Process Improvement
Service Delivery Series:
Transformation Strategies in Isolation
What Your Team Can Be Doing While They Wait ...
2. Process Improvement
The point of this series from the very beginning has been to bring awareness and coach operational teams to avoid the potential missed opportunities.
Eleven +/- weeks into the lockdown, after flowcharting and mapping processes -- now is the time to improve those existing processes. OR ... perhaps establish processes where much needed ones do not exist.
Frankly -- operational teams should focus on process improvement iteratively. It should not take the current business response mode to prompt the deep dive into process. But like most of the topics we are discussing in these posts, process improvement is very often neglected and an after-thought.
Get your team started with the flowchart and process maps. Step through them as a group with your team and look for inefficiency and waste. Routinely establish quality goals that can be met through updating your processes. Streamline by removing non-value added steps. Challenge your team to get "outside of the box". No doubt some of your processes were established long ago and since then, enabling technology has been developed that can eliminate redundant steps and human intervention. Cloud-based productivity tools have been developed for individuals, small teams, and enterprise-wide teams.
Ultimately your goals are standardization, efficiency, and quality.
I just had a call this week about process improvement. During the discussion we began brainstorming how this organization needed to look at everything they absolutely need to do to resume normal operations giving consideration to COVID-19. More important than process improvement -- the health and safety of their associates has become paramount. In many respects -- how they operationally manage their business will have to change. But we discussed how it could serve as a catalyst for this organization to look in parallel, at all of those required business changes and evaluate whether they could incorporate much needed process changes that had been neglected or put on the back burner for months ... maybe years. As a benefit -- for those resistant to change -- the 'Pandemic Business Response' works as a bit of camouflage. It reminds me of the old classic Certs "it's two mints in one" commercial. So, since most of you are having to look at your processes anyhow because many off your activities are changing daily due to the remote work scenario or because they won't make safe sense in the new norm for the workplace -- you have an opportunity!
Now keep in mind -- do not get discouraged! Not every process map can be changed. You may have some that are already so tight and efficient that they do not warrant change. BUT -- now is the time to make that determination. Take the next step, once you have mapped the end-to-end, revisit all of those purpose driven activities to make sure they still make business sense. Your business has changed in the last 3-5 years ... your processes should too.
Process improvement should be like using WAZE. These days -- probably every time you get in the car, you plug in the destination, you start driving, you constantly recalibrate and recalculate to find the fastest, most efficient route to get from point A to point B. You are constantly checking the E.T.A. to see when you are going to arrive and how to avoid hazards along your way. Your business should not be any different.
Decide upon an "expiration date" for each process. It will not make sense to revisit each process quarterly, annually, etc. But nevertheless, set up your processes with a trigger to inform you that it is time to reevaluate that procedure within a time frame that makes good business sense. Much like content on your company portal -- determine a retention period so you know when to revisit so you can keep each process fresh and vital.
Remember -- make sure you are updating the documentation and training as you go. Don't procrastinate ... maintain a library that is easily maintained and serves as training material for your new employees.
This topic is simple. There is no silver bullet. But you are also not designing a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station. You just have to allocate the time, team, and energy to do it. The quality of your product and your solution depends on it.
Come back and check out what is next on the list in this Service Delivery Series: Transformation Strategies in Isolation - What Your Team Can Be Doing While They Wait
... #3 Streamline Reporting
... Keep making the most out of this terrible situation.
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