Do you work in a company that proudly boasts to be ‘process-centric’?
What does that mean in reality?
Probably that you can’t breathe without following a complex process of approval, which takes so long that it leaves you gasping for air.
A Process should look like this…
Not this…
It should be …
A vehicle, not the destination
Subservient to the end purpose
An enabler which results in something being delivered that adds value
A sequence with a clearly identifiable start and finish
Owned by people who have responsibility for delivering some or all of its component stages
But for too many people, their organisation’s love of processes swamps them in a mire of slurry, where progress is slow and no-one comes up smelling of roses.
Too many processes are complex, unnecessary, unclear, and cumbersome. In fact, in your most paranoid moments you could be forgiven for believing that they have been designed to deliberately frustrate you.
However, a process should be smooth, clear, transparent, simple, rational, and designed to get you from A to B as quickly, efficiently, and effectively as possible.
The constraints that we have allowed ourselves to operate under are killing creativity and agility. In turn, these are killing productivity. And because so many of these processes have been developed in isolation of considerations for improving customer experience, they are killing off businesses.
Processes are often introduced as a panic measure following some internal complication or error. Invariably, it’s not a new process that is required but a change in attitude or behaviour, but as these things take longer we settle instead for a new process that people (probably) won’t follow anyway.
It’s even worse when an existing process that really needs scrapping ends up being automated. All that happens when you automate a bad process is that you end up with a faster mess!”
Something needs to give if the situation is to improve.
Here are our 6 Tips for Tipping Unnecessary Processes
Tip 1. Before you introduce or adopt a new process, ask “Why MUST we have it?”, “WHO benefits from it?” and “HOW does it materially improve the service or experience for our customers?” Only introduce if there is a compelling answer to all three questions.
Then ask, “Is there a better of way of improving the situation for our customers without the need for a new process?”
Tip Two. Take each internal process in turn (this could take years in some companies!) and ask the same three questions as in Tip 1 above. Get rid of processes that cannot be shown to add value.
Tip Three. Never introduce a new process without getting rid of an old one (or two…or three).
Tip Four. If you MUST have a new process, AMALGAMATE with an existing one and SIMPLIFY.
Tip Five. Unless absolutely necessary, don’t write it down, but keep talking to everyone involved in the chain.
Tip Six. If you have to have it, and it needs to be written down, KEEP IT SIMPLE & CONCISE.