In my IoT Playbook, communication dysfunction remains the primary factor that derails sales and engineering collaboration. Especially in dynamic and complex industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) manufacturing and industrial environments.
Why? Because IIoT environments are characterized by the volume, velocity, variety, veracity and value of insights derived from data. Those insights are put into play by machines who talk to each other and collaborate!
Where the industrial IoT equation falls apart is with people.
The machines are having a just fine time communicating with each other – without bias. However, how well is the conversation going between your people?
To overcome communication dysfunction, start looking for places where dysfunction “lives.”
Let’s go on an organizational safari, shall we? To get started, download this Roadmap.
The goal is to identify pockets of bias and baggage within organizational culture. Those locations are where communication dysfunction resides. I bet you know more than a few places to start looking.
How does the Star Wars line go? “It is useless to resist.” Because, let’s face it, ignoring (and perpetuating) habits promoting dysfunction are no longer a viable option. That is, if you want to acquire and retain A-List customers. Download your Customer Checklist here.
Therefore, are you a data-driven organization? If so, isn’t it time to ask yourself (and answer) these three questions?
- On which side of the enterprise do you swim: Business or Operations?
- Have you started to blur the lines separating Business and Operations?
- Why or why not?
Deconstruct Us versus Them mindset to overcome communication dysfunction.
In the not-so-distant past, even currently, the business and operations arms of the enterprise resided in two separate organizational continents. Guarded by cultural minefields and behavioral icebergs. Just lovely, huh?
Not only are these two sides of the same enterprise coin separated by legacy business models and the bias and baggage of Us versus Them mindset. In addition, communication is crippled by the plethora of professional jargon and acronyms used to communicate with peers and across disciplines.
When colleagues perpetually speak different professional languages, communication dysfunction becomes an ingrained habit. And a barrier to cross-functional collaboration.
As a result, professional linguistic over-dependence and over-use prevents teams from grasping the complete significance of data-driven insights. When communication dysfunction derails IIoT sales and engineering collaboration, opportunities are left undiscovered. In addition, solutions are incompletely explored and proposed.
Consequently, IIoT engineered outcomes can be compromised. Competitive advantage is unable to be fully leveraged.
No pain no gain when addressing the nature and quality of communication dysfunction that derails industrial IoT collaboration.
Ultimately, what is the real cost of perpetuating communication dysfunction in your organization? I doubt that anyone is visibly proposing the business case for continuous communication dysfunction, are they?
However, there are lots of subtleties which build momentum over time. Actions speak far louder than words.
Consider your next steps. Address how communication dysfunction impacts industrial product marketing, IT OT convergence and sales analysis and discovery.
You don’t need to boil the entire organizational ocean, unless you want to. 😉 Rather, why not start locally, with your own team?
You will be amazed at how much all of you can accomplish, together, collaboratively. What are you waiting for?
Babette Ten Haken writes, speaks, coaches and consults about collaborative value creation for customer retention. She humanizes the Voice of the industrial Internet of Things by creating customer retention strategies leveraging workforce collaboration. Her book of IIoT collaboration hacks, Do You Mean Business?, is available on Amazon.com.
Image author: freshidea. Image source: Fotolia.
Leave a Reply