Turn Around Your Workarounds
Every business has them. Workarounds.
Your team has ‘fixed’ the problem with creativity, flair and style. New workflows evolve, the natural dynamic of your business re-stabilises and what was once a frustration gradually becomes part of everyday working.
A temporary fix hangs around, someone adds another step and a new member of the team is shown “how we do it”. Before long, nobody can quite remember why it started in the first place.
The workaround has become the process.
Options…
And now, of course, we have another option. We can automate the workaround. Deep joy!
Something that used to take ten minutes now takes two. Copilot creates the report, an automation moves the information from A to B, or AI extracts the data and puts it somewhere useful. It feels like a great result.
Until somebody asks, “Why are we doing this in the first place?”
That’s when we sometimes realise that fundamentally nothing has changed. We’ve taken a process that wasn’t particularly good and found a clever way of doing it more quickly.
Automation can be brilliant, but before we automate a workaround, perhaps we should understand why it exists.
Fixing the fix
Microsoft 365, Teams, CRM, cloud applications and increasingly tools such as Copilot are already part of everyday business. Yet people still find ways around them.
Rather than immediately fixing their fix, perhaps we should get curious about why it happened.
What were you trying to achieve? What was getting in your way? If you could make this work exactly as you wanted, what would happen?
That last question is where things can get interesting for me, because instead of discussing what’s wrong, we can start imagining what better might look like.
Getting To The Heart Of It
Imagine your customers getting what they need without chasing you. Your team being able to respond there and then because the information is in front of them. Fewer little frustrations interrupting the day and more time for your people to think, solve problems and talk to customers.
We’re no longer fixing a spreadsheet. We’re thinking about the business, and how technology might help suddenly becomes much more interesting.
The Art of the Possible
Although you’ve probably already invested considerably in technology, much of it will be delivering value. I suspect there are also capabilities you’ve never used, things that could work together better and perhaps one or two applications everyone has quietly agreed not to mention.
So what might be possible if we stepped outside the day-to-day for a moment and looked at your business with fresh eyes?
Not just at the technology, but at how your people actually work, how information moves around the business and what your customers experience along the way.
These conversations usually take my clients in some interesting directions. Someone says, “We have to do that because…” and somebody else replies, “Actually, I’m not sure we do anymore.” Then someone mentions the manual process they’ve been quietly managing for the last three years.
And suddenly we’re looking at possibilities rather than problems.
Some ideas might be surprisingly easy to explore. Others may be worth developing over time. And some will probably end with us asking, “Why are we still doing that?”
That’s the interesting bit for me.
Imagine the difference
Imagine being known by your customers as the company that’s incredibly easy to deal with. They get answers quickly, don’t need to chase and your people have the time and information to look after them properly.
Now imagine what that feels like from inside the business too. Less frustration, fewer unnecessary steps and technology that quietly helps people do a great job rather than something they have to battle with.
Good people tend to enjoy working in businesses like that. It helps you keep the people you value and makes the business more attractive to others you’d like to join you.
And customers notice.
That’s why turning around a workaround can become much more interesting than simply saving a few minutes. A relatively small change inside your business can ultimately change how people experience it from the outside.
So perhaps there’s a question worth asking your team:
“What’s our favourite workaround – and if we were starting again, would we still do it this way?”
You might be surprised where the conversation takes you.
And if you’d like me to join that conversation and explore what’s possible, I’d enjoy it.
Simply call 01473 350444 and ask for Colin, or email enquiries@heronit.co.uk.
Share this…
