reviews (luckily, your technology won’t ask for a pension).
Does the technology that serves your organization still do as good a job now as when you first brought it on board?
Is it taking too many sick days (downtime)?
Do you have a growth and succession plan in place for when you exceed its capabilities?
In far too many cases, the answer to these questions is either “No” or “I have no idea.”
We’re not talking about a general sense of these items either. Schedule annual performance reviews of your CRM (customer relationship management) system. Invite the people who work closest with it. Ask them to submit reviews of the system’s job performance over the past year. Ask these colleagues of the technology to advise on when it needs to be promoted (more money invested in it) or fired.
This regular performance review (call it a “tech audit” if you’re uncomfortable with the human language) is critical because your business grows, your stakeholders change over time, and your objectives shift. Your business technology should evolve with these changes.
Work Backwards
The first technology decisions that contribute to the dehumanizing of organizations often come from forcing your people or customers to adapt to your technology and not the other way around.
You’ve probably been on the receiving end of this. At one time you and your outsourced designer were just fine sending emails back and forth. In an effort to achieve greater efficiency, she brought on a complicated project management website. Now, you have to make sure you’re emailing the right Dropbox address, you’re not sure which members of the team are receiving your replies, and you can’t view attachments without logging into the new platform. Hell, where did you put that password, anyway?
To align your business technology with the humans you serve and lead, you must start with the customer or employee experience and work backwards to the technology.
Steve Jobs said it best:
You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to try to sell it. I’ve made this mistake probably more than anybody in this room and I’ve got the scar tissue to prove it, and I know that it’s the case. As we have tried to come up with a strategy and a vision for Apple, it started with ‘What incredible benefits can we give to the customer? Where can we take the customer?’ [It’s] not starting with ‘Let’s sit down with the engineers and figure out what awesome technology we have and how are we going to market that?’[1]
Anticipate, Don’t React
Here’s one reason the robot overlords haven’t seized control of Earth yet — we humans have instinct, gut feelings, and the ability to anticipate needs with greater accuracy than machines. (Though this is a close race — IBM’s Jeopardy-playing robot, Watson, was able to predict when it was likely to get an answer wrong. In one question under the category “U.S. Cities,” Watson guessed “Toronto?????” — complete with the five question marks. Because Watson was able to doubt the strength of the answer, the computer bet only a fraction of its money pool, prompting host Alex Trebek to shout, “Oh, you sneak!”)
Remember there are many human-centric steps in any decision cycle, whether it’s a purchase decision, hiring decision, or management decision. Steps like “consideration” are often ignored by technology platforms. Instead, we get marketing automation tools which merely keep bugging people until they buy something.
Some companies are working toward anticipating purchases before customers even commit to buying. A recent patent filed by Amazon reveals its plan for “anticipatory package shipping.” Amazon’s system identifies near-purchases (like the act of placing items in a digital cart, adding items to a wish list, or even long cursor hovers over specific items listed on its website) and begins the process of shipping based on that behaviour. Packages are sent to shipping hubs or directly to trucks in anticipation of the Purchase button being clicked. This would let Amazon ship copies of a popular book on the day it’s published, for example. To reduce the number of returns, Amazon says it might offer a steep discount to deliver the product anyway or, if it’s a low-cost item, provide it as a thank-you gift. It’s a simple tactic, yet one which makes the company more connected to the real-world day of its customers.
On the human resources side, being able to forecast issues through surveys or by simply tracking them on a calendar can alert you to needs which are likely to arise.
In your customer service department, you should be using tools that let you monitor social chatter which may turn into issues you’re forced to deal with. For larger brands, this can be as simple as monitoring mentions of your brand or product names online alongside a list of hot words like “broken,” “missing,” or “lousy,” and popping in with a gentle “Can I be of service?” message. Follow-through is critical.
In public relations and public affairs, resources should be dedicated to monitoring public opinion online, measuring reaction to campaigns, issues, and activities. Proactive research and sentiment analysis will allow you to anticipate changes in opinion and better equip you to change course and communicate effectively before an issue takes on a life of its own — a life in which you have little or no part.
Outcomes
You’ve probably felt it before — the dread of year-end measurement against the same key performance indicators (KPIs). These indicators, like cost per acquisition, customer attrition rate, and bad debt recovery, are important to guide your organization to success.
Far too often, leaders mistakenly direct their focus on measuring hard numbers, often drowning in data without understanding how their activities impact real humans.
Breathing more humanity into these outcomes — and even providing some softer, yet measurable, metrics — will go a long way.
Why, Not What
Human organizations must articulate the sole purpose they have for existing. Reducing customer attrition may indeed be a compelling objective, but it doesn’t define why you do what you do. Each leader should be able to articulate to their team why the organization exists in the first place.
Consider the vision of Vancity, the largest English-language credit union in Canada. It’s clear: “At Vancity, our vision is to redefine wealth.”
Their vision statement continues, explaining that the organization feels it needs to “re-envision prosperity as something we can only achieve if we are surrounded by and connected to a vibrant, healthy community that is sustainable for the long term.”
It’s a welcome change from the usual vision of outcomes like increasing shareholder value. Ask the benefit that humans gain from increasing shareholder value. Can they afford better things for their kids? How does it improve their day-to-day life? How will it change how they view the world?
Your first step is to understand and explain the human reasons you do something. Only then can you measure your success in that space.
Simple, Human KPIs
We need a new model of measuring success in organizations — one that understands the effect your operations have on real people.
As with each of the five factors outlined in this book, this new look at business can and should cross each of your departments.
One approach
