Automation, including artificial intelligence (AI), and other forms of digital technology are transforming organizations. However, these technologies are just starting to have profound effects on how we do our work. Top-down efforts support coordination and greater security but offer less application across different work types. How can we all take a shot at adding automation to our work? What will bottom-up efforts add to the mix?

Thanks to Utpal Mangla, VP and Senior Partner, IBM, for joining me in this post. Under Utpal's leadership, his team recently achieved its mission of making "Watson AI Impact 1 Billion Consumers." Utpal and I are officers within the ISSIP (International Society for Service Innovation Professionals) organization. 

Example from Dentsu

Tom Davenport, Babson College Professor and author of the book, The AI Advantage, had the chance to talk with Max Cheprasov, Chief Automation Officer at Dentsu about Dentsu's efforts to "elevate human potential through automation." Like many organizations, Dentsu set up an automation Center of Excellence (COE) with the idea that these experts could identify and automate repetitive tasks throughout the organization. In a Forbes article, Davenport writes:

The CoE team, however, found only a relatively small number of large-scale opportunities. They began work on those, which each required several months to develop. However, in its search across the company the team became aware of a much larger number of potential projects—" a long tail of microtasks"—done by individuals that would never be able to be addressed by the CoE. As Cheprasov put it, "We needed to figure out how do we bridge top down and bottom up automation opportunities."

Top-Down and Bottom-Up

Davenport's last quote especially stands out. Recall the introduction of personal computers. Before personal computers, computing was very much a top-down effort. Organizations used mainframes and minicomputers (which weren't) for major tasks. Most office workers might have typewriters, calculators, or word processors, but limited access to computing. Our application of computing exploded when many more people had access and could leverage computing in ways specific to their own work.

Productivity and Other Advances Come From More Than Technology Alone 

Repeat readers of this blog will know that: We see in 3D. We need to Think in 5T™. As we take on different targets, we need to leverage all of our talent, technology, and technique -- aligned for the times. Erik Brynjolfsson, Seth Benzell, and Daniel Rock note in their 2020 report for the MIT Work of the Future Task Force: 

For a transformative new technology like AI, it is not enough to simply 'pave the cow paths' by making existing systems better. Instead, productivity growth from new technologies depends on the invention and implementation of myriad complementary investments and adjustments. The result can be a productivity J-curve, where productivity initially falls, but then recovers as the gains from these intangible investments are harvested.

Before we gained the value of electricity, internal combustion engines, and other general purpose technologies, we had to innovate across organizational design, supporting infrastructures, and work practices.

The 2020 MIT report offers as part of its conclusion: 

...technological advances typically don't translate into improvements in productivity unless and until complementary innovations are developed. These include many intangible assets such as new business processes, business models, skills, techniques, and organizational cultures.

Many Hands Make Light Work

The MIT authors point to national-scale policy efforts in support of these changes, but we offer that many hands make light the work. 

As Dentsu found, there are opportunities to take on top-down and bottom-up efforts at the same time -- jumpstarting the expansion of new business processes, business models, skills, techniques, and organizational cultures. Jessica Berresse, a "citizen developer" at one of Dentsu's subsidiary companies, Carat, is quoted in the Forbes article, "Nobody wants to automate for the sake of automating; in some cases we might identify enough improvements that the team might not need a bot after all." Her colleague Erika Shand agreed: "We almost always do some process improvement before automating the process."

In our experience, having worked with organizations across multiple industries, one thing stands out. While top-down is critical for alignment, momentum, and having the entire organization rowing in the same direction, bottom-up is equally essential. People on the field have a much better view of whether day-to-day processes are critical or unimportant. People doing the work are best positioned to advise or take action on which steps from their daily functions can be optimized and automated. 

Role of Top-Down Activities

However, it is vital to create an overarching culture of trust. If employees worry that automation and new technologies will make their jobs redundant, few will participate in automation initiatives. That's where a top-down approach is critical. Leaders must offer crisp messaging and support to employees at all levels. Clear communication and actions showing that new technologies should complement employees and enable them to move up the productivity ladder will provide confidence at all levels. 

Experience shows that getting employee alignment is critical for long-term success. We have seen companies making investments and rolling out 'Achievement' and 'Bravo' awards to teams that proactively support this effort. Amplifying these successes creates a healthy culture of cooperation and collaboration.

Creation of CoEs or Centers of Competency (CoC), like those noted at Dentsu, are key mechanisms towards getting an organization to leverage the best of talent, technology, and technique -- working from the 5Ts. Successful centers have a combination of tools and functional competency. For example, a center focused on Robotics Process Automation (RPA) will have the subject matter expertise of technical skills required to perform a variety of automations. This center of competency will then work with subject matter experts from various business functions (finance, procurement, human resources, supply chain) to assist in automation at all levels.

The Value of Bottom-Up

The centers can encourage employees to share ideas for both large-scale (top-down managed) automations and those they take on themselves. 

For large-scale implementations, employee contributions are narrowed down to few to move from ideation to proof of concept stage. The center can support successful proof of concepts with full-blown projects leading to deployment. Centers can apply agile methods where every sprint has a clear set of “customer” metrics to define completion before moving to subsequent stages. Agile practices ensure that organizational automation goals stay in focus -- before work goes too far. 

When individuals build out their own tools, perhaps using "no-code" automation platforms offered from the top, centers should be following up to be sure these new resources are available to all. 

Showcasing successful engagements, big or small, in leadership and employee forums bring far more value than cost. These showcases are opportunities to share the specifics, trigger new ideas, and build on the culture we all need to improve our work through automation effectively. 

Let us celebrate with you: Please share your examples in the comments below.