Thank you for this. Beyond correctly identifying the situation you were walking into, what indications did you have (or could someone look for) that you would have the latitude to turn it around?
Basically, if memory serves right, I based some of this on what I could glean from the organization's website. The company in question was a small (20 person) national/regional satellite of a larger (1500 person) multinational, daughter company of an even larger (30k) national/government corporation. To simplify, this is Europe, specially the Nordic region, so small national populations require their own footprint, and a massive player in one country may not be heard of in the neighbouring country.
From the website, I could clearly see that the company ambition wasn't anywhere near the reality I was presented (and even from there I couldn't quite grasp what they actually did, though to clarify with hindsight, information logistics basically entails accepting massive amounts of documents for distribution from large businesses, interpreting and transforming those to a destination format and layout, running distribution optimisation, and finally multi channel distribution to electronic archives, postal services, electronic invoicing, email, et cetera..)
Given the attitude of the CEO, it was clear he was painfully aware of the disparity, and I decided that the position I was being hired for had the potential to do something more should I be up to the task (though fairly clear that the CEO had given up on humanity in general and didn't have any idea of how to get out of the rut except doing more of the same to keep up with demand).
To be clear, this could all have gone terribly wrong, and if I hadn't spoken out of place at a few occasions, it would have.
Generally though, the first thing I consciously did to put myself in a position to gain the trust of the employees (which is always fundamentally critical in a transformation) was to clearly request that I start work early, in a low position. In my case, that meant working the floor of the print house, dealing with the Xerox dp180 printers and some Pitney Bowes enveloping machines. This was a menial area, relatively devoid of tech except the so called production control system which was a bastardized as400 running some of software from 1994 which had been repurposed to be the finance system at some point..
I think I would generally equate this to starting out in helpdesk or local it support for a few weeks. Absolutely invaluable.
Once progressed to my position proper, it was far easier for me to make correlations between production problems and related inefficiencies to systems design, maintenance, etc. Essentially I started asking questions no-one had asked before and started bridging the divide. Less than a year later,i had the mandate and ability to tear the whole system apart, causing the casualty of the most senior programmer there at the time (he didn't agree to anyone other than him touching his baby, so he left).
Long story short, in desperate situations where management have exhausted their known options, and are bound by higher powers, they will accept reasonably formulated and logical arguments - provided it actually solves THEIR problem. Stepping over the roadblocks above you to meet those issues face oh is a necessary part of that.
From the website, I could clearly see that the company ambition wasn't anywhere near the reality I was presented (and even from there I couldn't quite grasp what they actually did, though to clarify with hindsight, information logistics basically entails accepting massive amounts of documents for distribution from large businesses, interpreting and transforming those to a destination format and layout, running distribution optimisation, and finally multi channel distribution to electronic archives, postal services, electronic invoicing, email, et cetera..)
Given the attitude of the CEO, it was clear he was painfully aware of the disparity, and I decided that the position I was being hired for had the potential to do something more should I be up to the task (though fairly clear that the CEO had given up on humanity in general and didn't have any idea of how to get out of the rut except doing more of the same to keep up with demand).
To be clear, this could all have gone terribly wrong, and if I hadn't spoken out of place at a few occasions, it would have.
Generally though, the first thing I consciously did to put myself in a position to gain the trust of the employees (which is always fundamentally critical in a transformation) was to clearly request that I start work early, in a low position. In my case, that meant working the floor of the print house, dealing with the Xerox dp180 printers and some Pitney Bowes enveloping machines. This was a menial area, relatively devoid of tech except the so called production control system which was a bastardized as400 running some of software from 1994 which had been repurposed to be the finance system at some point..
I think I would generally equate this to starting out in helpdesk or local it support for a few weeks. Absolutely invaluable.
Once progressed to my position proper, it was far easier for me to make correlations between production problems and related inefficiencies to systems design, maintenance, etc. Essentially I started asking questions no-one had asked before and started bridging the divide. Less than a year later,i had the mandate and ability to tear the whole system apart, causing the casualty of the most senior programmer there at the time (he didn't agree to anyone other than him touching his baby, so he left).
Long story short, in desperate situations where management have exhausted their known options, and are bound by higher powers, they will accept reasonably formulated and logical arguments - provided it actually solves THEIR problem. Stepping over the roadblocks above you to meet those issues face oh is a necessary part of that.