Embracing Change: Waxing Poetic on the Ebb and Flow of Business Processes
Written By: Jack Bennett
In the Spring, in Washington DC, an array of beautiful pink cherry blossoms begin to bloom. They accentuate all the idealistic features Pierre Charles L’Enfant envisioned when he mapped out what would become the nation's capital. Looking at a cherry blossom against the backdrop of a marble monument across a sprawling park takes you away from the traffic behind you and the racing thoughts of your daily stressors. They were gifted to the city by the Mayor of Tokyo in 1912 and to millions of people, they represent Spring and thus growth and rebirth.
I think Spring is the easiest season to get wrapped up in the excitement of the passing of time and the evolving nature of our lives and interactions. As Fall turns to Winter, we wrangle more intimately with the more intimidating aspects of the passing of time, the existential dread that so sweetly comes with consciousness. So as anything evolves and as anything ebbs and flows, there comes always an excitement accompanied by somberness. To move into a new stage of life is to leave behind parts of a bygone you. And often, permanently.
This is one philosophy that isn’t as often reflected in the tech world as it is in other areas that I’ve spent my time in. In technology, there is an ever-present air of “go, go, go.” The best thing is always the next thing and the next thing is obsolete by the time you get comfortable with it. It makes sense, as developers, that we would view elevated automation and technicality as the logical next step in any realm we find ourselves. But one thing I’ve learned at srcLogic is that the best developers embrace progress while also understanding their client’s hesitation to move forward just for the sake of moving forward.
When we are contracted, it is because there is a process that isn’t working as effectively as it could be. But we recognize that it would be a mistake to disregard all the people who have grown entirely accustomed to their current system. While some parts might deeply frustrate them, other parts have become natural to their daily lives. What I’ve found most effective about being a software implementation consultant is approaching the problem by bringing modernized and streamlined processes and integrating them into what already works.
Working off these concepts has become an overarching goal I try to implement in my professional life, but it also teeters on being a hodgepodge of buzzwords that sound comforting yet ultimately meaningless. I’ve found that it’s important to not just recognize the unrelenting pace of tech and how it might spurn the users whose lives it’s meant to improve, but to transform that recognition into actionable items implemented in my day to day. When my team builds a new feature we focus first on why it is the next step on an existing process and not just how it would work as a stand alone. When we are able to see how users navigate the current process, we take a keen eye to the movements they make seamlessly and thoughtlessly compared to the areas that are more limiting or even frustrating.
We must understand that moving from a system that you’ve used for years is exciting in the new features that can be created, but also difficult in overhauling the muscle memory of a previous routine. So we make it our mission, when approaching a job, to amplify the excitement and minimize that somberness. When we deliver our product, we want our clients to just sit back and watch the cherry blossoms bloom.