01. Distillation Model – Part I

Distillation: Part 1

Innovation seems to be the buzzword for every business and organization worth its salt these days. But there’s so much more than meets the eye with innovation. Innovating by oneself is one thing, but getting a whole team to participate effectively in the act of innovation is quite another. Let’s look at an incident that highlights the challenges that one could potentially face when working with team innovation.

The decision to implement automation

Harish was heading the BizTech team and was given the responsibility of development and deployment (the action of bringing resources into effective action) (hindi word – परिनियोजन) of an in-house IT system to automate the ‘Pensions Maturity Assessments process for standardization, (the process of making something conform to a standard) (hindi word – मानकीकरण) better risk-management and controls’. Now, this was no mean task.

Currently, the process, like most legacy protocols (the original draft of a diplomatic document, especially of the terms of a treaty agreed to in conference and signed by the parties) (hindi word – प्रोटोकॉल), was complex, time-consuming required manual input. And given that the process was a critical one, all this was leading to a lot of errors being introduced.

The BizTech team had volunteered to work on the automation project, instead of outsourcing the project, because they felt that they genuinely had what it took to rise to this challenge, with the added benefit of being more cost-effective.

Now the Maturity assessment team was a mix of tenured specialists and relatively new people. Before the automation project was proposed, these were the people behind making the legacy process work.

They had tried a number of different options to make work easier and more effective, but nothing really worked out in any way that mattered. And if the automation project succeeded, many of them stood to get redeployed (assign employees, or resources to a new place or task.) (hindi word – पुन: वितरित) to other processes.

Given the high visibility of the project, Harish decided to oversee it himself, instead of delegating (entrust a task or responsibility to another person)(hindi word – सौंपकर) it to his team. Now Harsh was acutely aware that input and experiential knowledge from ‘Maturity Assessment’ team itself was the key to the project’s success.

Without it, the Biztech team would be flying blind, and the resulting automation could potentially make the process more convoluted, instead of simplifying it. So he called the Maturity Assessment, introduced himself and briefed them on the project that would unfold, spanning the next few months. He solicited (ask for or try to obtain something from someone) (hindi word – अनुरोध करना) their support and cooperation. He proposed conducting a brainstorming (group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems) (hindi word – बुद्धिशीलता) exercise to kickstart proceedings and get conversations going.

The team agreed. They mentioned they had been through brainstorming (group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems) (hindi word – बुद्धिशीलता) sessions before, but they would do all they could to support the Biztech team.

Fast forward to the end of the brainstorming (group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems) (hindi word – बुद्धिशीलता) session. Harsh thought it went very well. A few of the senior specialists in the team poured out all their knowledge and experience for Harsh’s benefit. The relatively new people had nothing remarkable to add, but that was expected.

The added advantage, to Harsh’s mind, was that all the input that came through were logic-screened-and-tested right there in the session. Everything that was said was rational and made perfect sense.

In the interest of getting it right, Harsh decided to conduct a number of these sessions. That, as it turned out, was no trouble at all. No scheduling troubles there because it was easy to get the ‘Maturity Assessment’ team into these meetings on short notice.

Upper management had seen to that. Because of the project’s uber-high visibility in the organization, everyone was instructed to support the Biztech initiative on highest priority. Furthermore, Harsh focused more and more on key team specialists who gave maximum inputs.
And so later on, there was no need to get the entire team into meeting all the time. Just a think tank of sorts. Harsh was pleased.

At the end of it all, Harsh took all this precious input straight to his team, and had them get into solutioning mode right away. As far as due-diligence (reasonable steps taken by a person to avoid committing a tort or offence) (hindi word – यथोचित परिश्रम) was concerned, Harsh believed he had nailed it. Success was guaranteed.

After a two months of hard work, lots of discussions all round and many late hours thrown in, the automated system was ready for deployment (the action of bringing resources into effective action) (hindi word – परिनियोजन). The pilot phase was launched.

Everything seemed to go well at first. Everyone was excited about the automation project and had waited in eager anticipation, hoping all those manual process induced
(bring about or give rise to) (hindi words – उत्पन्न करना) errors plaguing the process would finally disappear.

But then it started to fall apart. At first, vague comments like ‘It’s okay, but it could have been better” started trickling in. But gradually it started to get more specific. A lot more specific.

The ‘Maturity Assessment’ team started to complain about process exceptions not being catered (provide with what is needed or required) (hindi word – काम करना)to. Some others stated that the user interface was a lot less elegant than they expected.

Yet others complained about how old manual tasks were essentially replaced by new manual tasks, but this time with raised stakes. Which in other words meant, the automation system was driving more errors. People found it simpler to process work the ‘good old way’.

And as can be surmised (suppose that something is true without having evidence to confirm it.) (hindi word – अनुमान लगाया), the pilot launch failed. The options available to explore were either to go back to the drawing board with the project, or to abandon it completely. Management was starting to wonder if it was a mistake not outsourcing the automation project to professionals.

All fingers pointed towards Biztech team, and Harsh. Harsh for one, was flabbergasted (surprise someone greatly) (hindi word – हैरत में डाला हुआ). He had done everything right. He was quite thorough with his documentation. His team had worked very hard to create the automation platform that was being trashed openly. He didn’t deserve this. His team didn’t deserve this.

So Harish presented a case in his defense. He mentioned how the output was directly influenced by the input – information that came from the ‘Maturity Assessment’ experts – over multiple meetings. He spoke about the brainstorming (group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems) (hindi word – बुद्धिशीलता) sessions and presented the resulting detailed documentation that was used as the foundation to build the automation system. He observed no mention was ever made about ‘process exceptions’.

And his notes show that he asked those questions. The new manual processes that were being criticized (indicate the faults of someone or something in a disapproving way) (hindi word – निंदा करना) were things the ‘Maturity Assessment’ team experts mentioned were okay. The interface (a point where two systems, subjects, organizations, etc. meet and interact) (hindi word – अंतराफलक) was never once brought up in the meetings they had.

Management intervened (take part in something so as to prevent or alter a result or course of events) (hindi word – शामिल करना) and spoke to the ‘Maturity Assessment’ team about this. What came out of this particular meeting left everyone surprised and disappointed at the same time. The team spoke about how the brainstorming (group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems) (hindi word – बुद्धिशीलता) meetings happened on the spur of the moment. Many said had they known in advance what was going to be discussed, they could have come better prepared.

The relatively new people mentioned they had ideas on how to improve the interface (a point where two systems, subjects, organizations, etc. meet and interact) (hindi word – अंतराफलक), but they felt unsure about saying anything when the ‘experts’ were speaking. They admitted they didn’t want to lose face. Yet others said they were denied credit for their ideas in their early years.

They didn’t want to scatter any more good information that would send all credit straight to Biztech. A section of the team complained about how they weren’t consulted at all in the end, when only the experts were called in. Some others had radical (advocating or based on thorough or complete political or social change) (hindi words – महत्त्वपूर्ण) ideas, but they didn’t want to see them shot down in the logic and rationale driven conversations that were held.

The ‘experts’ said since they were the only ones who kept getting called in, they felt pressured to give textbook responses, rather than intuitive (using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive) (hindi word – स्वाभाविक) ones since they feared reputation might be at stake, if their intuitive (using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive) (hindi word – स्वाभाविक) responses were seen as trivial (of little value or importance) (hindi word – महत्त्वहीन). In the end, as it turned out, there was nothing in the automated system that the whole team could agree was a significant improvement. And it wasn’t Harish’s fault.

No one could’ve expected him to anticipate (expect or predict) (hindi word – पहले से सोच रखना) all of this going it. There was nothing he could’ve done to circumvent (find a way around or overcome) (hindi word – काबू पा लेना) all of the issues that led to the failed automated system. Or was there?
Let us now answer these questions:
• How can one have a process that elicits (evoke or draw out a reaction, answer, or fac from someone) (hindi word – जाग्रत करना) everyone’ views and yet not have matters turn rancorous (characterized by bitterness or resentment) (hindi word – अप्रसन्न) and, consequently, end up damaging relationships at work?
• How is it possible to have a lot of people be involved in the solution design phase, but not let it be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth?

We offer Distillation as a solution to the above conundrum (a confusing and difficult problem or question) (hindi word – उलझन).