When Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” he was referring to the general health of an organization. Drucker’s tenet, however, is equally relevant when taking on digital transformation within an organization. And it’s often overlooked. When companies purchase software, they hire Project Managers and Contractors to help implement it. Maybe the Company…
Have you ever fallen off your bike? Were you pushing yourself (attempting a jump, in my case) or just learning to ride? What did you do next? Did you hobble off in a fit of rage and quit, never to return to the 2-wheeler lifestyle? Or did you quickly review what went wrong and…
Once upon the time there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “Perhaps,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild…
There is no such thing as a perfect software implementation. Let me repeat that because it’s imperative to get this point across. There is no such thing as a perfect software implementation. Now it’s clear that more and more organizations are becoming aware that implementation, transformation, and change management initiatives are messy. Still, it’s…
Implementing software is a constant balancing act. Focus too much on the Executives, and you’ll use the End-Users. On the other hand, focus too much on the Digital Natives, and you’ll lose the Digital Laggards. A fundamental way to see where your scales may tip is to reflect on your Organization’s core elements: Confidence &…
There are many reasons why implementations go wrong, but they all kind of roll up into one central idea: Someone forgot about the end-users. It’s basically the same mistake that allowed every Rob Schneider movie to be made. An Exec greenlit the software purchase to streamline some work processes or get a better time to…
No matter how large or how small, software Implementations have specific rules. The best Implementation Consultants know when those rules should be bent, broken, or strictly followed. In the implementations I’ve led, I’ve always found the below laws invaluable. The rules fall into three categories: Implementation, Change Management, and Communication. Implementation The one thing…