Sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is fixing something that is not working even if you don’t (yet) have the skills to do so! 

Justine inherited one of those spreadsheets most people in big companies are familiar with. “Last year I was given a spreadsheet to look after and, knowing nothing about it, I blithely said ‘Sure’. I soon discovered that this spreadsheet was a small part of a manual process for a customer product ordering process – and that I had to track, via emails, who ordered what when, and which bits had been done by who, or hadn’t been done yet, or would be done soon by 8 different activation teams.” An increase in volumes meant that the very manual and time-consuming process was no longer good enough. “Knowing that this was only meant to be 5% of my time, I decided it needed a proper ticketing system. But hey, who am I to move a process part (with hundreds of stakeholders) across from personal work email to a new ticketing tool?” 

Well who Justine was ended up being the perfect person for the task! “I figured if I could lift this part of the process out of email then everyone would have clear visibility of exactly what was ordered when, and who was responsible, and what status that part of the order was at. Also, if I did the work myself it would be implemented faster, be tailored to exactly what was needed, easier to make iterative changes, and be the lowest cost.” 

Justine proceeded to get the access and knowledge she needed to get the job done. 

And the outcome? “Success! Only it’s better as everyone has visibility at any time. And there is no need to email 97 people about what the status is. Information is collected and displayed in a consistent way, in one location, and with a history. Others have told me that this way of doing things is much better.” 

Despite the emotional ups and downs (from nervous but determined to bloody-minded and finally quietly satisfied) Justine would certainly step out of her comfort zone again! “Because its madness to keep going when something just isn’t working – if you keep doing the same things the same way you’re going to get the same results. This big risk taught me a lot of technical skills and showed me how to work well with the human interfaces into automation.” 

And Justine’s advice for anyone planning a similar step? 

“It helps if you focus more on the thing you want to achieve rather than what people think of you. Putting personal nerves aside, and knowing that what I was doing would help others kept me going when I did not get support or was criticised. All advice after that is the usual:  Be ok with failing. Be ok with things taking longer and being harder than you expect. Enjoy the learning journey.  Know who your stakeholders are. Look for support from the decision maker stakeholders before you make changes.  But be prepared to just jump ahead when forgiveness is easier than permission when people may not have fully caught your vision yet.” 

And, of course Justine’s last words: 

“Although scary at first, courage to do what is better is what eventually brings others along with you. Going out of your comfort zone is a building block of leadership.” 

Justine’s BIO: 

Solutions Analyst, Product Engineering.
Where technology meets people, and imagination creates practical solutions.