If Offshoring Makes You Happy ... 5 Observations about Offshoring Color-Blindness

"If it makes you happy," sang Sheryl Crow in 1996, "it can't be that bad." Sadly, many outsourcing and shared services experiences don't share the same lyrical optimism. In fact, many projects can't even relate to the song's oh well, it could have been worse mentality, its tolerance for breaking even, its acceptance of the neutral (a.k.a non-negative), and its honest questioning of our perceptions: "If it makes you happy, then what's the matter?" I have to credit Mr. David Gold, Expenditure Process Manager of Shell Shared Services Asia, for succinctly relating, in 2013, his organization's experience: "The SLAs look green, but they feel red." This is a common theme in many offshoring engagements, whether shared services or outsourced. So, saying it out loud like that elicited not only chuckles from Mr. Gold's audience (SSON’s Philippines Shared Services & Outsourcing conference 2013; see 2014's event here) but also nodding heads from the mostly Offshore Process Managers and Transition/Program Managers in the crowd. I'd like to call this all too common experience the Psychological Color-Blindness of Offshoring. It occurs when numeric, factual performance measurements show that the project is working, proving beneficial, or meeting or exceeding expectations; but the process owners feel that it is not, usually following an occurrence or series of within-threshold performance gaps. Now that is a loaded definition, so let me break down its components: Numeric, Factual Performance Measurements This presupposes the presence of clear, unquestionable, and mutually agreed metrics that clearly outline the process owner's expectations of the offshore partner. Fortunately, in my executive experience and consulting practice, most everything can be assigned a number, can be graphically illustrated, and can be visually demonstrated. This component is critical, because without it, the experience couldn't be called Color-Blindness but simply "Offshore Partner Making Excuses". Process Owner Emotion While this can't be measured, it does have certain indicators: superlatives or exaggerations (e.g. "the worst", "always wrong", "the lowest it's been", "never met"); tone; or one-off, anecdotal, minority reports generalized to describe the norm. Real Performance Gap One has to admit: despite extreme, anecdote-based, emotional reactions to apparent performance gaps, the offshoring program is really, honestly not perfect. There are real screw-ups that happen out there. Failing to recognize this is also Color-Blindness from the offshore (versus the process owner's) side. Within Performance Thresholds Tied to measurements and real performance gaps, the presence of performance misses should be factually, numerically, and/or demonstrably within agreed expectations. If the offshore effort is consistently not meeting clear targets and controllable goals, it is not Color-Blindness. It is simply Underperformance. After observing first-hand, as well as hearing indirect accounts of this phenomenon, I began recording recurring conclusions about these experiences. These conclusions also serve as guidelines or recommended actions for any program observing this phenomenon: 1. Red/green color-blindness is the most prevalent kind. (Well, actually, it is the only kind that we're talking about here.) 2. Offshoring color-blindness is psychosomatic. What the color-blind see (or feel) is a misrepresentation of reality, fuelled by emotional reaction—it is not fact. 3. The color-blind know they are so because the facts have been pointed out to them. So the only way to deal with the color-blind is to point them to the facts, with empathy. 4. The color-blind realize their condition because of comparison with (distinction from) the greater majority who are normal. The greater normal majority could be the 99.99% of transactions or widgets that go well on a daily basis, or the majority of other offshore operations that are not "all wrong." 5. In a number of countries, the color-blind are not allowed to drive. Who, then, should drive? It is the job of offshoring Program Managers to lead internal stakeholders, process owners, and global operations managers to the offshoring program's destination, to gauge performance through a factual dashboard, to point out the road signs, and to distinguish the red lights from the green? They should be optometrists, psychotherapists, and eye doctors, all at the same time. If you—a key stakeholder in the offshoring program—believe you are Offshoring Color-Blind, then don't drive. Take a backseat. At the end of the day, if the program makes the enterprise happy, "Then why the hell are you so sad?" [eventpdf] Interested in this topic? Here are some different views on the same theme: Why Dashboards Are LIke Watermelons, by Anupam Diwan Is Straight Through Processing the Ultimate Goal? by Lee Coulter, Ascension Health

If Offshoring Makes You Happy ... 5 Observations about Offshoring Color-Blindness

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