In business today we have a multitude of tools that can assist us in delivering on client projects, business deliverables and a whole suite of tools to assist you in running your business better.
In some cases however, we are so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of tools that are available to us that we fall into a trap where we think the Tool will be the answer to all our issues that we are experiencing, whether it be on a project or business level.
You also find that a lot of the time decision-makers focus on how this or that tool will be able to solve problem x and y, but what they neglect to realise is that the tool needs to be operated by someone, even AI needs to be set up in order to work properly.
Inevitably the tool that was decided on does not work and a new tool is then selected – because the old one did not quite deliver on all it promised to deliver on. So the vicious circle continues from tool to tool, and all the while delivery suffers, and you end up with unhappy clients and a non-delivering team.
How about this, instead of choosing a tool, why don’t you first choose a process that is in line with what your company, clients, and deliverables require in order to achieve the overall company goals and vision. It could be any process from HR to Operations, whatever the business problem may be. Then once you have that down pat, you choose a tool that will assist you in delivering your processes, not a tool that will do the job for you but will assist you in doing your job.
Too many delivering organisations and teams are using tools as a crutch to hide their inability to deliver, and as such the tools never work, where what they should be doing is focusing on what they require as an outcome and building from there.
In my opinion, I would first define the process, then test that process in practise to ensure that it will fulfill my ultimate end goal – delivering on XYZ of the company, then once proven, put governance in place – because we are all human and we will take the path of least resistance to ensure that the processes are followed, and then finally once everything is running smoothly select a tool that compliments the process and will make it run faster and better, increasing production and revenue for the company.
So do not use tools to hide the inefficiencies of the business, rather focus on the process you require to deliver and then get the tool you need to deliver that process because as we all know a good workman does not blame his tools.
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