The internet and technology have dramatically changed our organization. Our business started in the mid-nineties with our founder creating a lifestyle business. He was able to create an excellent process and help organizations grow. Recently, technology has allowed us to tap into a new talent pool and hire a development team located all over the Philippines. This Team has put together some fantastic technology that helps leaders implement the same things our founder was doing with his lifestyle business. As a result, it has allowed us to scale our business.
Anticipation
I love how Weinberger (2014) starts talking about the future and suggests he will get much of it wrong. As I reflect on my anticipation of where Griffin Hill will be in the future and where it lands, I feel much the same way; I get it wrong most of the time! However, anticipation, as Weinberger points out, is critical! Last week I introduced Dickel's (2017) reflection and how critical reflection is for growth. One of Dickel's reflection types is anticipatory reflection. This is the idea of reflecting on an experience that will take place in the future. For example, Dickel shares a story of knowing a surgeon who was using anticipatory reflection would walk through each step of the surgery in his mind the night before the surgery. Anticipatory reflection can help to think through the potential needs, outcomes, and remedies of an experience.
One example of how anticipation and anticipatory reflection has helped our organization is with our development team. When we first started a development team, our process was to have the Executive Team get together with our developer and describe what we wanted. Then the developer would go to work. A month later, the developer would show up and show their work. By this time, the Executive Team had changed their mind or noticed something about how it was developed that would not work for the user. As we got better at anticipatory reflection, we started to work with a UXUI designer. The designer was much better at asking questions that would help us see what the users might expect. Then they would give the developers a wireframe with a specks sheet approved by the Executive Team. The deliverables from the UXUI designer create an excellent picture of what the Executive Team can expect and give the developers an ideal model to follow. This anticipatory reflection has been very helpful in speeding up our development process and helping us become more effective. However, it took getting the right people in the room.
This brings up the work done on wirearchy by Husband (2013), who suggests that communication is critical. I 100% agree with this point that communication does not necessarily happen from up the organizational chart. I also believe that leaders should be encouraging interactions among different groups of people (Husband). For example, adding the UXUI designer to the Team and interacting with the leadership team, other employees, and customers helped develop a faster and more efficient process. It also reduced the headaches of the executive team, the developers, and customers. But it took getting the UXUI designer engaged in wirearchy.
Technological Forces
Looking at the UXUI designer, I can see that filtering is one of the keys they have brought to us (Kelly, 2016). The UXUI designer can take the information and feedback from all sources and then find a way to filter what is needed. Our UXUI designer has used the principles taught by Ulwick (2016) to find out what job needs to be done.
The tools we offer to clients are not necessarily new. We have used various ways of remixing to improve tracking or productivity (Kelly, 2016). For example, the customer relationship management (CRM) industry is a significant industry for businesses. However, I believe CRM's are notoriously bad at really tracking sales data. Based on this, our organization has remixed a CRM to track a sales pipeline. The concept is not new, but we have a different spin than a CRM has. This remixed pipeline management tool becomes an excellent complementary tool to a CRM as CRM's do not give salespeople all the data that our pipeline management tool can. Kelly (2016) takes user experience to a new level with the interacting force. I see this factor far into our future, but a real possibility.
Upskilling
A while ago, I belonged to a technology networking group. I love technology and love working with technology companies. This was an enjoyable group, and we had many fun experiences together. One of the things I found interesting about this group is they always knew some random app. This was annoying to me. First, my phone is already cluttered with apps. Second, I knew that only a fraction of the apps they brought up would get traction. Recently, as I have been reading Kelly's (2016) technological forces, I have realized that the power in knowing about those applications could give me insight on things we can add to our toolsets.
It also underscores the point that the half-life of skills is between five and six years (Marr, 2019; Schawbel, 2017). My late adoption of technology puts our organization at risk. We are so strong at education in the workforce in other areas, but I feel reskilling or upskilling are essential factors for any organization to focus on (Marr; Prince, 2019).
How we use web-based tools to improve communication, workflow, and productivity
Armour et al. (2020) point out that COVID is changing the nature of the workplace. This is 100% true for us. Pre-COVID, we showed up at most of our client's offices and worked face-to-face with them. However, based on COVID, we had to adapt. This meant we turned to web conferencing tools like Zoom to deliver our services. As a result, we expanded our product line and decided we would not consult traditionally anymore. This allowed our organization to move to remote work and not come back to the office.
As an organization moving to remote work, we are constantly looking for ways to increase our communication, workflow, and productivity. Here is the tech stack we are using today.
- Zoom – When we have larger meetings, it is nice to use zoom. This is a straightforward video-conferencing application that allows users to see each other and share screens. This makes collaborating with other coworkers very easy. For example, today, I was just on a three-hour zoom call with someone on our marketing team. I was sitting on a pier on the Columbia River, and he was in his home office in Utah.
- Asana – All of our departments have a scrum board that is located in Asana. This tool is beneficial in tracking what items are in the queue, in work in progress, or completed. I can see what each team member is working on at any time. It also keeps us organized on where we are going.
- Google Hangouts – For a quick daily stand-up, or a quick message, some of our teams use google hangouts/google meet. This is a slick tool; however, most of my employees hate it. I am not sure why but they tend to prefer other messaging applications.
- Discord – Discord is the preferred messaging application for our development team. This tool is straightforward to use, includes messaging, voice chat, video chat, screen sharing, and much much more.
- Google Workspace – We are a google company. We use Gmail and drive to email and share files. This makes having a shared file system very easy! And everyone can be in the same document collaborating at the same time.
SWOT Analysis
As I look at the hyperconnected world and see how it has impacted my organization and created a new normal with a remote workforce, it is worth examining a SWOT analysis.
There are many strengths. Technology has completely changed the way we deliver our services. Investing in a development team has strengthened the products that accompany our services. This has helped us increase our performance for our clients. Because we have hired employees who are not all located in one county, it brings diversity of thought into our organization. We also have access to talent we would not have previously had access to.
One of the most significant weaknesses is remote work. Seeing someone face to face and walking over to their desk does have some personal connection advantages that we will not have anymore. This takes added effort from our leadership team to strike up those conversations, create video conferencing sessions, and get the Team involved in group chats.
There is ample opportunity for our organization to continue to improve our tools. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on our radar. This will not happen overnight, and it will take expanding our Team to acquire the right talent to make it happen. Combining the technology with consulting continues to be a place of opportunity for our organization.
The biggest threat is how easy it is becoming for organizations to ramp up their technology. From one day to the next new competitors are entering the market. Stalling the development would be detrimental to our organization, or even developing the wrong tools could put us back in other areas.
I love how our organization is turning out. To have the technology to be able to have employees all over the world is amazing to me.
References
Armour, P., Carman, K. G., & Mullen, K. J., Nataraj, S. (2020). The COVID-19 Pandemic and the changing nature of work lose your job, show up to work, or telecommute? RAND. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA308-4.html
Dickel, C. T. (2017). Reflection: A taxonomy and synthesis of descriptions of reflective practice/reflective inquiry. Unpublished manuscript, Creighton University, Omaha, NE.
Davies, A., Fidler, D., & Gorbis, M. (2020). Future work skills 2020. The Institute for the Future. https://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/SR-1382A_UPRI_future_work_skills_sm.pdf
Husband, J. (2013, February 16). What Is Wirearchy? Wirearchy. http://wirearchy.com/what-is-wirearchy/
Kelly, K. (2016). The inevitable: Understanding the 12 technological forces that will shape our future. Penguin Books.
Marr, B. (2019, April 29). The 10 vital skills you will need for the future of work. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/04/29/the-10-vital-skills-you-will-need-for-the-future-of-work/?sh=533085193f5b
Prince, K. (2019, February 17). Preparing All Learners for an Uncertain Future of Work. Getting Smart. https://www.gettingsmart.com/2019/02/preparing-all-learners-for-an-uncertain-future-of-work/
Schawbel, D. (2017, November 1). 10 workplace trends you'll see in 2018. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2017/11/01/10-workplace-trends-youll-see-in-2018/?sh=4518061c4bf2
Ulwick, A. W. (2016). Jobs to be done: Theory to practice. IDEA BITE PRESS
Weinberger, D. (2014, October 22). David Weinberger on the power of the Internet [Video file]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPXmEh24KXA