When it comes to managing tech and process improvements in insurance agencies, remember that operations leadership should be viewed as a strategic business function, not just a collection of administrative duties. The agencies that treat it that way and equip their operations leaders accordingly are the ones that will gain the most from their tech investments and sustain profitable growth in the age of AI. •
TIME MANAGEMENT
FOLLOW-UP TO ENSURE ADOPTION
Lasting efficiency gains and process improvements don’ t come from giving your team a new tool and telling them how to use it. The real gains happen over time as new habits are built and the onceuncomfortable new system becomes second nature.
If you want to evaluate ongoing usage and ROI from your tech investments, don ' t ask someone, " Are you using XYZ?" That question invites an affirmative response, whether or not it ' s true, and it tells you nothing about how the tool is actually being used.
Instead, ask your team members to demonstrate: " Show me how you use XYZ to complete this particular process." Then watch them do it. You ' ll learn more in five minutes of observation than in five rounds of status check-ins. You ' ll see the workaround someone built because they never learned about a feature or permissions weren’ t set properly. You ' ll see the step they skip because it ' s confusing. You ' ll see where the tool is genuinely saving time and where it isn ' t. None of that shows up in a yes-or-no answer.
After implementation, build in time to get better
My friend Todd Arnold from AB Solutions shared this rule of thumb with me:“ Spend 90 % of your time doing the work, and 10 % of your time figuring out how to do the work better.” That 10 % will never happen by accident. It has to be built into your calendar on purpose, or it gets lost in the day-to-day.
For leaders, this might look like blocking one afternoon a week, or a full day every other week, to audit current workflows and processes across the team. This is time set aside to intentionally look at how work is getting done across your agency, where the friction is, and where it can be reduced. For teams, it might look like one workshop day a quarter with everyone in the office. Dedicate time to training on current tech, reviewing workflows, identifying process improvement opportunities, and even refreshing core insurance principles. It ' s a day that costs you some production time up front, but buys back far more over the following weeks.
The most important thing to remember if you are serious about using technology to improve efficiency is: never buy tech first and figure out where it fits later.
Start by surveying your team to find out where real problems and opportunities are. Analyze where processes feel clunky, where progress stalls, and where people are using workarounds. You may find you can fix these issues using tools you already have, with no new software expense and no new learning curve for your team to climb.
Only after you ' ve identified a legitimate problem should you go looking for a tech solution. At that point you ' re not buying a tool because it looks cool and sounds promising. You ' re buying it because you ' ve identified a specific problem it can solve, and you already know it fits into how your team actually works.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Effective tech adoption and process improvement aren ' t things that happen because you bought the right software. They happen because leadership took an active role: setting realistic expectations, assigning ownership, updating procedures, ensuring long-term adoption, and protecting time to continually get better.
When it comes to managing tech and process improvements in insurance agencies, remember that operations leadership should be viewed as a strategic business function, not just a collection of administrative duties. The agencies that treat it that way and equip their operations leaders accordingly are the ones that will gain the most from their tech investments and sustain profitable growth in the age of AI. •
Jessica is the COO and a partner at Johnson Insurance in North Carolina and is also the founder, ops consultant, and an industry speaker through her business, Agency Ops Advantage. Her goal is to help agency leaders build the type of business where tech amplifies people.
JULY / AUGUST 2026
13