Elephant paths are a common occurrence. For example, when an employee wants to share certain data with a client and finds the prescribed way of working too complicated, they may seek a creative, alternative method that often lies outside the IT administrators’ visibility. These kinds of workarounds often cause concern among administrators, as maintaining control over data, access, and security is essential for good governance.
What Exactly is Governance Again?
Governance involves managing and maintaining the IT infrastructure within your organization to ensure the optimal functioning of your business operations. In other words, governance means establishing guidelines and agreements regarding the use of hardware and software, systems, networks, and databases.
Weak governance can have serious consequences, such as the occurrence of data breaches. These breaches, in turn, cause significant financial and reputational damage. To minimize the likelihood of this happening, it is crucial to establish an effective set of guidelines and agreements so that employees know exactly what is expected of them.
Elephant Paths: More Efficient Work or a Risk to Governance?
For IT administrators, it’s impossible to be aware of all the methods used within their organization. This increases the chance that an employee might unknowingly work in an alternative, risky way. Controlling, for example, how data is sent and who has access to certain systems is essential for ensuring the quality of your governance.
“This way, your organization can realize a more efficient way of working that meets employees’ needs while safeguarding cybersecurity.”
To prevent employees from using such elephant paths, IT administrators often try to enforce the prescribed process. This means fewer options for choosing your own way of working. But experience shows that employees are still creative enough to come up with elephant paths.
Elephant Paths as a Source of Improvement
Forcing methods of working doesn’t seem to be the solution. So what can your organization do instead? First, it’s important to understand why employees create elephant paths. Fundamentally, there are two reasons for this:
- Employees want to perform their work as efficiently as possible.
- The prescribed way of working seems too complex or insufficient.
It’s therefore possible that elephant paths are actually more efficient than the prescribed way of working. After all, they arise from the drive for efficiency and the need for a sufficient way of working. By understanding the motivation and insights behind elephant paths, an organization can learn valuable lessons and use them to optimize and improve work processes.
Desired Way of Working as the Common Thread
At QS Solutions, we help organizations get their governance in order and improve it. This starts with working together with the employees to develop a governance plan, in which we document all the actions and scenarios they need to perform their work efficiently. This gives us insight into the employees’ needs and allows us to align new work processes accordingly.
The actions and scenarios then become the common thread for implementing and configuring the new (supported) work processes. They also serve as a guide for developing instructional material and user support. This provides employees with a framework to work in a renewed, secure way.
By following this approach, we help you create an efficient, secure, and structured work environment. We ensure that employees can perform their work as efficiently as possible while the organization maintains control over aspects such as data transmission and system access.
What Happens After the Implementation of the New Work Processes?
The process of maintaining governance doesn’t end after the initial implementations. Once employees begin using the new work processes, we closely monitor their use. If necessary, we provide additional tips and instructions. It’s possible that employees may develop new ways of working or needs that we hadn’t anticipated. Therefore, we continue to:
- Monitor how employees use the new work processes.
- Regularly collect feedback from employees.
- Adjust our configuration where necessary.
- Report on any new work processes.
- By actively monitoring, collecting feedback, and making adjustments where necessary, we ensure that governance remains effective and aligned with the needs and developments within the organization.
From Elephant Paths to Safe and Efficient Work Processes
Alternative ways of working, or elephant paths, offer efficiency but also increase cyber risks. IT administrators lose oversight of all the methods used, which endangers the quality of governance. Fortunately, elephant paths also present opportunities. By listening to employees and documenting their desired ways of working in a governance plan, your organization can realize and support a more efficient and safer way of working. This way, you turn elephant paths into safe and efficient work processes.
Would you like to implement your Microsoft 365 rollout using our methodology? Or do you have other questions about this methodology? Feel free to contact us!
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