Finding an internal champion can make all the difference for managing your stack of technology options
By Brian Blaha
There is an unprecedented amount of tech options available to businesses today. These tools can automate and optimize a significant portion of an organization’s workflow, and they are close to essential for growth in a modern work environment. Last month, I talked about organizations picking and prioritizing the right technology to tackle the most pressing challenges facing them. This time, let’s reflect on how companies can implement technologies that support business goals from end to end, and who should do so.
How should organizations ensure that they’re not overwhelmed by the tech options available to them? “What’s the best fit for our organization, our culture, our issues? Will the technology start changing our approach and fixing problems quickly?” Businesses should consider these questions whenever thinking about an essential tech addition. Technology implementation needs a strategy from the start — ideally, one that supports the business’s revenue goals.
For example, outsourcing with the right partner can wean down the list of tech options available and help you to better pinpoint the most effective solution for your business. But after the decision to choose the right technology is made, how is that technology guided after selection? Too often, we’ll see an organization become allured by the promise of a new technology tool, but then fail to use the investment in an effective manner.
Surprisingly, the most effective strategy for shepherding tech implementations from start to finish is simple — find and elevate a champion. You might already have the talent who’s interested, they just haven’t been asked yet. New tech implementations are about fixing problems — someone may already be very passionate about fixing that problem, and they may surprise you. Internal champions know where pain points exist and may have already thought about how to fix them. This is likely true across the organization — bring those people together. Let champions collaborate and view team workflows so they can make sure that problems are being solved and efficiencies are increasing for the whole company.
So, what’s the end goal when a champion is involved? Champions can make sure that the technology is meeting the goal set at the start of the process when the organization picked the solution in the first place. Champions can take ownership and be invested in ensuring the tech is doing its job; plus, a champion can be more engaged with other team members and learn how the technology is affecting their coworkers.
Technology can’t solve every problem, but when used well, it can help accelerate your business goals, develop your team and reduce uninformed decision-making. When the right technology is in place, organizations can leverage automation to inform their decision-making. It’s easy to rely on intuition — but it’s also easy to get trapped by it. Automation is only as good as the data it’s using, so ensuring your data is guided well is the job of the entire crew of champions.
When you start investing in and building your team’s technology stack, it’s important to remember the goals and problems the tech was meant to fix in the first place and if it’s still accomplishing those goals. Elevating champions can help ensure your team is invested in the technology’s success and that it’s working for the right people. When technology is guided from start to finish with a clear goal in mind, it can save you headaches and hassles, and ultimately lead to a more satisfying and effective tech implementation.
