Look! New running shoes! — The Daily PPILL #116

People are often drawn to buying a new accessory, running shoes, electronics and other things when they feel like they need a change in their life. Buying a new accessory can be a great way to motivate oneself. It can be a good way to celebrate reaching a goal, or it could simply be the next step in an ongoing goal. That’s why some people buy new accessories when they are feeling unmotivated and need to get back on track.

Getting the right accessory or “tool” can also make you “look the part” and to get you started on your journey of “becoming”.

But buying a new accessory can also be a distraction. You may need to learn how to use it or figure out how to make the best use of it, and a major disadvantage is that you will have to spend time and effort figuring out how your new tool works, which can take away from the main goals you are trying to achieve.

Besides getting the right and best tools, you also need to gain the skills, create the processes, and maybe even the habit and identity.

Something similar happens in business. Many organizations insist on starting a transformational journey by buying into a new system or toolset. This can be a risk because it is not always clear how it will work in their environment and with their already existing processes, organizational structure and culture. Organizations should first understand these well and only then think about which tools will help them achieve that goal.

There is one caveat though.

Organizations that don’t have mature processes can sometimes benefit from platforms that have been built around best practices in order to step up their game and see better results.

Some platforms such as Customer Relationship Management, Marketing Automation, and Customer Success Management offer, out-of-the-box, the appropriate templates to manage a process. They may also provide automation with little human intervention, especially low-level tasks as automatic notifications and time-based alerts. Well built systems may also allow for integrations with other tools, addressing client-specific needs.

So:

Understand your process first, then migrate to a system, then automate.

and, if you have to, find a system that has a process that makes sense to you out of the box and that will be easier to adopt.

As published on The Channelmeister