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Ever hear of “The Butterfly Effect?” It’s a theory that says a small change in conditions now can lead to ginormous and unpredictable variations of the future. For example: a butterfly beats its wings over a flower in China and it causes a hurricane in the Caribbean. When a client asks, “Can’t we just tweak this one thing?” The short answer is yes. We can improve however many elements of the process you, the business owner, is comfortable with, but any change triggers the butterfly effect. One tiny adjustment in your workflow will have unpredictable effects down the line. Best practice is to assess what incremental change could affect the entire system at the beginning of a project. It’s up to the client to decide how much change and how fast. One of my standard questions is, “Do you need to run the current process in parallel with the new one to keep your operation going?” For example, you don’t want to stop running payroll while introducing a new system. If you are not in an emergency situation, you may want to train everyone on one new process, let them get good at it, then present them with the next one. Or do you want all your employees trained on all the new processes all at once? Or a combination of the two? We can adapt to whatever style of change your workforce is comfortable with. You may want to blow everything up and start from scratch. Sometimes a completely fresh start is necessary. Your system may be broken beyond repair and unsupported for years and you don’t have a choice but to start all over. Hopefully, you are in position to be proactive. You have processes you love and that your team is good at and they just need a tweak to bring them up to efficiency. When you invest in continuous process improvement, you have so many more good options to choose from. You can make incremental changes, ensure everyone is on board and functioning well, then move on to the next change. Yes. There will be another change. Technology moves so fast your data environment is in constant flux. But don’t think that means you can’t change with it. You can and we’re here to help. Let’s chat.

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