An article in the April 2009 Harvard Business Review by Julia Adler-Milstein describes research that suggests that organizations need to make changes to how they are organized and how they operate in order to enjoy the benefits of new technologies they introduce. The article cites a study by MIT Sloan School’s Erik Brynjolfsson and others that finds that the following specific operating model changes were required for successful implementation of new technologies:
- increased training
- increased individual decision making authority
- flattened hierarchies
- greater use of skilled resources
- decentralized teams
- incentives for team performance
Organizations that didn’t make these changes fared worse than they would have had they not introduced the technologies in the first place. The article focuses on adoption of electronic health records but the findings apply across the board.
One thing we can take away from this is that successful change that brings value and is sustainable is multi dimensional. We need to take time to think deliberately about the whole system into which we are introducing a change (people, the processes, physical assests and the organization structure). We need to think openly and strategically about what other parts of the system need to be changed to create the conditions for success and to minimize the conditions for failure.
As managers we may find that “we don’t have time” to think about all of this or that the prospect of thinking about it all is daunting – like confronting a multi dimensional chess game. We often find that our management just wants the change to happen and doesn’t want to get bogged down in considerations and activities that might increase cost and slow down delivery. You can use this HBR article and the underlying research to make your case!