Process Management Process Management

The Customer Research Center (CRC) has recently interviewed a world-class strategist and expert in change management processes to obtain a real-world perspective on implementing fundamental improvements through complex business environments. In fact, we all have read articles on process management imperatives bland and full of self-serving tautology that basically recommends is a higher power or magic to get from a near death experience to successful project completion. We wanted to get some 'simulated dirt under your fingernails and talking with someone who has "been there, done that" dozens of times.

Shane Lipson has dedicated his career to documenting, sorting, streamlining and automating the most twisted, tied to tradition, error-prone, expensive processes are in the business world. With everything that is still just started, but we convinced him to take some 'time out and hit a few holes in our theoretical balloons with a little' stone cold reality.

Mr. Lipson noted that "executive communication" has a great return from the description of the process. The reality is that few managers have no concept of the detailed processes that occur within their organizations. By definition, the changes involved with Mr. Lipson always need CEO-sponsorship to succeed. But how does a CEO go beyond the sentence if business processes are a black box? "With the presentation, at the right level, process maps and analytic tools that clearly show the breadth of opportunities," there is a change in leadership of the close of the fundamental is "the only way to cause him / her to take that bold step to do something. " In professional services organizations, there is always a tendency toward stasis that the analysis process can help to push toward a personal commitment ". Yes, this is what we do"

This personal commitment extends to the critical need for the right organizational model. Mr. Lipson points out that housing analysts within IT process or function of internal consultancy always ends up pitting "people process" against "businessmen." "To get really involved process management (outside of some windows to draw on a piece of paper), the analysis process must be run from within the business itself." The analysis process skill-set must be owned and driven by high levels on the business side, or will never be driven to the people actually doing the work. If the consultants in the process they have to sell their work at the end of the analysis, the game is already over. The company has to buy into the process of owning enough to analysts or the result can never possess.

This is difficult enough, but Mr. Lipson said the most difficult step, requires an investment in the culture of the organization and the organization's ability to "think" in terms of process. "There must exist a culture of understanding the process that is guided by the highest level of the organization." This confirms the huge investment, GE and others engaged in when they decided to internalize Six Sigma as part of the "DNA" of their society. Mr. Lipson said: "This is a time investment, an investment in dollars, an investment and will. This can not be lip-service."

An organization that is committed to management processes must have the "ability, desire, and infrastructure to train its employees" to use the established process. Frankly, this is where the CRC has seen the biggest gap in process management initiatives. Too many companies put their emphasis on the development of the process of "being" and infrastructure support, and allocate sufficient time and resources for training and deployment.

Finally, Mr. Lipson noted that "there must be an ability to measure and enforce" day to day application of the process defined. "Unless executives and managers are willing to monitor and measure the process ... and make sure it is supported with HR practices (for example, pay is linked to it), people ignore what you say" in favor of what they are rewarded to do.

In bewilderment, dismay, and the cessation of many teams for strategic transformation, the construction of a solution is not objectively superior in any way, to ensure its adoption. While Mr. Lipson said, process analysis is the easiest part of labor, effective process management is the key to efficiency, a fundamental change.

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