THE MODERN PERSPECTIVE


Just over six years ago, when I finally decided to give an automated tax program a try, I was so impressed by its speed, accuracy and efficiency that I vowed never to do taxes by hand again! I chose to let go of the familiar way of doing my taxes manually (even though it was objectively an unpleasant task that I dreaded) and allowed myself to try a new way of doing things that resulted in an even better and more accurate product. I cannot imagine complet- ing—and now never want to complete—my taxes by hand again.


As humans, it’s tough for us to adapt to change, even when changes are neutral or helpful. Change still represents something new or different for us to adjust to that requires focus, energy and detachment from our previous ways of doing things. My resis- tance to using an automated tax program for several years came from within, fueled by my attachment to the comfortable “way I always did things.”


A CHANGED MINDSET Enacting and embracing modernization efforts across the federal government requires first personal, then practical and eventu- ally institutional mindset changes. Te Army will have limited success instituting modernization on a broad scale if no one actively chooses to use the new business tools and modernized systems that the Army develops, designs and deploys. For busi- ness process modernization to be effective, it requires each of us, on a personal level, to trust technology to access important data, complete functions, roles or processes that we used to perform manually, combat our natural resistance to change, and cede our sense of personal pride to technology (OK, maybe this software program can actually work more accurately or faster than I can.)


In January 2020, my team (the Acquisition Innovation through Technology team, Future Operations at the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement) developed and deployed the Determination of Responsibility Assistant bot, a tool that completes a manual data look-up process and report in five minutes—a process that, without the bot, takes users up to an hour to complete manually. We wrote about it in the Winter 2020 issue of Army AL&T.


Some users adopted the tool immediately and used it regularly, while others were skeptical and resisted using the tool—even though Army policy mandated its use. Some users wanted to know exactly how the tool worked (we walked them through the process); others wanted to know what they should do if or when the tool was not working properly one day (let us know so we can fix it). Over time, through proactive engagement with 8,000 Army users (and eventually thousands more Air Force and


94 Army AL&T Magazine Summer 2021


SLOW AND STEADY


You can still file your taxes by hand, but why would you want to? Online e-filing software has made the once arduous process much simpler and faster.


THE BAD OLD DAYS


By allowing technology to take over some important but tedious administrative tasks, Army employees modernize by improving processes one at a time—enabling change by embracing it.


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