Last Mile Worker

The parallels between trips I made to Daqing, China two decades ago and behavioral observations today around digital transformation are surprisingly similar.   When I was last in Daqing the population was approximately 1 million.   The roads in this remote city were filled mostly with mule drawn carriages and bicycles, very few automobiles. One evening, while eating God knows what, I commented to Chung, our host and translator, "it must be difficult for people not to have automobiles".   Chung responded, it is hard to miss something that you do not know. That's it!   Most individuals in today's enterprises may only use a few pieces of technology; a transactional system (CRM, Accounting, Work order management), a communication system (typically email and or a messaging service, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and possibly a special purpose application (AutoCAD,etc.).   While I have my "broad stroke paintbrush" in hand we might as well throw out that odds ...

The next agenda topic in our executive meeting was IIoT and predictive service. Avid Andy had a feeling that this was going to be a controversial    topic as there was a lot of ambiguity surrounding the definition of data science-based modeling.   This was an opportunity to jump right in and start a brief discussion on the meaning and impact that data science-based learning models could have on the organization.   He began by defining a couple distinct types of models: The market today is filled with lots of misleading information, our competitors all say they can predict, we ourselves have manufacturers stating that they can also predict, and our customers have an expectation that we are predicting. My question is, predicting what? Aligned to which customer outcome? If we do not have a clear picture of all the elements combined with the customer outcome all we will get are unintelligent responses such as your automobiles ...

Irene was beaming with pride this morning as she shared the conversation last night with her daughter Izzy. One of Izzy's college courses was to conduct research based on a handful of Harvard business studies. At a high level these studies were comparing organizations from three different approaches; keep doing what they're doing, except change but only incrementally, focus on changing in industry by deliberately disrupting the status quo. People were gathering as Irene began to play back the conversation. Mom, exclaimed Izzy, after listening to each bit of explanation on the three Harvard studies it was quite difficult to make a decision on which one was correct. The first example; "leave the business alone we are making money" made some excellent points, continued Izzy, however I really felt as though the rationale had much stronger value in the past and was not preparing organizations for our high velocity changing future. The second use case, "incremental ...

Could it be that "best intentions" would not be enough to chip through the hardened exterior of this organizations habits, thought Frustrated Frank.   As the digital transformation honeymoon period slipped into the rear-view mirror, the burden of change seemed to settle into place.   Frank, it is no longer about the tools, instead it is each person's rationalization of why these tools will make them stronger; habits are challenging, continued Andy.   On one hand, if it works why fix it, and the other hand growth requires continuous innovation.   The organizational structure has an impact, flat organizations require compelling reasons to change.   For instance, significant pain points within the business resulting in lost revenue, market or corporate dictated edicts.   Without these, change lacks a sense of urgency and is at the discretion of the local management, the larger the operation, the greater the number of management layers, the higher pro...

It had to be about halfway through my drive into work that I began to feel a throbbing pain in my forearms and hands. I was clutching the steering wheel so tightly as the anxiety continued to build regarding the changes happening at the office this morning. So, I decided, like any red blooded American, to search my iPod (2007 model) for the quintessential song to help me through this moment; "Eye of the Tiger" by the appropriately named band Survivor. Even I, Overwhelmed Oscar, can muster the strength to get through our companies transition to the cloud, I repeated to myself while listening to this song over and over again.   Influential Irene and I were "cube-mates", I began to share some of my thoughts with her hoping it would relieve some of my stress.   Irene, "from a technology perspective things seemed so much simpler in the late 90s and early 2000's. We all consumed and learned how to leverage software packages, institutionally installed a...

My mind drifted as I drove in to work on this perfect day.   The sun was shining, birds were chirping and traffic was flowing smoothly.   I tried to imagine what work would be like after the retirement party for Legendary Lee, a fountain of knowledge for all of us over the past two decades.   Lee was involved or led change for the organization; touching everything from internal systems and tools to external innovations to help differentiate us with our customers.   When I was 17 my Father reminded me that nobody was irreplaceable yet on this day I struggled with how questions would be answered tomorrow and who or what would fill this "knowledge void". As I pulled into the parking lot Influential Irene was sitting in her car, her eyes a bit swollen as if she had been crying. When I was having a tough day, it was Irene who I went to see, she always had this infectious smile that could brighten anyone's day.   Today was different, her and Lee were very cl...

Chaotic Chris had endured many a tongue lashing in his day but this one would take the prize.   As he stood there, focused on the words erupting from his customers' mouth, he concentrated on making sure that the expression on his face showed pure empathy.   What a dumbass, all I had to do was put a note in my calendar or better yet send the customer a meeting invitation.   Chris began to reflect on why he failed at such a simple task, surely it was because he was just too busy.    You know, a star salesman like himself, doesn’t have time for the trivial things.   Unfortunately, his lack of discipline, arrogance, self-centered attitude, dis-respect for others…   has lost him a key customer. As Chris drove home that evening, sitting in the endless traffic, his mind began to wander.   Could it be that this one incident was not isolated, instead one of many examples in an extensive list of missed activities?   Just two weeks ago his boss, ...