With the end of the year rapidly approaching many organizations are wrapping up yearly performance reviews and looking ahead to future initiatives. By now, nearly everyone is familiar with the SMART goal acronym for guiding us through effective goal setting. Writing good SMART goals is time consuming, and for managers guiding team(s) with varying skill levels that is exponentially true. Many artifacts in the business space remind us that our goals do not have to be perfect at the first attempt, but we do need to strive to make our goals more Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Ambitious, Relevant, and Time Bound with each refinement.
With all of that in mind we have put together a list of our top SMART goals for transitioning to the Utility Network (UN) at multiple levels of the organization: GIS & Technology Managers, GIS Editing Teams, GIS Technical Teams, and GIS Stakeholders. These goals will be a great starting point that can then be tailored to fit your team’s needs. Today we will discuss why the goals are important and outline the GIS & Technology Manager goals.
GROUNDWORK FOR SUCCESS
Why did we go through all this trouble? Well, it is no secret that technology shifts are difficult. In fact, studies done by Mckinsey & Company show a generalized and consistent success of less than 30% on digital projects. While technology transformations at utilities prove to be even more challenging- with oil & gas dropping below 11%. At that rate you might as well bet on the worst MLB batters* in history to get a base hit, then for you to successfully implement a Utility Network.
In the same survey mentioned above, the most important factor to deploying a successful technology shift was, hands down, developing the talent and skills of your workforce. That’s why our list of SMART goals for your teams is largely focused on the foundational knowledge of ESRI Utility Network Technology.
Another key point to the article, was good communication with your workforce. Organizations that establish a clear and urgent change story are more than three times as likely to have successful digital transformation projects. Knowing this, the leadership goals are intentionally change management focused.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD
Keep in mind, this list is not necessarily holistic or compulsory prior to kicking off a UN assessment or implementation project. And frankly, most people cannot afford for two let alone three or more of their goals to be soaked up by one initiative. Like most things in life, the secret is finding the right balance. In this case, it might mean getting creative with how to disseminate the workload or searching for the right amount of preparation versus the confidence to initiate. For those organizations who are live or mid-implementation, perhaps this list can be a gut check for considering your approach and understanding your team’s ability to do their new jobs.
Ultimately, the on-going question for developing your internal staff should be – Do my employees know how to use, understand the importance of, and have vocabulary for ArcGIS Pro, Web GIS, Utility Network, and my commodity’s data model? I doubt many industry leaders can answer yes to such a packed question while having disparately skilled workforces. Ultimately, the less confident you are in that question, the more likely failure is knocking at your door.
IF IT AINT BROKE, YOU STILL NEED TO UPGRADE
For the unicorns out there, those that were able to answer a strong “maybe” or better regarding UN technology and “yes” to the other categories, consider this- Teams operating under an optimized level of maturity might think they have a leg up on their peers; that their current experiences would give them the ability to easier pivot to new technologies. However, being good at the past can make new technology adoption harder. Because those that have embraced current processes, have detail operating procedures, and are running like a well-oiled machine are comfortable with the status quo. As a living organization the workforce won’t feel obligated to fix anything. That is to say that even the best run corporations are going to need all the preparation they can get to transition to the UN.
However, those of us that are dissatisfied with today’s tools or are struggling to meet certain objectives, easily understand that transitions are opportunities. This might be the toughest deployment you’ll undergo this decade, but we have a chance to fix what we dislike about today’s processes to the collective benefit of everyone.
THE SMART GOALS FOR GIS & TECHNOLOGY MANAGERS
This section is written from the perspective of a GIS Manager. You, the manager, can think of this as trickle up and down influence. How can you set up the project so that it prepares the organization, leadership, and workforce for what is coming? Part of that preparation may involve educating yourself on the technology (goals in the Editing Teams and Technical Teams lists), and planning for the associated organizational changes.
Goal 1 – Set the vision and objectives for your UN migration. Establish a clear change story message and clear objectives. Share it regularly throughout your organization. With the goal of x messaging strategies deployed by x date.
If you don’t know where to start with this goal, you can browse relevant sections of our eBook for content to help make this more “Specific” to you. Think about your business goals and objectives and how the UN can help you get there.
Goal 2 – Determine your high-level migration strategy and timeline. Outline core issues with your current state technologies. Establish an understanding of the health of your data. Plan relevant data improvement projects, upgrades, etc.
This is different from Goal #1 in that you might have a vision for your organization to become Technology Embracers and be Data Driven, but do you know the steps you will have to take to get there? Ex. What data improvement projects will need completed for tracing to work? Will they need completed before or after go-live? What are the likely workflows, applications, and integrations that can you recycle vs rebuild?
Goal 3 – Determine your roles and resources for your UN migration. Engage them early and often. Outline communication ahead of time to determine how and when you interact with each group. Set meetings ahead of time if possible.
- Action 1 – Engage executive sponsorship. Identify a positive leader who actively guides the organization through change and will participate visibly throughout the project lifecycle.
Executive sponsors and upper management will also influence on your vision, objectives, and strategy. Engage them first. If you are not sure how to help your sponsor become active and visible or if you are a sponsor and want more clarification, check out the article: Primary Sponsor’s Role and Importance.
- Action 2 – Engage with and Support Middle Managers of the Impacted Business Units. Identify this group of managers at the front-end of the project as they will become the greatest ally in times of change because they are closest to the employees impacted by the change the UN will bring.
The latest industry OCM studies reveal middle managers as the group most resistant to change and that this can be mitigated by thoroughly addressing this group in the project’s change strategy.
- Action 3 – Identify your implementation team and other key stakeholders. Obtain commitment from both internal and external partners (and dissenters) who will play critical roles in your project.
Dissenters often have a great (or annoying) way of pointing out process flaws. If you include someone like this in your project team, make sure to find a person who is a critical thinker but also able to work towards a common goal.
It should also be noted that action 2 and 3 are not a precursor of the first two goals, although some key personnel may help in both planning and execution. The best implementations we have seen involve a small group of highly tech savvy individuals setting the vision, objectives, and strategy. Engagement with the implementation team and stakeholder resources is then strategic and direct. High level architecture and core functionality is not democratic matter.
CONCLUSION
In our next article we will outline skill-based SMART goals for GIS editing and technical teams. We will also get creative with ideas on how to keep stakeholders engaged by setting their own goals. Just remember that your staff are at the heart of a successful transformation to new technology and processes. In the end, we want to set up your Utility Network Transition and your team with the best odds you can have to hit it out of the park.
* Bill Bergen was a catcher for the Cincinnati Reds from 1901 to 1911 and recorded a .170 batting average in 3,028 career at-bats. For non-sports geeks that is 17%.
What do you think?