Don’t make more trash

I once bought a very large box of the wrong size trash bags. My solution? Get a bigger trash can.

This is exactly how software gets selected and implemented.

An organization invests heavily in technology that isn't quite right, and rather than cut their losses and find something better suited, they create work to fit the software. They build workflows and protocols around what the system is capable of doing, not around the tasks they actually complete on a regular basis. The shape of the day starts to bend toward the platform. New steps get added so the data lines up. People build small workarounds to hold the things the system won't. The team adapts to the tool instead of the tool serving the team.

Repair. Reuse. Recycle.

I don't produce enough trash to regularly fill a bigger can. And the temptation is real: just start throwing more things away.

But my parents grew up in a war-torn country. Waste was not tolerated in our family. Don't waste what you already have. Don't create more waste just because the container is bigger.

That same logic applies to the software you've already paid for. Once it's installed, there is pressure to justify the investment by using all of it. Every module. Every feature. Every dashboard. So reports get generated that nobody reads, and data gets entered that nobody needs. The original problem the software was supposed to solve gets buried under the work of feeding the software itself.

Are you getting ready to implement software that wasn't your choice? Does the software in the demo seem very different from the software you're implementing?

Who you gonna call? Anne Choe