AI brings a whole new dimension to the challenge of organizational transformation
As generative AI brings AI to the forefront in organizations, the biggest problems implementing it could involve the people using it.
Let’s start with the premise that change is hard for everyone. It’s even harder at scale for a large organization. As we’ve watched large organizations over the last 15 years try to embrace mobile, Big Data, the cloud and general digital transformation, we have seen many of them struggle again and again to implement these technologies. Today, it’s AI that is forcing companies and their employees to change, whether they like it or not.
Part of the problem is technical debt, the notion that an organization’s tech stack has to evolve to take full advantage of the new technologies, rather than using a set of technical capabilities designed for a prior era. It’s not easy to try and change something that is fundamental to running a business without risking messing up what works already. Not too many managers are going to fully embrace that kind of change. Substantive change involves tremendous risk along with enormous potential.
Another part of the problem is institutional inertia. It’s just hard to change how people do things. Let me tell you the story of when I was a technical writer many years ago, and we were implementing a computer system at a small town register of deeds. The town’s deeds were on paper and filed in cabinets. It was manual and unwieldy, making tracing deeds a process that could take weeks because people had to manually dig through the paper morass.
The computer system was clearly better, but the workers at the front desk who dealt with the public weren’t sold. Part of their job was to stamp completed documents with a rubber stamp, which they did with great gusto, before they were sent away to be filed. For these clerks, who had worked the counter for 20 or 30 years, the stamp represented their identity and sense of power. They didn’t want to give it up.
Eventually, the system architect just simply gave in and let them keep their stamp. Even though it was really no longer required for an online system, it got them to buy into the change.
Which brings us to the biggest problem of all: change management. The hardest component of implementing new technology isn’t shopping, buying, testing and implementing it. It’s getting people to use it, and you often have to let them keep their stamp or they are going to sabotage even the best intentions of the team implementing the solution.