How vs. Why
This week I had an opportunity to visit one of my favorite customers. Not because they are easy to deal with, not because they are nice guys, but because they are fair, willing to work through issues, and it is still a place where a handshake means something.
On this occasion I had the opportunity to sit in with a bunch of executives as my colleagues articulated a solution that was near and dear to my heart. It has been almost 5 years since I had deployed this solution, and for me it was sort of an awakening. As the presentation progressed, a flood of memories came rushing back, almost as if I was transported back in time to some of my own integration meetings.
It was also odd that the technology, while improving, hadn’t substantially changed all that much. Fundamental concepts remained true, and the proverbial how wasn’t as important as to WHY they needed this.
The client team, conceptually got the message. Archiving off the transactional content, would save their ERP system from running out of space, help with performance etc.
It wasn’t untill I noncholatly articulated why we did it at my previous company and the value it brought. That the truly got it. WHY does this add value? WHY should you invest the time, energy and money.
The challenges with companies like mine, is that everyone is so enthralled with how things work, with how the technology can make things easier and better, that they have a hard time translating that to business benefits. To be fair, you need both, people like me that can articulate the business benefits, how the technology will improve bottom line performance, and those fantastic technologist that can make it work.
Yes indeed it was a good week!
Tim
