Kathy Harris

I completed some research a few years ago on the failure points in people-centered initiatives. Understanding these failure points is even more important today because of the growth in the number and complexity of such initiatives – the list now includes innovation, KM, collaboration and other social computing.

It’s common knowledge that these initiatives need processes, technology and integration. However, much of their complexity stems from the behavioral and cultural changes required of employees and the organization as a whole. Four failure points must be managed if people-centered initiatives are to succeed:

#1: Not all value created can be measured in financial terms.
People-centered initiatives focus on improving the way people work, providing better access to resources (e.g., people, information, and learning) and lifting productivity in the organization. Such initiatives don’t directly produce revenue or reduce costs, but organizations want a line of sight between investments and returns. Measuring non-financial return on investment (ROI) remains a persistent challenge but one area of progress is in measuring social ROI – see this recent article on Wal-Mart’s efforts in SROI for ideas on how to proceed.

#2: Participation and use of processes and technology are lower than expected.
People-centered initiatives suffer from the myth “if you build it, they will come.” However, these initiatives change the way people work and add expectations for being creative, etc. Users don’t immediately understand the value or how to leverage these new approaches. For example, collaboration may free people to work with others at their own pace, any time they choose and from wherever they are located. But, on-line collaboration aimed at complex problem-solving is a radical change from face to face collaboration. Organizations must learn how to incent and cultivate these new behaviors.

#3: People-centered processes are not integrated into everyday work.
Innovation and other workplace applications are usually managed as stand-alone programs. Business applications rarely include robust knowledge management or collaboration and they rarely include mechanisms and processes to capture ideas when they appear in the course of work. In fairness, such integration is not simple because workplace processes don’t follow a predefined workflow; instead, users determine their next steps based on the results of steps just completed.

#4: Deep understanding of people-centered processes is limited to a few key individuals.
There are frequent missteps in people-centered processes. Social interactions, creativity and collaboration are complex. Cultural norms and behaviors are difficult to understand and influence. The technologies and processes that enable innovation or collaboration are also complex. Organizations that aspire to become socially competent must invest in developing these competencies broadly among employees and leaders.