How Tools Kill Productivity (and what CDOs can do about It)

Organizations introducing and using productivity tools keep making the same mistakes over and over again!  The best data or process methods, tools, procedures (or whatever else we call them) are doomed to failure because we don't look at our own organizational, management, and personal behavior.  Many tools are brought in as a panacea or a savior, but we fail to put the mechanisms in place for them to help us succeed.  Then, once tools are in place, we fail to manage their use effectively, if we manage at all.  

This lively presentation summarizes lessons learned over four decades of watching and experiencing what happens to the use of productivity tools in projects and organizations.  The discussion includes:  misunderstanding the nature of tools;  acquisition pitfalls;  failures in managing tools and users;  and deficiencies of tool design – all of which lead organizations to fail to obtain the productivity we expect.  The discussion then turns to how our projects and organizations can reduce productivity loss and can gain renewed value from both tools now in use and new acquisition of tools.

The term "tools" applies to both complex software tool suites, basic desktop office utilities, and even our smartphones.  The lessons learned apply to the entire range of what we believe to be productivity tools