Our values of People, Excellence, and Integrity can be expressed in a variety of ways. We want to create patterns of behavior (i.e. culture) that trace to these values. To help with this, we can think about outcomes that we would like to see. We want our clients to view us as a trusted partner that provides genuine, tangible value through technology and interactions.
We seek to hire individuals that are very open-handed with what they know. We want a culture where people are free to seek help knowing that others are willing to teach and advise. This willingness must extend to interactions with our clients when a clear case of empowerment through training presents itself.
Empowering Our Clients Through Training
We are currently working with a client who has an amazing Product Owner. This individual knows the business very well and is empowered to guide the development of the software: two key attributes in our book. Additionally, he has invested time in learning the ways of Agile software development as well as developing a curiosity for some of the technologies. A technology area that seemed most attractive was a reporting tool adopted by the E-g team. Being able to self-serve when it comes to data needs can be a very valuable asset. This ultimately led to us setting up a laptop and training this person to develop reports.
This same team did an amazing job working with users for several weeks after a rollout of a new application replacing a legacy system. We don’t want to write software and “throw it over the wall” to the users. Most times, if we want a new system implementation to succeed, we must be there to support and train users when they are coming face to face with the software. It can be easy to get frustrated when a new way of working is introduced, particularly if the old way of working was tiring and tedious. If we’ve done our job, once the small hill of adoption is summited, a real appreciation for the improvements can be enjoyed. One particular user at the client performed a celebratory dance after the software saved them much time. That’s the kind of reaction that makes this work truly fulfilling!
It has been said that every technology problem is also a social problem. In order to truly succeed, we have to build the right thing and then work with the people involved to ensure genuine adoption. A focus on training leads to empowerment. We are perfectly happy to work ourselves out of a job by empowering our clients to water and grow the solutions we’ve worked together to create.
