So, you are ready for that process engineering project with your client and have gathered all the documentation available and have your tools and methodologies at hand. The activities are ready to be documented on the flow chart in their respective swim lanes and you are looking forward to getting that Visio diagram squared away. As former college football coach and ESPN College Game Day Lee Corso often says “Not so fast my friend.” Holistic process discussions involve ‘hide and seek’ as there are strategic objectives to align, process roles and characteristics to define, underlying issues or limitations that need attention, metrics that could give the process meaning, and innovations (process enablers) that could make a difference. These can often be left unaddressed, and therefore hidden, in a pure process discussion. They need to be sought out and it involves more than a great looking Visio diagram with built in assumptions.
Any organization can gain credibility and reduce dissonance, both internally and externally, by ‘eating its own cooking’, meaning practicing what is preached. The alignment of strategic objectives and processes does just that and reinforces the vision and direction being set by leadership. For example, if one strategic objective states “process efficiency is a priority” then activities or tasks that previously required manual intervention should be automated with appropriate business rules engines to the extent possible.
There is usually more to a process than what appears on the Visio and it is easy to overlook defining process roles and characteristics. Summarizing activities for each role (including any systems/automated solutions) provides context and clarity. Process characteristics are attributes that surround and influence a process and include triggers, owners, inputs (e.g. a customer application), outputs (e.g. a customer notification), and business constraints (e.g. internal and external policies, laws, organizational requirements). Bringing these characteristics to the surface allows for other improvement opportunity (e.g. input format changes from paper to electronic) discussions. A recent example comes to mind as I recently facilitated a process documentation workshop with managers and SMEs for one of our clients as they incorporate a recent acquisition. An important and much needed discussion on data ownership for the product ordering process transpired and it quickly became apparent to the stakeholders involved that they assumed somebody else had that responsibility.
It is also important to keep in mind that processes have ‘baggage’ in the sense that they are subject to the internal and external environment in which they are carried out and there are limitations and issues present. Process stakeholders should have good insights into these issues (e.g. lack of comprehensive reporting, lack of adequate system and access controls, vendor delays, etc) during a process discussion. These issues should be defined for any recommendations and/or actions to occur with resulting implication noted as well.
A measured purpose gives meaning to accomplishments, through a defined process or not. As Super Bowl coach Bill Parcells has famously stated in blunt terms “You are what your record says you are.” Establishing impactful metrics that encourage the desired behavior and are aligned with the strategic objectives need to be part of a process discussion. In the client example referenced previously, another much needed discussion on financial impacts and the transparency needed for forecasting and reporting insights transpired as our client puts together an action plan to address.
Finally, process enablers are those activities of a process that could benefit from technology innovations to gain efficiency and effectiveness. For example, when an activity involves capturing customer information implementing a Web Portal may be a great enabler of that activity and result in better alignment of process and strategic objectives.
Utilizing process ‘hide and seek’ will provide a much clearer process picture that gives focus to the Visio diagrams and, therefore, the whole story is not left hidden behind the swim lanes and process boxes untouched and unresolved.
