Sustainable Improvement

I took a break from my three to four day a week work out to give my body a break.  I blinked and the next thing I know a month has gone by.  I’m not blogging weekly.  I’m not working out.  One thing is leading to another and its got me thinking about sustainability (’cause I’m not).  So what is the one thing that if you stopped doing it would take your business intelligence program from a competitive advantage to a legacy process affectionately known as the pig?  You’re probably expecting something sage which I find strange. If you’ve been reading my blog all along you should know by now that I’m going to talk about some things and then leave you hanging until at least next week.  So, where was I at?  Oh, one thing leading to another and the executives who used to cheer your business intelligence efforts are throwing rocks.  Yep…it can happen.

Noodling threw it lead me to consider the process of building BI capabilities.  Typically building these capabilities looks something like this, a) initiate project, b) deliver project, and c) go on to next project.  I’ve echoed this process once or twice before and I probably sound like a broken record squeaking about creating a cycle of understanding, developing and sustaining and growing BI capabilities.  That’s the mantra you have to repeat when driving any change.  It boils down to projects enabling new capabilities that in turn results in business execution which drives top and bottom line performance so effectively that it becomes part of the business process.  Four things – projects, enabling, execution and process that are necessary to make any capability sustainable.  So how good are you at these four things?

If you’re anything like me for years you’ve lived in the projects and enabling space.  After the appropriate check marks have been put on all the boxes in your gantt chart comes the victory dance.  But why the party?  At the end of the day its not delivering something that drives the results, but instead what happens next.  In a marriage the big party comes after standing at the altar.  These days half of marriages end up in divorce.  Interestingly enough that’s the same stat for BI initiatives, half don’t make it.  Makes you think, huh?  Seems like what happens after the party could be significant for you, the company you work for and the folks who depend on it for their lively-hood, especially if you’re like me working in the space where data is used for competitive advantage.

So if you were to grade yourself (and your team) in the four areas of 1) project execution, 2) enabling business use of new capabilities, 3) business execution derived from the new capability and 4) building this into the fabric of the business so that it is a permanent part your corporate culture (cheez I’m a wordy cuss tonight) what would they be?  Pretty simple question.  Pretty important if you want to stay married, or gainfully employed.  How good are you at the work that happens before and after the big party?

Til next week!  (Told you I’d keep you hanging…)