My first year Philosophy lecturer posed this question to around 300 students. At the following day’s class only around 50 people turned up. I was quite surprised when after class I heard what some of my fellow students were saying to justify why they couldn’t possibly go back to listen to such drivel. For me however, this was my panacea, that is the world where my beliefs and assumptions are challenged, my mind stretched and giving me a “safe” place to live my mind-life. Of course with the opportunities came challenges as well, but I relished these and was paid the highest compliment by my 3rd year Philosophy lecturer when he said I had an interesting mind. I still challenge my and organizational beliefs and think that to accept the status quo “because it’s always been done like this” is not to add value to your and your organization’s existence.
The question, does your pond think in Procurement relates to the believe by some Information Managers or systems people that if they buy a system to manage data and information, then the machine will magically solve all the problems that existed previously relating to too much, unordered, incorrect and obsolete information.
The pond does not think, but it is the humans who do. When Marvin Minsky wrote “…people think, computers don’t” he was absolutely right. I have recently consulted with 2 companies who were in the process of migrating from one ERP system to another, but the ground work that needed to be done to confirm a) the new system will deliver what the organization needs or b) that the people are comfortable on how to operate and interact with the new system or c) the old data had been cleansed to a degree that the new system will only have good data had not been done in any detail. Rubbish in, rubbish out. Skimming over the fundamental basics or commissioning a new data management system is only half the answer. The other most important half is the people who is needed to help define to the machine what they need from it. A system or machine was surely not designed to make people’s lives more difficult or frustrating. In change management, we know that if the system is too difficult to use, people will find a way not to use it making the millions expended in getting the new system tantamount to putting those millions in the fire. People first, systems second.
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