People often ask me, what is Inspiring Automation?
Traditional automation efforts are often led with a cost-savings question: “How much can I save with this automation?” As a result, people globally are concerned that robots are coming to take their jobs and humans will be reduced to data points by machines.
In comparison, Inspiring Automation philosophy leads with a question of empowerment: “what do you wish you were empowered to do?” and looks at how automation can enable that.
By considering this as a philosophy instead of the implementation of a particular tool, this opens the door to:
Simple Solutions – This empowerment may come in the form of having additional flexibility to use solutions easily available. Many times I’ve seen inefficiencies in an organization be self-inflicted.
Shifting the Power of the Solution to the Point of the Problem – Rather than trying to optimize effects downstream, this philosophy endorses solving the problem closer to its cause. In the absence of that potential, this extends to shifting the power of a solution closer to the pain of the problem. This introduces a new form of Business Empowerment that requires a change to the notion of the traditional IT Department.
Maximizing Human Potential – menial tasks can be both time-consuming and demoralizing because they are neither significantly rewarding to the business or to the employee. Automation can open up time for that talent by taking care of the mindless and the repetitive. Without asking the question of empowerment however, the magnifier of automation is lost.
Inspiring Automation = Empowerment
