If only BI was as efficient as Facebook

BI, Facebook and Decision Loops

I  was at an analysts briefing event with IBM last week who were sharing their thinking on Social Business and what I believe is the inspired and innovative pairing of Connections Collaboration and Cognos Business Intelligence. IBM’s Social Business Leader for Northern Europe, Jon Mell shared a slide that compared the number of operations it takes to share a photo and gather feedback with friends on facebook and  the number of operations it takes to do the same on email.

This set my mind racing. If there are efficiency gains on something simple like sharing and getting feedback on a photo, imagine the productivity gains on sharing critical business information through Business Intelligence reports.

Why do I say this? Because sharing a photo is typically a single ‘sharing loop’ process. Someone publishes the photo, others contribute with their clever and witty observations. Done. A single loop. Count ‘em. One. (A quote from Muppet Treasure Island, btw)

The out-dated view of BI is that it is shared this way too. That it’s published and the job is done. This just doesn’t hold true any more and I am not sure it ever did. BI requires many sharing loops. Ten, distinct loops to be precise;

1. Meaning Loop. Gain and assign agreement on the meaning of the information
2. Implication Loop. Decide if the implication is neutral or if there is a problem or opportunity
3. Investigation Loop. If there is an issue then it will be rare that the one piece of business intelligence will provide the full story. This loops is about investigating the problem or opportunity is in more detail.
4. Solution Loop. Determine possible solutions to exploit the problem or resolve the problem
5. Decision Loop. To decide on the best possible solution
6. Action Loop. Once the solution is determined it will be broken down into tasks and assigned to individuals to be actioned.
7. Progress Loop. Providing feedback on the progress of the solution
8. Monitoring Loop. To determine if the solution has been successful or if the group need to return to refine the tasks or redo some loops.
9. Conclusion Loop. Closure. Establish agreement that that there are no further actions and that the problem or opportunity is resolved.
10. Celebration Loop. Acknowledge the support and contributions of those involved

That’s ten loops which means that if sharing a photograph on Facebook is more efficient than sharing it in the office using email, the productivity benefits of doing ‘real’ business are tenfold.

There are those that are sceptical about Facebook styled social platforms in the office because they may waste time. The opposite is true. Organisations need social platforms, particularly for collaborative decision making. Without them, they are wasting time.