Loading ...The wrath of QWERTY
I just read about the rationale of the early typewriter’s keyboard layout designed to slow down an operator, because the ink holder’s mechanism could not support the speed. Ever since the technology improved to eliminate this concern, some brave souls have tried to optimize the layout for performance with absolutely no success. It seems that every financial or social incentive was tried to convince people to migrate and achieve higher productivity, but we all know the result - the QWERTY still rules.
I will never forget the time when banking ATMs suddenly became available almost everywhere, and since then I can count no more than a dozen times going into the bank branch. According to the Source of All Knowledge
The first mechanical cash dispenser was developed and built by Luther George Simjian and installed in 1939 in New York City by the City Bank of New York, but removed after 6 months due to the lack of customer acceptance.[1]
It seems like such a great improvement, but as recent as the late 90’s only 30% of the adult population were comfortable enough to use them.
Change is difficult. In the case of ATM technology acceptance the demographics seem to accelerate adoption, but the QWERTY layout defeated a number of generations and by now I don’t know of any challengers any more.
So what can we learn from this? (This became my favorite question after seeing this movie. Am I qualified for the job of a CIA Director?). IMHO the best environment for adoption of change is when it is more painful NOT to change, than TO change. There is a lot of comfort in routine for most people, and they are only prepared to let it go when holding on to it is much more uncomfortable than a new alternative.
You will likely enjoy much more attainable ROI, if the adoption management/design becomes the second subject on your project document index. Right after WHAT this project is expected to achieve.
There are many excellent blogs and other resources on the Internet which explore methodologies and Best Practices for business process re-engineering, project management, systems implementation, software engineering, and change management. However I could not find much help with unlocking value of integrated utilization of these disciplines to facilitate Organizational Transformation. In this blog I would like to focus on this subject. I would like to stress that this is not an academic inquiry, but a practitioner's desire to discuss and share practical business knowledge and Best Practices. Let's see how it evolves - "Every brilliant idea quickly degenerates into a lot of hard work" - Peter Drucker.
(4 out of 5)