It may seem counter-intuitive, but the more we digitize, the more we are dependent upon human behaviour.

Behaviour of our customers, business partners, colleagues and even ourselves . . .

Choices abound for our individual “next best action”. As we have found out the hard way, colleagues and employees have choices too . . . How many great “process improvements” and “transformational system implementations” have we seen wither on the vine due to lack of focus on the “user/participant experience”? 

I read an interesting article in Forbes from Ashu Roy, that got me thinking. It reinforced the idea that we are all “consumers”, not just when we are “buying” but even in our own organizations – consumers of product, service, information, even process.

If we consider all the participants and stakeholders in our enterprise “end to end” process cycles as “customers”, then we change our focus towards “experience” as a route to “business outcome”.

According to McKinsey, most organizations rank “Customer Engagement” as a top priority in digital transformation, and technologies are being implemented aggressively in support of this.

This investment has significantly improved connectivity choices for customers.

Ironically, digital connectivity improvement, in many cases, increases customers’ efforts (and frustration) to get relevant answers!

Digital consumers (internal and external) expect instant gratification via self-service. They reach out for help only when they absolutely need to. And when they do, they expect quick, correct responses.

But our colleagues are pushed to the limit, acting as “human glue” across silos of processes, systems and “knowledge islands”.

According to Gartner, ROI for digital transformation programs is stunted by poor “experience”.

Leaders are also taking note of the negative impact of “going digital without transformation”.

Ashu talks about the need for a “modern knowledge brain”, a “single source of truth” and makes a key recommendation to “Avoid Silos”.

I would go further, that we need “silo busting” strategies . . .

You can read Ashu Roy’s source article in Forbes here . . . 

It will make you think . . .

Thanks for reading . . .