Andy Mehrotra, CEO and Founder, EightSpokes
I find modern truth in ancient Chinese wisdom, that the journey of a thousand miles depends upon every small step along the way.
Nowhere does this ring truer than in the life sciences, where the success of complicated, multistep plans for drug development and commercialization ultimately depends upon the quality of work being delivered by each team member for every assigned deliverable.
However, companies are limited in their ability to assess execution along the way. Often, they can only gauge the quality of work retroactively, when it’s too late — this is unacceptable and will start to change in 2018.
Modern technology will finally enable real-time feedback from peers and managers throughout the lifecycle of a project so that every task achieves its intended outcome. Task members will receive relevant, timely assessment on their work so they can course-correct while their projects are still ongoing to improve overall quality, prevent costly delays, and increase productivity. Further, receiving on-the-job feedback and recognition will raise the team’s engagement with their work — something that, according to Gallup, has been lacking in organizations globally for decades and is particularly important to millennials, who now comprise the largest share of the American workforce. The increasing power of cloud computing is eliminating delays and making continuous improvement through ongoing feedback a reality moving forward.