towards a revenue forecast. The widget in the upper left corner provides a quick overview of year-to-date product sales. You might notice the use of micro-charts: the sparklines display the sales trend for each region. The accompanying bullet charts show the current status against plan (YTD).
The other widgets provide a balanced mix of historical data (revenue, deal-size, expense ratio) and leading indicators (Win/ Loss Ratio, Customer Satisfaction). But there is also other important forward-looking information. Take a look at the lower left corner: We can view upcoming marketing events along with the anticipated number of participants and the expected sales pipeline. That is helpful for assessing future sales.
EFFECTIVE FORECAST ANALYSIS
This forecasting dashboard can help prepare for the actual forecasting process. It provides a better picture of the business than any detailed variance report can. And think about the time savings as well. The latter requires a lot of effort to be consumed. The dashboard on the other hand is efficient and effective. Last but not least, the dashboard can be utilized on a daily basis.
So, that is a forecasting dashboard built with Cognos 10. I love the look and feel. It is simple, clean and easy to interact with.
P.S.: The type of information to be included in such a dashboard obviously varies by company and industry.
Much has been written about developing better forecasting and budgeting templates or improving the overall process. But to my surprise there is hardly any focus on the role of analysis. I have seen many organizations where managers ‘survive’ the forecasting and budgeting cycle without ever spending time performing meaningful analysis of their data. They simply focus on getting the numbers in to satisfy finance and senior management.
This is a wasted opportunity. People should use that occasion to gain insights about their business. Lack thereof is likely to result in forecasts and budgets that are not meaningful. Some of you might say: ‘Wait a second! Managers do obtain some reports.’ True. They get the classic variance report with a ton of detail. But working with this is time-consuming and it is extremely difficult to identify critical trends and to see the big picture.
A traditional variance report. What does it tell us?
BETTER FORECASTING WITH ANALYSIS
Using a Business Analytics platform like IBM Cognos 10, you can make is easier for managers to gain critical insights. Here are a few ideas that you might find useful. Let’s look at the example of a sales manager for a European division of a global company. This manager has to forecast revenue and associated expense.
1. GO VISUAL
First of all, toss those detailed variance reports. Line of Business managers will most likely not obtain any information from them. Human beings do much better processing visual information. You can find a lot of information about this topic on this blog. So, try to swap out those hundreds of data points with a few meaningful charts. Your teams will be thankful.
2. CONSIDER EXTERNAL DATA
The variance report does not really tell us anything about our business potential. We could therefore consider looking at external data such as market trends. More and more of my clients do that. It helps them with assessing their overall position and it also helps them set realistic but ambitious targets. The example below shows that market growth in Europe is a bit limited compared to North America and Asia.
The situation in Europe is not looking good
3. STUDY HISTORY
History is not necessarily a predictor of the future. But we should not ignore it. We might be able to identify seasonality and to detect general trends. Pick the critical measures. Line charts are usually a great choice to display this type of data. The example below shows that revenue is cyclical and that the general trend is positive:
On the rise: Revenue trend for Europe
4. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE
One of the nice things about modern Business Analytics tools like Cognos 10 is that we can view data from multiple different angles. Use that capability to your advantage! Try to explore different perspectives. Look at the example above. Now, compare this to the view below. Same data. Just a simple change in Cognos 10:
A different perspective
Our biggest months used to be in summer time. But that has shifted towards year-end. Same data – different perspective. Explore!
5. BENCHMARK YOURSELF
It makes sense to learn from others as well. We could do some internal benchmarking as well. In our example, we could look at deal sizes (looks like Europe’s deals are growing nicely and they are above company average):
The average deal has grown bigger
Ok. That sounds good. But does the deal size come at a cost? Once again, let’s do some internal benchmarking and look at the ratio of expenses and the associated revenue. It looks like Europe is slightly higher which might explain the higher deal size.
Every penny that is earned in Europe requires higher expenses
That information is valuable. It also leads us to think further and to ask some critical questions (Does it make sense to review our spending? Does the higher spending lead to bigger deals?). We should obviously not stop right here.
6. LOOK AT LEADING INDICATORS
What about other non-financial data as well? For revenue budgeting, I might also want to look at a leading indicator like customer satisfaction. And I might also want to look at our track record of winning deals (win-loss-ratio). Take a look:
Customer satisfaction is rising again. A leading indicator for sales?
BETTER INSIGHTS
This is a simple example. The manager is now equipped with a few key insights:
Market growth is low
Our revenue trend is still positive
Buying patterns have shifted
Our strategy of investing in selling activities has increased the deal size
Customer satisfaction is increasing which could lead to higher sales
These are valuable insights. And it did not take much time to obtain them. The old variance report would not have provided that insight and it would have consumed a lot of time.
Try to incorporate a few of those ideas in your forecasting and budgeting processes. Doing this with spreadsheets is obviously difficult and probably explains why so many organizations are stuck with the traditional approach. Business Analytics software like IBM Cognos 10 makes it a lot easier to do that.
James Bond: “I am really sorry, M. But I won’t be able to chase down Dr. Evil. The Aston Martin you gave me is at least 12 months old and it doesn’t have the latest DK-B765 features from section Q. I really need another vehicle in order to get my job done.”
M: “007, get your act together! We have provided you with more tools than anybody else here at MI-6.”
James Bond: “Sorry, Sir. But I have tried the old Aston and found that I cannot do certain things I dream about. Also, the ride is quite different from my prior car. The vehicle is clearly holding me back.”
M: “When I look at your records, I can see that you completed your last mission with a car from 1978. It doesn’t make sense.”
James Bond: “Sir, with all respect: I know that car really well. Sure it’s slow and doesn’t have the latest gadgets but it has served me well.”
M: “007, I am about to send you off to the South Pole to search for the ozone layer. When is the last time you have taken time to learn how the Aston Martin works? I can see that you spend a lot of time fixing that white vehicle from 1978 . Also, your records indicate that you haven’t attended any of the advanced ‘reckless spy driving classes’ we offered last month. And let me ask you a question: Have you even taken the Aston out on the track to practice? Huh?”
James Bond: “Errr….I was too busy. Plus it doesn’t make sense to pick up new skills until I have that new ride. I promise you, the world will be a safe place once you give me the gadgets that I really want. Big agent promise! It’s all about the gadgets.”
M: “007 – get your winter jacket and interview some penguins!!!”
BUSINESS ANALYTICS
It’s too easy to make excuses and to blame our software tools for not helping us. It’s always the fault of the tool. But truth of the matter is that most software platforms offer more functionality anyone could ever use. But not nearly enough people take responsibility and actually learn what the tools can do for them today. Learning requires effort. But it pays off.
2012 is almost around the corner. Many people start making goals for the new year. When is the last time you have:
Invested time to learn your business analytics platform?
Played with your software and tried a few new techniques?
Attend a class about analytics?
Read a book about analytics?
Learned about charting techniques?
Met with other users to exchange knowledge?
Thought about the information you really need to make good business decisions?
Budgeting begins with assessing the current business environment
Leave your optimism at the curb
Budgeting must be driven by strategy
Connect the dots
A careless budget will cause more pain
Don’t forget the smell test
Today, I expand on ideas 4 and 5, which deal more with the actual preparation of the budget; the practical challenges.
Connect the dots
Because we assemble budgets at the line item level, we risk believing the process is simply the aggregation of line item budget amounts. This fragmented approach will yield a fragmented result, with little value to you or the business.
Budgets are not forecasts or estimates of what could happen. The budget is your plan of what will happen. Accordingly, the budget process actually starts from the top. A quality budget will tell a complete and coherent story at the highest level – like a navigator’s map, reflecting your point of origin, your destination (goals), the terrain (environment), distance to travel (measure progress), direction, optional routes (when stuff happens) and landmarks (reference points).
The Budget – Your Northern Star?
Getting the big picture requires that you understand the correlation/interaction of its components – the line items. For example, if you are increasing your direct marketing budget, have you also considered?
A possible corresponding reduction in display advertising
Costs for crafting direct marketing campaigns (usually more work than display ads)
Staffing costs for timely follow up on leads form direct marketing campaigns
Costs incidental to the staffing increase (tax, benefit, training, etc)
Effect of strategy on the fulfillment/sales/collection cycles
There are few items in your budget that truly stand alone. Make your budgeting process worth the effort you are putting into it by connecting all the dots to plot next year’s journey.
A careless budget will cause more pain
Understandably, the budgeting process can feel like a tedious, time consuming and futile effort. “Why set a budget? I can’t control what is going to happen to my business. We respond how we have to respond and spend what we have to spend anyway.”
This attitude will doom your efforts. The very purpose of budgeting is to gain control. As I noted, budgets are not just casual estimations of what might happen. A quality budget plants an iron rod of confidence and accountability into the spine of your business.
Sure, “stuff happens” to your business, but you control how it responds. Succumbing to the belief that budgeting is a pointless exercise will result in a careless effort to “just get it done.” The real pain will come the following year when stuff does happen and the maps (budget) you are using to navigate your business lack a Northern Star to guide you.
This was part 2 of the 2011 budgeting series on the Performance Ideas blog. More to follow soon.
About the author of this post:
Mike Duncan is Partner and co-founder of Bizzeness, LLC. Mike began his career with KPMG and Deloitte. He has been a business owner and advisor for over 30 years serving over 300 businesses in various capacities. Mike focuses on SMB’s with concept development, business modeling, start-up, market adaption, strategy and succession. Mike lives in the Kansas City area. You can contact Mike at mike@bizzeness.com.
Yes, it’s that time of the year. The time that is often filled with pain and fear. No, I am not talking about Halloween but about the corporate budgeting process. Much has been written about the annual budget. And most of the written stuff is not positive. Jack Welch alone has provided us with a few memorable quotes such as:
“The budget is the bane of corporate America. It never should have existed.”
“But the budgeting process at most companies has to be the most ineffective practice in management. It sucks the energy, time, fun and big dreams out of an organization. (…) And yet (….) companies sink countless hours into writing budgets. What a waste!”
WHAT IS A BUDGET
In theory, a budget should actually be a rewarding and important process. Why? Let’s look at the purpose of a budget: It should outline how we want the future to look. It details planned actions, outlines investment areas etc.. When you think about it, these are very important tasks. And it should not be that nerve racking. Budgeting and planning allow us to sit back, look at our past achievements and provide us with the opportunity to lay out a path towards future success. Doesn’t sound too bad, right?
THE PROBLEM
Indeed, the annual budgeting process is anything but popular. No wonder. It is usually very difficult and the resulting value is dubious. So, what’s wrong? Many things. Here are a few statistics that I pulled together from various articles, books and conferences. Depending on the specific sources, number tend to vary a bit here and there. But the general trend is the same.
Over 70% of all budgets loose their validity after the first quarter of the new fiscal year. The speed and volatility of our global connected world renders many assumptions useless.
And estimated 94% of all executives do not have confidence in the budget numbers. They believe the numbers are either outdated, they are padded or they are meaningless. Huh?
75% of all companies need more than three months to complete the entire cycle. Even three months is a long time these days. Responding to changing market conditions becomes very difficult with these long cycle times. Also, think about the enormous amount of resources that are invested into the process. Do we really want to spend all that time only to find that the output doesn’t actually reflect reality?
Over 75% of all budgets are believed to be sandbagged. Gaming the numbers remains a popular competition: cost center managers exaggerate expenses to protect their turf. Sales managers express negative market views to maximize their earning potential. Not good.
TIME FOR CHANGE
It’s time for a change! In the next few weeks I will share a few ideas for making the budgeting process more valuable. On Thursday, business advisor Mike Duncan will discuss the overall purpose of the budget. He recently wrote a nice article called Six Ideas for Setting Successful Budgets.
If you have stories and best practices to share, please get in touch with me.
Yesterday, I traveled from Munich to Ottawa. Perfect time to get some reading done. Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of the famous book ‘Emotional Intelligence’ recently published a quick follow up on his ubiquitous book. It is called The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights and you can buy it on on Amazon.com for your Kindle.
DECISION MAKING
There is an interesting chapter in the book. Goleman talks about the role of self-awareness in decision making. Research found that you need excellent self-awareness to make good decisions. He describes the story of a highly intelligent lawyer who underwent surgery to get a tumor removed from his brain. Unfortunately, the part of his brain that helps with self-awareness got damaged. Despite an excellent recovery, the person ended up not being able to make any decisions anymore. His intelligence was still intact. Even small decisions like: “When should I meet with my Dr” were big hurdles for the poor guy. Goleman writes: “….in order to make a good decision, we need to have feelings about our thoughts.” Data and information alone therefore do not necessarily guarantee good decisions. The human factor is still there.
Goleman describes a study of highly successful entrepreneurs. They were asked how they make decisions. Goleman found that there is a common theme:
“First, they were voracious consumers of any data or information that might bear on their decision, casting a wide net. But second, they all tested their rational decision against their gut feeling – if a deal didn’t feel right they might not go ahead, even if it looked good on paper.”
BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Indeed, Business Analytics play an important part in decision making. The technology and processes deliver the raw materials for these ‘voracious consumers of data’. As a matter of fact, one could argue that business analytics enable people to become ‘voracious information consumers‘. Without the data and information, it becomes difficult to make good decisions.
While this sounds so obvious, it is important to keep in mind when it comes to building a business case, for example. Maybe you can use this small insight for your next meeting. A few weeks ago, I wrote about a similar story: Creativity and Innovation. Analytics are indeed an important enabler.
THE eBOOK
Before I forget, Daniel Goleman’s book is a great read. Lot’s of interesting insights and plenty of remarkable studies. I highly recommend it!
Today marks the traditional Thanksgiving celebrations in the USA. It is one of, if not the biggest national holiday in the country. It is a day where families get together to celebrate, to laugh, to cry and to be thankful for the great things in their lives. Having lived in the US for over a decade, I do miss this particular holiday. There are two things I really like about Thanksgiving:
It is so easy to get stuck in the whirlwind of bad news and stress these days. Thanksgiving stops people and encourages them to think about the positive things in their lives, which makes them happier and better human beings.
Thanksgiving is being celebrated by almost the entire US population regardless of their race or religion. It is a day that unites.
HEADING HOME
What am I thankful for today? Many things! Most importantly, I am very thankful for my awesome family and friends. They are the most important thing in my life, but there is also my job. It is a job that allows me to work with so many inspiring customers and colleagues. And it is also a job that inspired me to write this blog. Thanks to all of you for reading these posts and for providing so much great feedback and encouragement.
But it’s time to shut down my iPad now. Time to head back home from Moscow after a week of inspiring rolling forecast workshops with our local customers.
A few months ago, I wrote about my personal use of analytics to improve cycling performance. This post continues to be quite popular. There are indeed a lot of parallels between the use of analytics in sports and in business. So, I thought why not learn a few things from one of the leading experts in this area? Why not learn from somebody who is driving the use of analytics in sports? Why not listen to the person who has developed one of the first software packages for analyzing cycling and workout data?
Please meet Hunter Allen. He is widely known as one of the top experts in the world in coaching endurance athletes using power meters in combination with powerful analytical software. Hunter and I met almost six years ago. He hosted a cycling camp in Solvang, California. During those seven days out on the road, he taught me a lot about using analytics to improve my cycling performance. And I was lucky to catch Hunter over the phone the other day.
Christoph: You started your career in professional cycling. Professional cycling, like other sports, has a lot of old-fashioned traditions. What led you to take a fresh look at the traditional training methods? Hunter: Actually one of my coaching clients asked me to train them with a power meter and I figured what the heck, I can do that! He was a VERY early adopter of the technology and that forced me to really learn it and figure out how to understand what it meant from a coaching, sports science and racing perspective.
High Tech in Sports – A Cycling Power Meter
Christoph: You advocate the use of high-tech training devices like power meters for cycling, GPS and accelerometers for running. These devices record a lot of data about each workout: heart-rate, power output, pace and cadence to just name a few. Why record so much data? Shouldn’t an experienced athlete know how to listen and react to his/ her body? Hunter: We have to listen to our body, but sometimes our bodies don’t tell the truth or can’t give us enough information to help us make the right decision. For example, this past summer, I was training for the Masters Nationals races and I was in the last two weeks of the hardest part of the training. Normally my Heart Rate would be in the 170-174 range when I am riding at threshold power (equivalent to your highest avg. power you can maintain for an hour), but my cardiovascular system was quite fatigued and I could barely get my heart rate to come over 158bpm. However, my watts were higher than ever and I was doing more work than I had in a long time. Had I been going on heart rate, I would have rested and denied myself optimal training. The more data the better, because it allows us to organize it into useful information from which we can make correct training decisions.
Christoph: Back in 2002 you started developing a popular and sophisticated software package called WKO+ (Workout Plus). It allows athletes to upload the data from their power meters and running watches. What happens with the data in the software? Hunter: Our Software is no more than a fairly sophisticated program that can take multiple ‘channels’ of data, organize it into charts and graphs which are presented in an easy to understand fashion. One of the keys to this is the ability to chart the data over any time period you want to chart it. So, I can tell if an athlete has improved in their sprint power over the last year, last six months, last month or even week to week. Data is useless until you can intelligently turn it into information and we’ve done that through a visual software package that allows the user incredible flexibility.
Christoph: Can you give us an example of what athletes can learn from the huge amount of data? Can even highly experienced athletes that really know their body well use these insights to their advantage? Hunter: One of the greatest things that an athlete can learn is their own personal relationship between a ‘training dose’ and their bodies ‘response’ to that training load. Once they know that two weeks of training in the mountains and one week of rest will give them the fitness needed for a race, then they can begin to plan and predict a peak performance. This is the biggest revolution that we have been able to create: Peak performance prediction. If I have enough data from an athlete, I can plan their training nearly perfectly so that on the exact day or week that they want to have the best ride of their life, they will. That’s “powerful”! 😉
Christoph: Athletes often have to make critical decisions about their training schedules, their race tactics and their general behavior out on the road? Does the information provided by your software help athletes make better decisions? If yes, can you provide an example? Hunter: For sure, this is something that can help them make decisions. Some of the best data is their race data. We can learn if they are pedaling too much for example! It seems counterintuitive, but the best, most winningest road racers often pedal the least in races. Cycling is a sport of energy conservation and the best racers save the most energy and then use it when they need it. Another example could be in a long solo ride, as a rider might use their power meter for pacing their energy output so that they can finish strong.
Analytics in Cycling – Software provides critical insights
Christoph: Athletes often work as a team. The team includes coaches and other athletes. Does your software make a contribution towards better communication and collaboration between these different parties? Hunter: One of the benefits of using these devices is the added sense of accountability that an athlete has, since they have been given a workout prescription and if they don’t do it, then when they upload their completed training file to me, then I’ll know exactly what they didn’t do. So, it helps the athlete with program adherence and the coach with communication. Without this information, I can only guess if the athlete is training correctly.
Christoph: We see more and more athletes train and race according to your methods. Would you say that training and racing with a power meter can lead to a competitive advantage? Hunter: It’s a competitive advantage if you learn how to use it properly. Just sticking one of these on your bike isn’t going to make you a faster cyclist. You have to know some of the basic power training principles and then follow them. If you do that, then yes, absolutely it’s an advantage.
Christoph: The world of sports is often characterized by a culture of old traditions. Do you find it hard to promote these new training approaches? Hunter: I don’t find it hard, because I am by nature a very flexible and open minded person. I am always open to new ideas, thoughts and approaches, but not everyone is. Any change takes time and here we are nine years after our first software version came out and still I am teaching new coaches, new athletes about it. I look forward to learning about the next tech tool that will help my athletes as well!
Thanks for your time, Hunter!
About Hunter Allen:
Hunter Allen’s goal has always been to teach athletes how to maximize their training and racing potential through professional analysis of their power data. Hunter’s power training method has built success at all levels of cycling and endurance sports, training such well known professional & Olympic athletes such as Jeremiah Bishop (Volkswagen-Trek), 2008 US National Champion Mountain Biker, Daniel Lloyd (CerveloTest Team), 2008 Vuelta de Extremadura, Sue Haywood, 2007 World Mountain Bike 24 Champion, Dan Fleeman (CerveloTest Team), 2008 Winner of Tour of Pyrnees and with the 2008 USA Olympic BMX Team. Hunter is himself a former professional cyclist for Team Navigators and has raced for over 17 years in Europe, South America, U.S. and Canada and has over 40 career victories to his credit. Considered a great all-rounder, he was able to learn a wide variety of race tactics and skill necessary to succeed at the professional level.
Some of you have probably read my review of Steve Jobs’ biography. I really like the book. It is a fantastic read. In the last post, I also promised to distill a few lessons. Well, here they are. A few interesting quotes. Quick and simple.
“Let’s make it simple. Really simple.”, Steve Jobs
People shy aways from using complex and complicated things. Think about Apple’s products – they are simple and easy to use. We do not need a manual to use the iPad, iPhone or iPod. We should all make an effort to simplify our business analytics objects whether they are reports, cubes or planning models. Complexity deters. Simplicity attracts. But achieving simplicity is not all that easy. Keep that in mind. We have to fight for it. We have to be creative to obtain it. But it’s worth the effort.
“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”, Steve Jobs
We sometimes feel like juggling everything that is being thrown at us. We accept new requirements without really wondering whether they make sense. But we sometimes have to say “no”. Once again, let’s keep it simple and focus on the big picture. There is no point in trying to satisfy every single business user and process exception.
“Jobs also decided to eliminate the cursor arrow keys on the Macintosh keyboard. The only way to move the cursor was to use the mouse. It was a way of forcing old-fashioned users to adapt to point-and click navigation, even if they didn’t want to.”, Walter Isaacscon
Simplicity and focus should create objects that business users like to use. But we should not try to create too many exceptions and complexities to cater to those people who are skeptical. They will never change. Let’s focus on the essential stuff and people will follow ….. eventually.
“I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it’s inside the box. A great carpenter isn’t going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody’s going to see it.”
Jobs pushed his teams to design beautiful products – even under the hood. We should strive to do the same. It pays off. Solid architecture and data models pay off a hundred times. It’s not just about the presentation layer. Poor design will eventually show.
“People who know what they are talking about don’t need PowerPoint.”, Steve Jobs
We spend way too much time creating PowerPoint presentations. Let’s drop that and invest the time in understanding our business and the associated problems and opportunities. Jobs is right – if you know your stuff, you can white board, you can discuss without the helping hand of a PowerPoint deck.
Last but not least, one of Steve Jobs’ favorite ideas came from Wayne Gretzky:
“Skate where the puck’s going, not where it’s been.” Wayne Gretzky
Let’s try to figure out how we can push the envelope. Let’s not just focus on the requirements of the users. Instead, let’s figure out how we can surprise them. When is the last time you have surprised them?
The other day I was exchanging emails with a prior client. She was quite frustrated about the status of her project. User adoption of the new Business Analytics environment was still much lower than she had originally anticipated. Despite the amazing dashboards and planning models her team has built over the past two years, too many users are still relying on spreadsheets to get their daily work done.
This story is not unique and it happens across the board. User adoption is one of the toughest things to manage. But it shouldn’t be that hard. My prior client did some research and forwarded me some interesting insights by management coach Marshall Goldsmith.
DEFAULT BEHAVIOR: INERTIA
Human beings do not like change. As a matter of fact, our typical default behavior is to continue doing what we have done in the past. Goldsmith points out a typical example: watching TV. When you are done watching a show chances are that you will zap the channels and continue watching something else. It’s as simple as that. Goldsmith states “The most reliable predictor of what you will be doing five minutes from now is what you are doing now.” And there is a negative impact. Goldsmith somberly continues “Very few people achieve positive, lasting change without ongoing follow-up.”
ONGOING FOLLOW-UP
There is a keyword in the last sentence: ongoing follow-up. Goldsmith found the following to be true for most people: “On the other hand, if they know someone, like their coach, their coworkers, or their manager, is watching – in the form of paying attention to them, or caring about them, or evaluating them with follow-up questions – they are more likely to change. The key is measurement and follow-up, in all their myriad forms.”
If you think about it, this is not surprising. We all intuitively know this from our private lives: We only change our diet when we know that the Doctor is monitoring our progress. We start doing those grueling interval sessions on the track when our coach is watching us.
Unfortunately, these insights are hardly ever implemented in companies. Change management for systems implementations too often focuses on creating a few happy slides and t-shirts that are supposed to outline the benefits of using the new processes. Experience has clearly shown that this is highly ineffective.
YOUR NEXT PROJECT
Marshall Goldsmith’s insights are not surprising or new but they are crystal clear. I would like to propose that we leverage this for our current projects. There are a few simple user adoption strategies:
Pro-actively schedule quick coaching sessions with important users instead of letting them alone after go-live. Review their issues and help them work through difficulties. This will send a clear message.
Eliminate options. Inertia is holding people back and the default behavior is to continue doing what they have done forever. Do not offer that option. Way too many companies allow users to run parallel processes (for example: ability to develop the budget in the new system or in a spreadsheet) to help ‘ease the pain’ of having to change.
Monitor usage through system audit tools and publish the numbers. (‘great news – usage of the new Cognos 10 system has increased by 65% last month!’). This will send the message that people are indeed paying attention to this. If you want to loose weight you need to step on a scale, right?
Work with management to include system adoption in the annual goals. Make sure to be very specific: “Develop the annual budget in the new Cognos system.”
As always, it is critical to use careful judgement. Every organization is different and user adoption obviously requires proper system design and usability.
My prior client is trying some of these things right now. She has seen positive progress so far. What do you think?
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and you can buy it on on Amazon.com for your Kindle.
