Up with people! (Duh)

A Measurable Proposal

CIO: "He's back, and Tom Davenport's betting on a new, big idea: knowledge workers are people too. Can their processes be quantified? Can we help their plight? This might just be the new reengineering." [New reengineering = Next Accenture Cash Cow?]

Tom laments that:

When it comes to knowledge workers, we pretty much hire smart people and leave them alone. No quality measurements, no Six Sigma, no reengineering. We haven't formally examined the flow of work, we have no benchmarks, and there is no accountability for the cost and time these activities consume.

The prescription for change?

...the next big process change initiative should involve knowledge work. Let's examine how we do strategy, marketing campaigns, mergers and acquisitions, and R&D programs. Maybe we could even take on the process of management.

I have mixed feelings about this.

1. There's no doubt that there are a gazillion things organizations can do to leverage the productivity of their knowledge workers.
   
2. Given Tom's role with Accenture, I see his newfound religion a covert way of creating new turf for Accenture consulting. "Tired of paying us to glue together applications too complicated for you to understand? Let us mess with your marketing campaigns, M&A, and even your process of management."
   
3. I told you this was coming six weeks ago. Remember this?

NumbersPeople

Posted by Jay Cross at June 2, 2003 12:43 PM | TrackBack