Business transformation leaders and laggards are separated by centuries, not decades.
Modernizing a company is assumed to be a quick catch-up. It’s as if companies have only missed a few years. Leaders who work in digital strategy, innovation and other forward-thinking roles tend to see transformation as a catch-up strategy. They often comment on how companies are stuck in the 1980s, when the gap between early adopters and laggards is not a few decades, but a few centuries.
Many inefficient practices we see in companies predate the invention of computers and databases. However, to describe these behaviors as merely pre-internet or pre-PC doesn’t give us a good timeline to work with. The most resistant groups often can adopt practices that existed well before their company was even founded. We must be willing to go further back in time to see just how outdated things really are.
Business transformation leaders and laggards
Consider a hospital where employees manage rosters using Excel. In some divisions, staff spend more than 30 hours a week manually rostering using spreadsheets. You might assume their rostering software is broken. To outsiders, this appears bizarre. If it’s cultural, then what culture is it? Why use financial spreadsheets to schedule shifts?
It’s understandable when a group prefers familiar methods. It’s not just about manual processes; it’s about a belief in the physical world. They believe things must be done manually for them to be valid. In their reality, only tangible actions are trustworthy. The belief that the unknown must be avoided reflects pre-enlightenment thinking. During that period, it was believed that the earth was flat. No one dared sail too far for fear of falling off the edge!
During the Renaissance, printed books were symbols of nobility. While embracing these traditions can be fun, they don’t belong in today’s context. The obsession with paper has not been challenged as much as the flat-earth theory. We must identify what historical era they’re living in. Only then can we understand their motivations and choose suitable interventions.
It’s always been done this way, but where?
More traditional industries find digital transformation both appealing and off-putting. By “paper-based,” I refer to jobs that mainly involve paper forms and digital documents such as PDFs. Even when documents are in PDF format, they’re treated as paper. Excel sheets are passed back and forth via email, files are buried in endless folders and the whole company is eventually buried in the chaos.
It’s no wonder consultants are excited about transforming these industries. Their first move is usually technology, followed by training to adopt it. Then comes the question: “why aren’t people using this productivity-boosting software?” Companies usually respond by saying that the outdated practices had been inherited, but never say from whom. The shared assumption is: “it’s always been done this way.” If they’re a western company using a command-and-control structure, which historical context does that reflect? Military organizations? Power plants? Government agencies?
These are the institutions that most companies have no real link to. Claiming that they “inherited” this practice doesn’t hold up historically or culturally. It’s like randomly claiming someone as your parent when they are not. We must assess outdated practices based not on user claims but on historical accuracy. We need to challenge their reasoning, separating fact from fiction and working together to discover new solutions.
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Retiring the scribe
Outdated companies hold a strong belief that everything must be done by hand. Data must be entered manually, one by one. Notes must be transcribed word for word. In extreme cases, even the wording of emails must be carefully controlled.
These practices resemble the scribes during the Middle Ages. Some of these practices are still observed in today’s workplace. They are the business analysts, project managers and assistants who record entire meetings verbatim and often by hand. While this ‘transcription service’ was necessary for writers many centuries ago, it doesn’t fit today’s context. It’s not that they’re using the wrong tech, they’re just using the wrong timeline.
To readers, the solution seems obvious for these centuries-old practices. We know that Webex and Zoom offer auto-transcribing features. There’s no shortage of tools for content creation. These tools are accessible to the public, but for some, they exist outside of their current reality.
Automating this process with a chatbot would seem like science fiction. Bridging these timelines causes psychological discomfort. People must be eased into a technology that fits the reality (the timeline) they’re enacting. The good news is that modernization is about simplification. It doesn’t always involve tech.
- Rather than transcribing an entire meeting, try summarizing complex content into simple concepts.
- Repeating information doesn’t improve its quality. It takes more than repeating information to produce knowledge. Think critically about what you plan to record and focus on generating new insights.
- Recognize that your urge to “play scribe” might be a coping mechanism. What happens when conversations aren’t recorded? Is there an unexplained fear?
The part-time dinosaur
Many legacy companies aren’t just struggling with tech. They are struggling with their timeline. Let’s not assume everything was inherited or strategic. It’s our job to explore the past and reveal flawed reasoning. It’s time to test how much character is committed to living in the past.
Living in a time warp is hard work. Why break from it when it’s something that’s worked in the past? The belief that all work must be manual takes inspiration from the industrial revolution. On other occasions, the idea that “hard work must be manual and painful” would also fit the days of the protestant work ethic that influenced the early colonies in America. This would be great had we been living in the 17th century.
What laggards lack in modernization, they make up for with their ‘creativity.’ It takes a lot of imagination to role-play 17th-century habits in the 21st century. The good news? They’re playing a character from the past, but show signs they know it’s not complete. If they believe transcribing everything by hand is a good idea, do they also mow the lawn with scissors? If they believe legacy IT systems are fine, why do they have the latest iPhones and cars?
Innovators keep calling them dinosaurs, but their latest iPhone, hybrid car, Netflix subscriptions and social media updates would suggest otherwise. Their outdated behaviors tend to show up at work, not at home. They are only part-time dinosaurs.
Outdated practices might be the best they know
It’s true that many professionals are struggling to modernize the workplace. Although they are lagging in several areas, simply calling them “dinosaurs” won’t help. What we come to see as outdated or inefficient may actually be their best effort to cope with the modern world. If I asked you to draw a person, you’d probably draw a stick figure. We know it doesn’t resemble a real person, but it still serves a purpose. Courtroom sketches of defendants often look comical, yet they’re accurate enough to convey meaning.
Perhaps managers don’t know any alternatives and simply stick with what they believe works. As a result, they end up relying on practices that are centuries old. We must focus on their timeline, whichever it may be, and put it to the test. If we can make their assumptions testable and identify which moments in history they’re enacting, we’ll gain a clearer picture of the reality they’re operating from and how to guide them forward.
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