Bringing the adminaphobes into the fold

Remember our adminaphobic colleagues with the aversion to administrative tasks outside the areas of their important expertise? Well I have a few thoughts on how we can bring them back into the team.

An empowering strategy in addressing human conflict is the willingness to accept what the other person is saying as true for them in the moment. (Don't get me wrong - you don't have to agree with them, you just need to acknowledge that for them, what they are saying is true).

So take some time to listen to the argument and assess the situation from their point of view. Also, don't fall into the trap of looking for solutions within software systems from the get-go. Pretty much every problem can be solved within the people-process-product continuum (product in this case being software applications) however the people/process corners of the 3P trinity are always the best places to start in my opinion.

Perhaps the problem lies in change management. Does he understand the process? Does he understand the importance of the process? Does he understand his role in the process? Has he been trained in his role? Has he understood and absorbed the training or does he require additional support? Why has he not been able to adopt the expected behaviour as a norm? Is the completion of the process at odds in some way with the goals or KPI's of his job role or team?

It may just be that he is unsure, unconfident, concerned about making embarrassing mistakes, threatened by what the process means to his empire, or just plain missed the communications and education up front in the project.

Now, what about the process? Is it too complex? Can it be simplified? Are there conflicting elements or responsibilities. For very casual executors of the process is there too much collateral information? Or too ambiguous a data/job flow? Are there components of data coming from different sources that may be misunderstood, or overpowering or ambiguous for casual users?
Look into how that process can be improved, simplified and clarified. Other people will appreciate this effort as well.

Sometimes though he may have a valid point. Perhaps there is something about the "product" that is inefficient or ineffective for his role in the process. This then is a great opportunity for the business to improve its processes and enhance its relationship with important members of the workforce. Unfortunately most software applications struggle to adapt flexibly and agilely to very specific user requirements.

This is one of the many sweetspots for a business process management suite (BPMS). The wonderful thing about a BPMS such as FlowCentric is its inherent ability to define and control business processes outside of, and around the edges of, existing applications very cost effectively. It gives business the opportunity to hone areas of process that need to dovetail perfectly into human expectations whilst still leveraging the quite significant investment made in whatever the underlying application is.

A BPMS isn't generally concerned with the transaction end of a process, although this may be part of the outcomes, it is more generally successful in addressing the human element, and that of course is exactly where our adminaphobics sit.