Over the years, have come into many hostile situations left from another firm\product\vendor where the implementation was not success and ultimately, caused the relationship to sour. Coming into these situations, there is an expectation that I’m riding on a white horse ready to prescribe a silver bullet and walk away in a short matter of time with all answers. The truth of the matter is that the key is to keenly listen and fully understand the end goal, what the expectations are and resources available so as to set a foundation for success. Realistically, here is how the conversations generally go:
· Perspective client: “I wanted to get this system up and running right away but they (previous vendor) messed it up”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because they didn’t listen to us”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because our business has and continues to change”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because there are so many scenarios for how this needs to operate”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because all transactions are different”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because there is no standardization”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because that manager travels too much, so many meetings, etc. to get it standardized.”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because he needs to have a complete and clear understanding of his team”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “To explain it all to the CEO”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because he is afraid of losing his job”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because CEO can’t get visibility into his operation”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “Because the reports and views weren’t made”
· Me: “why?”
· Perspective client: “The manager is too busy”
After both the perspective client (and definitely me!) getting tired of me asking why, I offered to interview the team, report my findings in a concise statement and provide an estimate to automate that function. The interviews took 6 hours, documentation 2 hours and conversation with everyone on my findings for 2 hours set the stage to clarify the big technology\vendor project. The grand total to correct the situation was all of 4 hours of work to configure the application correctly.
The moral is to listen, understand, connect and know (the LUCK Principle!) in every meeting and interaction so as to facilitate ‘working smarter and not harder’ along with knowing that technology is just a tool – we are here set the technologies protocol and configuration to compliment the operation.