Marsh McLennan

Humberto Morales is a seasoned technology professional and has been the Manager of IT Support Services at Marsh & McLennan since 2008. He oversees IT infrastructure across Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. With a degree in Computer Systems and postgraduate studies in Information Systems Management, he excels in interpersonal communication, teaching and customer satisfaction. He has over ten years of university lecturing experience.

Through this article, Humberto Morales addresses the challenges and solutions for implementing new technological changes in the workplace. He emphasizes the importance of understanding colleagues' work, offering hands-on guidance and fostering personal motivation to ensure lasting and meaningful change. Morales shares his insights on empowering users with new technologies like AI and reflects on his experiences with initiatives such as "A Day in your Chair" to enhance productivity and satisfaction.

Indeed, we've all experienced announcements in our organizations that sound great in the headlines but don't become effective or are so fleeting that they don't change much. An example I know very well is the implementation of new technological solutions. While some colleagues are crying out for the latest and faster machines, the technology area proposes solutions like cloud file sharing or, more recently, AI (Artificial Intelligence), which only a tiny percentage of users know how to leverage. These new resources could help simplify our daily work and make it more efficient.

Since the mass adoption of personal computers, the implementation of Windows and its faithful companion, MS Office, have shown us the wonders that can be done with these tools. However, while you can perform excellent data analysis and show results with graphs and pivot tables in Excel, most users use the spreadsheet as a notebook to quickly jot down rows and columns. Another example is the widespread use of ZOOM for remote meetings.

Instead of saving time by avoiding travel from one meeting to another, the technology was used to fill up every free slot in our agenda with meetings. A curious fact is that when presentations are made via ZOOM, the presenter talks while pointing to their screen as if others could see their hand. Hardly anyone uses the pointer provided by the tool, which would avoid participants asking, "Which cells are you referring to?"

So, why don't we change our work by using something new that helps us? From my point of view, the answer lies in three factors. First, we are too busy to dedicate time to new technologies, even when told they will save us time. Second, stepping out of our comfort zone to take the initiative with something new doesn't attract us. Third, we often see these changes as impositions from tech people who "don't know how to do the work of other sectors."

  ​Empowering colleagues to embrace new technologies involves understanding their work, offering hands-on guidance and fostering personal motivation to ensure lasting and meaningful change.  

But how can we make these changes happen? The first step is to empower our colleagues to be part of the change. This is achieved by sitting down with them, understanding their work, offering improvements and teaching them how to use these new technologies. Giving them an instruction manual or a video tutorial is not enough.

In humanity, only a tiny percentage of people learn to drive a car to become race car drivers. We must understand that most learn to drive a vehicle to satisfy a need for freedom of movement. There is also a percentage who are comfortable traveling by public transport. If our colleagues are not passionate about the proposed change, they will only do it if they are motivated by a personal need.

Some time ago, I implemented an idea called "A day in your chair," where I would personally leave my desk and sit with a user to learn about their daily work and what technologies they use while showing them alternatives for improvement with the tools already installed on their computers.

Today, AI presents us with a new challenge. What are we doing as tech people to help our users take advantage of it? It's not enough to publish its benefits and send a mass email that many colleagues ignore. The key is sitting down with them and identifying who is the most audacious and enthusiastic so that once they become empowered with the technology, they can inspire their colleagues.

Technology is changing and the way we work and our tech areas are changing to accompany technological changes and business needs.