Implement New Tech

So, you need to bring some fancy new technology into your small business? Well, buckle up and get ready for a wild ride! Implementing new tech is like trying out a new recipe in your kitchen. It works best when you know what you want to eat (goals), a plan (recipe), ingredients (tools and resources), time to prepare (implement), and the expertise and patience to cook, taste, change, eat and enjoy! Let's spice things up and compare the process to cooking, shall we?

Step 1: Choose your goal, like a Recipe, for Your Needs and Requirements.

Before you start, visualize yourself as a chef with a vision. Describe what you wish to accomplish just like you would describe your culinary masterpiece. Are you craving a perfectly delicious workflow, like a tasty Instagram-worthy dish? Get your goals straight and your taste buds tingling. 

Step 2: Plan your project, like a cookout, and thoroughly assess your required details, resources, tools, and dependencies!

Your business is a kitchen! It is where you cook your career and work life! Are the pots, pans, and ingredients scattered all over the place, or are they ordered, easy to reach, and you know exactly where to find what! How is the timing? Is it a good time to cook, clean up, and learn where/how technology will save you from a full-blown Gordon Ramsay meltdown, or are your direct business goals, needs, and competitions (e.g., high-season, events, work-life-family challenges) staring you in the face, weighing you down by competing for your time and resources, and scaring you into mass reactive decisions and confusion with the biggest load of stress and anxiety? 

Take an unbiased look at your operations, like you would analyze your chaotic kitchen counter. Do you see a leak in your workflow saucepan? Do you see waste and repeated mishaps everywhere, or is everything squeaky clean, in place, and bringing you perfect harmony? What are the customers commenting on, faster order-processing oven, simpler end-user interactions, and DYI customer support? All those less-than-generous and supposedly hurtful comments are perfect client gifts and clues to identify the areas you and your business cooking may need better solutions to rescue you from kitchen nightmares.

Step 3: Ask Your Employees, Check Your Resources

Your employees are the Sous Chefs of your business kitchen. They are your best allies or worst nemesis, like chopped onions that make you cry like there is no tomorrow. They are your resource! And you invest a lot in them, direct and indirect! So, gather them around, aprons on, and let them voice their opinions. Do not defend, justify, make them wrong, or try to set them clear unless you want them to be voiceless, emotionless, careless robots running around your kitchen floor pretending to clean and wipe the floor! 

Many people have their secret ingredient in a family recipe. Your employees might have personal concerns or resistance to tech and change. They might know alternatives, shortcuts, and solutions you do not! Please give them a taste of involvement and support so they become your culinary comrades, whipping up success and cleaning up the mess together.

Step 4: Research to Select the Right Technology

Now it's time to go ingredient shopping! But instead of physically strolling through the grocery store, you'll be traveling through the infinitely vast and complex universe of technology options. The one that everyone offers advice on and only a few can explain! Every professional chef and experienced cook owns and loves their uniquely made custom razor-sharp knives! And everyone has cut themselves by mistake, mishap, mischance, or misfortune. 

Technology is a double-edged, uniquely made custom-sharp sword! It is extremely productive or unbelievably destructive! Please think of the last time you spent hours creating a document or accomplishing something digitally but forgot or missed saving it!

Look for user-friendly tools, like those cooking gadgets even your grandma could operate. Consider the reputation of the tech vendor, just like you'd choose a trusted brand of olive oil. And if you need help, don't be shy to ask EHTechBits, or your tech-savvy friends, for secret recipe recommendations. According to Mr. Google, a chef is an individual who is trained to understand flavors, cooking techniques, create recipes from scratch with fresh ingredients, and have a high level of responsibility within a kitchen. A cook is an individual who follows established recipes to prepare food. Good top-notch chefs are team players, preparing food or technical solutions for the long run, always collaborating with their beneficiaries.

Step 5: Aim Long-Term, Implement Short-Steps

You know good recipes always have step-by-step instructions and detailed measurements! Well, implementing new technology is no different. Create a foolproof plan that lays out the tasks, timelines, and responsibilities, just like you'd write a recipe card for your cooking masterpiece. Beware of those pesky failure traps lurking in the shadows! Analyze your plan from top to bottom, just like checking for hidden bits of shell in your scrambled eggs. Next, analyze it from bottom to top, looking for completeness, accuracy, performance, accountability, and feedback! And don't forget the contingency plans for those moments when your soufflé collapses into oblivion. There is a contingency for that, too!

Step 6: Tasting, testing, training, troubleshooting, rinse, and repeat.

Ah, training. Training is like teaching someone to cook without burning down the kitchen. Develop an easy-to-read, understand, follow, complete, accurate, and exact recipe, alternatively known as a training program, that is easy to follow and covers all the technical aspects, like explaining how to operate the new technology without setting off any smoke alarms or burning the target market down! Highlight the benefits, just like showing your employees the delicious rewards of their hard work. Bon appétit!

Step 7: Start with a Pilot Project

Let's sprinkle in some caution here. Like testing a new recipe before serving it to the entire restaurant, try implementing the technology on a smaller scale or in a specific department. That way, you can taste-test it, fine-tune it, and ensure it won't leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth. Watching people's reactions when they try something new is also very educational!

Step 8: Monitor Progress, Collect Feedback, and Improve

Keep an eye on that simmering pot of progress and gather customer and employee feedback. Communication is key, just like testing the doneness of your pasta by throwing it against the wall. And hopefully, you are not talking to a wall! 

Prioritize concerns and issues promptly and address them using the same strategy you have read and followed here. That is known as an iterative technique, or more informally, the rinse and repeat phase. You want your technology implementation to be manageable and not a soupy mess. Stay in touch with your team, stir the pot gently, rinse, and repeat until about 90% of the parties involved are happy! Perfect or 100% is generally a fallacy and/or extremely expensive. 

Step 9: Evaluate and Iterate

Trying technology and implementing tools is like experimenting with new flavors in your dishes. Keep evaluating the effectiveness of the tech and identify areas for improvement, just like tweaking your recipes until they're Michelin-star-worthy.  Embrace the process of trial and error, and give yourself permission to fail because when you end up with a burnt casserole, you'll learn what not to do next time. And who knows, you might stumble upon a delicious accident along the way! Many have before.

Step 10: Embrace Change and Adaptation

Last but not least, embrace change and foster a culture of innovation within you personally and your business professionally. 

Encourage yourself and your employees to be open to new technologies when you have clearly identified the need first, just like trying out exotic ingredients in the kitchen. If you like the taste and experience, enjoy the taste. Change is constant, and life is always changing, but you, the ever-so-important leader of your business, are in the best position to discover the what, why, how, and by when!

Change is scary! And it also leads to exciting discoveries and a menu that keeps customers coming back for more when the change is identified, strategized, and executed well. 

And if, by chance, what if you fail miserably in your technology implementation? Hey, give yourself a pat on the back for trying! Failure is the universe saying, "Hey, that wasn't the right recipe. Try something else!" Not moving or changing with time and change is a sure formula for your business to fail! Who wants that!? So pick yourself up, dust off that apron, and return to the first step. Rinse, repeat, and don't forget to add a dash of laughter along the way!

Now go forth, my tech-savvy chefs-to-be, and may your small business tidbits be much spiced with success and sprinkled with innovation for years to come!