Speech Analytics Success Series Part Five: The Willingness and Ability to Change

Last time I wrote about the seven ingredients for success I spoke of having the right people. This week I am going to speak about the next ingredient, the willingness and ability to change. Speech Analytics by its very nature is a change agent and many organizations look to the insight generated from their Speech Analytics program to find areas to focus improvement on. After all BI (Business Insight) comes before CI (continuous improvement). But a desire for change is not the same as being willing to change or having the ability to change.

There is a comic strip where a group is asked to raise their hand if they want change, and every hand is raised. In the next frame they are asked who wants to change, and no hand is raised. Your normal reaction might be to think of the need for change management, but I think it is more than that.

Think of your own change management cycle. If Speech Analytics insight uncovers an opportunity that requires systems changes, can you get the money or cycles in IT to make that change or do you have to wait for next year’s budget cycle? If there is a broken process uncovered, is there capacity on your continuous improvement team to redesign the process or are they focused on their own priorities? Even training opportunities may not make their way to the floor because of a full training calendar.

So, what is the solution? I believe that a robust governance model creates a path for prioritization of initiatives. If Speech Analytics studies focus on the right priority, then downstream stakeholders are already aligned.

Hopefully, this has given you something to think about. Next time I’m going to talk about the sixth ingredient for success, Knowing your Customer.