Business Digitization: Centralized Systems for the Post Hyperactive-Hive-Mind Workplace
While building centralized digital systems for businesses of small and medium dimensions, I have been observing, "gathering data", and trying to understand what is essential in the inevitable process of business digitization. I collaborate with businesses and individuals to build centralized digital systems for their core operations using Notion and complementary tools. With this post, I intend to reflect on and point out some major patterns I have been observing while doing my "job." But this does not mean that I am posing myself as an expert on the subject. Quite the opposite. Writing begets thinking and a clear definition of one's experience. This post aims at that: sharing my thoughts and observations. Not teaching something out of my leather armchair with my fingers clasped together in front of my face. I consider myself a beginner. And I probably am one, considering my relatively short-lived experience as a Notion consultant (about one year). Nonetheless, I hope this post will be thought-provoking and interesting to some; a "story" of sorts where the narrator is myself, sat behind a laptop screen in an Italian tiny village. This story is of anecdotal evidence, and it starts with a primer. A primer about building digital systems and what that entails for me as a Notion consultant.
Part 1 — Building digital systems
““The world without email is a place where you spend most of your day actually working on hard things instead of talking about this work, or endlessly bouncing small tasks back and forth in messages.””
Introducing appropriate and smart processes to knowledge work can drastically increase performance and make work less draining. Centralized digital systems for businesses focus on such a concept to design streamlined processes around core business areas. If you are a media production company and your main focus is, say, podcast production, we can craft a personalized content management system that keeps everyone on the team on the same page.
Centralizing information for the whole team has the key advantage of minimizing cognitive switches and hyperactive hive-mind behavior, as author Cal Newport would put it. A hallmark of well-designed processes is that they make us more effective and aware of what we are doing while reducing the necessity to create small tasks through constant back and forth interaction. To remain on the podcast production example, having clear steps for each podcast episode (e.g., idea, draft, editing, recording, sound editing, adding episode info, publication) can make the whole process much more clear to the team involved in the production. The sound editor knows exactly which episodes he should be mixing by looking at the cards under the stage "Sound Editing."
Establishing clear processes can take some time, especially when there is a large team involved. It can also feel difficult and overwhelming at the beginning. But the initial open-mindedness and cognitive effort needed will pay it forward in increased focus, effectiveness, clarity of operations, scalability. Having your key processes in one place, framed within detailed systems, is empowering for any business. Once momentum is built around the new processes, you can experience compound improvements in the quality and effectiveness of process and output.
Part 2a — The benefits of centralized processes
““A good production process, in other words, should minimize both ambiguity about what’s going on and the amount of unscheduled communication required to accomplish this work.””
Context matters, in communication and the knowledge work paradigm. Context allows people to "be on the same page" as to what's being done, questions, requests, and anything necessary for the daily activities of a business. There is value in using task boards, in this context. Task boards allow everyone to be aligned on (or have a good grasp of) the current state of things (i.e., projects, tasks, resources, business areas). Centralized processes minimize context and cognitive switching, which can be detrimental to our effectiveness. Using boards to organize information also allows keeping communication constrained within its relevant context for the appropriate individuals interested in the communication. I would argue that this is paramount. It is powerful to significantly decrease constant ongoing conversation in general instant messaging tools, which can feel daunting, overwhelming, cognitively and evolutionarily burdensome.
By having a centralized system for your operations and core business activities, everyone on the team is empowered to take responsibility, be held accountable, and hold other members accountable for their actions. There is a significant reduction in the often-felt necessity to "ask for permission," or "ask for clarifications about something that's on our mind." You can see what's essential all in one place, and you can focus on what's essential. This attitude requires a complete mindset shift for some organizations. Changing the state of things can feel overwhelming at the beginning. There is value, oftentimes, in delayed gratification. That's a characteristic of human beings: we can delay gratification—we can "sacrifice" instant gratification for greater future benefits, and a ubiquitous vision. Changing systems is an example of such delayed gratification: it feels hard, demanding, and counterintuitive at first, but it can bring immense benefits in the not-so-distant future.
Part 2b — The disadvantages of centralized processes
That last point is one of relevance in the context of centralized digital systems. We may experience (and witness in our companions) resistance. Why change the current state of things if they work "just fine?" Change is not always necessary. Sometimes it is sufficient to keep things as they are. This is an important potential disadvantage of centralized digital systems: if your organization is not used to change and a "constant improvement" mindset, Resistance will arise. It seems inherent to humans. Especially if you are high in personality dimension Orderliness (Big Five Personality Traits), changing things can feel unnatural and bad. Overcoming such potential resistance is a big project in and of itself.
There are also potential difficulties in learning the new centralized digital systems. What if your organization was not digitally savvy and you intend to do the switch to a centralized digital system? Some team members may take some time to learn the ropes of the new operations. Accepting time as an inherent crucial variable in change management may be a good idea. You cannot expect everyone to learn new systems in the blink of an eye. There must be training, personalized support programs, and acceptance of what is (amor fati), without losing focus on the objective: making "life easier" by establishing centralized digital systems.
Rigidity in business operations may be another counterargument we may put forward in this context. Why put all our eggs in one basket (i.e., a centralized system)? Why attempt to standardize processes when there is value in flexibility? You can keep a flexible and apt-to-change culture team-wide. Creating protocols around the type of work that can benefit immensely from systems does not correspond to establishing rigidity. Rigidity is dictated by the company's culture, I would posit. Having clear systems can free up cognitive space to work on creative endeavors that move the needle in the greater mission of the business.
The Medium-Term Commitment
Establishing "a new order of things," as W.C.H Prentice would put it, requires time, patience, full commitment, close attention, integrity, and "being a good person." This is a medium-term commitment team-wide. Remaining focused on the objective means sharing a clear vision: make things better for the whole organization (i.e., every individual working in the organization). Training programs to make sure everyone understands and proficiently learns to use the new systems is a crucial practice. It will take time, it may feel hard in the moment, but the future benefits can be rewarding, relevant, and worth the upfront investment of time and energy.
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