Facepalm Files: The moment you realize you painted yourself into a corner and wish you had taken a different turn

I’ve seen it time and again during my 25-year career in the identity space — technically focused teams, partners, or customers that underestimate the fact that identity security isn’t just an IT project, but rather a transformational business program, that adjusts or optimizes a multitude of business processes.

That failure to understand the transformational aspects of an identity security program has caused more than a few teams to (initially) head straight into a brick wall.

That brick wall comes in many shapes, forms, and types. For example:

• A failure to see, let alone seize, the opportunity to modernize and streamline existing business processes but rather to implement existing business processes “as-is” often without ever having a conversation with the process owners.
• “Old school thinking” typically caused by a lack of understanding what functionality modern technologies can provide, coupled with a mentality to build “whatever the business asks for,” often leading to heavy customization.
• No business analyst or business consultancy available to the project team, tipping the balance to the technical side.
• No experienced partner involved that has helped other companies, preferably some of your peers, in their own modernization efforts.

So, when do companies realize that they are on the wrong track? Well, that depends. Sometimes new management comes in and quickly identifies this fact, based on their prior exposure to what success looks like. Sometimes it’s when management realizes the intended ROI isn’t being achieved. And sometimes, it’s their auditor, or their strategic system integrator that opens the eyes of management and tables the changes required for success.

Whenever that moment arises that companies realize they are not getting the benefits they should, I have seen them respond in different ways. One of them could be to fire those responsible, but I’ve never seen that make for a successful recovery. In fact, that often makes it worse, with teams digging trenches, hiding and prolonging their mistakes.

Only when companies realize they may just need some help from experienced partners to help guide transformational changes have I seen them recover. Often with the same team that only needed a little guidance and a lot more business involvement.

There is a lesson to be learned here, one that many have learned the hard way.

An open culture, one where we want to learn from our mistakes, where we embrace feedback, internal as well as external, is what breeds success. In my book, there’s only one way to learn. You fall, get back up, and learn from it. However, I’ve seen companies that fired an entire team, hired a new team, went back to the market with a different solution, and ended up making the same exact mistakes. I’ve seen companies spend millions on technical implementation that fail to deliver meaningful ROI and then decide to try again, without learning from past mistakes. However, those companies who learn from their mistakes and realize they need help from a partner with domain expertise, industry knowledge, and a proven track record of navigating their clients through complex problems are destined for true, measurable, and impactful success.

Best practices exist for a reason. Learn from the mistakes that others make, before making the same mistakes yourselves.

Want to avoid these facepalm moments? Download our free Modern Identity Security for Dummies, SailPoint Special Edition eBook and take the first step toward smarter, safer identity practices today!