"What is your process?" That is one of the first questions I ask professionals I interview in my assignments. They often either don't answer or I get a flowchart full of rectangles and squares with the comments that it is out of date and no one knows exactly what it says.
Those flow charts are usually made by external consultants, someone from the Quality, Finance or IT departments. And very occasionally they employ process architects or process writers who go all out on what I call 'diamonds pull'.
Processes are the organisation's bloodstreams
An organisation that wants to be successful must have its processes in order. So that one can improve those processes quickly and continuously as circumstances demand. This is an essential element of an organisation's digital maturity.
Every organisation has processes, and everyone working in an organisation follows one or more processes in one way or another. But hardly anyone really feels like describing those processes. It is a very bad idea to then start writing down and drawing out all the organisation's processes yourself. This is a trap you should not fall into.
There are too many processes
There are simply too many processes in an organisation to describe them all centrally and in detail. Where do you start and how do you get all the information you need to have a good picture of all those processes? Then you have to process all that information into process descriptions and reconcile them with all stakeholders. That seems pretty impossible for a small team of process specialists.
And suppose you do manage to work out all the processes, the first processes described are outdated again as soon as you have described the last one. So you start again from scratch. As a result you are constantly behind the actual process state.
It's fewer processes than you think
If you ask people how many processes they have, you won't immediately get a concrete number but rather the assurance that there are "a lot of them!". Usually they mean work instructions. These are often detailed step-by-step descriptions for each exception in the process and also separately for each system supporting the process. Then you soon have dozens and hundreds or even thousands of "processes".
But in practice, only a few real processes turn out to lie beneath those countless work instructions. Only you don't get around to that meta-analysis because you are far too busy translating those work instructions one-to-one into your process descriptions. Very inefficient and time-consuming, and it doesn't contribute to value creation for your organisation.
Meanwhile, the rest of the organisation has no idea what you are all doing, sees no added value in your work and will be less and less willing to cooperate. And so you become more and more isolated on your wobbly little island.
You are not the owner
It is tempting to start working on the process descriptions yourself if nobody else wants to do anything with them. After all, you have responsibility for process-oriented work in the organisation and you may also have received training in LEAN, Lean SixSigma or another process methodology. So that makes you the perfect person to start working on it, right?
No, you are not.
After all, you are not the process owner of all processes in the organisation. The process owner is responsible for the quality of the (end-to-end) process, the monitoring of the final process result and the optimisation of the process. The process owner is therefore responsible for mapping the process and also owns the process description.
It's all about the 'to be'
Anyone diving into that vast ocean of 'as is' process descriptions will either drown or swim around forever from process to process. The work never gets finished and there are always changes to be incorporated back into the flowcharts. "Cradle it!"
The problem with many 'as is' exercises is that they get stuck in describing how things are now. But you describe the 'as is' to find problems such as waste, delays, inefficiencies and other process inconveniences. You describe the current 'as is' situation to get to the desired situation - the 'to be'.
So describing the current situation is not the end goal! Indeed: by starting from a 'fixed' description of your processes, you shoot yourself in the foot and never achieve the degree of digital maturity you aim for.
Continuous optimisation
The essence of process management is the continuous optimisation of processes to create more customer value. In doing so, you follow a life cycle that runs continuously.
You determine which processes are relevant, analyse the current situation, optimise where necessary, simulate the new way of working, implement the new process, observe how it runs and go back in the life cycle by analysing problems and optimising again.
Those who remain stuck in the analysis phase by describing all 'as is' processes never make the step to optimisation. Let alone get to continuous optimisation. And that is what it is all about. By doing this better, faster and more pro-actively, you create more and more value for the organisation.
View the poster Towards continuous process improvement
Join the BPM training in April
Do you also want to learn how to create a strategy for your process improvements?
Erik Hartman gives a 4-day BPM training course in April. Here, you will learn how to use the strategy game to strategically optimise your processes.
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