Improving the effectiveness of information

In case you missed it: I am writing a new article on Robotics. My writing process consists of the following steps: Set the goal, audience and context Prepare structure, overall storyline and title Write the first draft Review Publish After writing the draft (took me 30 minutes as I knew the storyline and title), I have now arrived in the phase in which I want my article to be reviewed. So here is the deal: I provide you with my draft article below and you will use the comments fields to provide me with feedback, encouragements, corrections and suggestions. Let’s go! Title: Why Every Great Leader Should Love Robotics (draft) I hate repetitive work. When I was a teenager, my two brothers and I had to do the dishes. On two out of every three days, I spent almost 30 minutes on something I hated instead of doing something more meaningful like reading a book, watching television or doing my homework. So how did I feel when my parents decided to buy a dishwasher? Was I afraid th...

In this series of articles you can follow my process in writing a new article on Robotics. In the  first episode  I explained my approach towards writing, the  second article  focussed on setting the goal, choosing an audience and finding the right approach. Now that we have a clear vision on goal, audience and approach, it is time to start setting up the structure. Writing requires a structured approach Writing is all about structuring your thoughts. And although this is a process that most of us do in a more implicit way, it sometimes helps - and is actually best practice - to write down your structure on a very high level. The goal of my article is to change the opinion of the reader towards accepting Robotics as a something that brings value to a business and motivates employees, rather than being limited to reducing FTE. So the structure of my article should be build up around the motives used to build up this case. As I want my article to be shor...

As mentioned in my previous article, writing is a structured, goal-driven activity. In order to get to an effective article, we need to make explicit choices: What is the goal of the article, what do we want to achieve? What is the target audience of the article? What is the context of our article? These choices help us in making the first sketch of our article. They will also influence our writing style, the level of detail and use of technical terminology. Setting the goal Those of you that have followed my articles on Personal Branding  know that I consider any form of professional communication as a goal-driven activity. An effective article supports in my opinion the author's branding and aims for one or more specific goals. These goals can be divided into three categories: Convincing the reader to perform an action. This can for instance be contacting you, ordering a product, signing up for a newsletter or visiting an event. Changing the opinion of the re...

“I wrote the first thing that came out of my head. It just happened to be, the best article in the world.” (Inspired by “The best song in the world” by Tenacious D.) The best articles in the world are shaped in our mind; we dream them, we think them through but we actually never write them. In the past I wrote several articles on Intelligent Automation and Robotics. The first of these series came easy, later on creating a new contribution started to become more and more of a struggle. It’s been more than 6 months since my last article and about time to write a new one. But where to start? And how to finish? In this blog series, I will guide you through my writing process, including my first drafts and potential revisions. How to write an article Writing is a structured, goal-driven activity. I have studied Linguistic Competence (The science of communication – in my case Writing) at University and I have learned the following activity plan: Define your goal Define your a...

In my previous article I stated that I think that every single individual on this planet will be impacted by robotics. Of course for some individuals the impact will be larger than for others. I would personally welcome the help of a robot that could take over part of the administration that comes with my job. The robot in me Photo by: Matt Cooper (https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_briston/) One of the things I do as NL Lead Automation for Accenture, is performing assessments at clients to figure out what processes could be automated. In most cases I simply sit next to a person that is performing a task, counting the activities and assessing the constraints in the process. In other cases, we receive videos or a report from an assessment tool. Could I - in this role - be replaced by a robot? I would say: yes. Can I design the robotic solution that replaces me? Yes, again. Would my clients benefit from a fully automated process?  I doubt so. The human in me Techn...

The title of this article sounds like the title of a rock song. It contains a contrast that represents the feeling a lot of people have when it comes to robotic process automation: Fear and acquiescence. Is Robotic Process Automation the new job killer? Or does is provide us with new opportunities and perhaps new jobs? There has been a lot of writing recently on how the rise of the robots will eliminate millions of jobs. According to World Economic Forum research, about 7 million jobs will be lost and 2 million gained as a result of technological change. Administrative and office jobs will account for two-thirds of the losses, with “routine white-collar office functions at risk of being decimated.” Impact on IT and BPO business Now let’s take a look at the business I am working in: IT and BPO. Analyst firm Horses for Sources has estimated the total impact of automation on IT/BPO Services Workers. Source: http://www.horsesforsources.com/indias-services-industry-set-to-los...

Rotating wheels are destiny, in flame the city lies. Machines call out for followers far out into the night. The calls of the machines drowning in the steam. (P-Machinery - Propaganda) The vision that the band Propaganda created in the 80's, with humans operated as puppets, comes close to the fear a lot of people still have when we are talking about robotics and the automation of processes. Despite this fear, robots and robotics are hot and the technology is advancing so fast that it is hard to keep track. With this blog I will give a brief introduction to two trends that I consider as leading in current process automation: 1. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 2. Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) Robotic Process Automation (RPA) According to the Institute for Robotic Process Automation (IRPA) "Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpre...