I had the opportunity to work with a large insurance company recently that is reaping the benefits of a new work design.  Functional barriers were broken down and designed around customer demands.  This in itself is a future post, but the thing that was most amazing was technology that worked for the worker and the customer.

Imagine for a moment technology that works.

Seem impossible? No, and that is the beauty of software developed systems thinking style.  The insurance company had the same dysfunctional make-up I have seen played over and over again at Fortune 500 technology companies.  You know the drill . . . scope, prioritize the project, requirements, allocate resources or some derivation of this format.  Lots of non-value added resources to make sure that schedules are met, even though they often are not met.

Instead, technology stepped up to do things different at this organization.  Developer and worker together understanding the work and developer delivering the goods to the worker. 

Pinch me so I know this is real.  Oh . . . it is real because I can actually see the software working and solving problems that prohibit good service.  The worker’s work becomes easier and with that can do more things.

Just proof that everything changes when you take a system perspective . . . the work and the technology can have new and effective purpose.

Leave me a comment. . . share your opinion!  Click on comments below.

Make the new decade a profitable and rewarding one, start a new path here.  Download free from www.newsystemsthinking.com “Understanding Your Organization as a System” and gain knowledge of systems thinking or contact us about how to get started at [email protected].  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbittor LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.

Tripp Babbitt is a columnist (Quality Digest and IQPC), speaker, and consultant to private and public service industry.