The Process Ninja

Don't Talk the Process - Walk the Process

There are so many ways to gather information these days that it's easy for us to get lost in the detail. When it comes to looking at and understanding processes we have the same challenge - how to wade through that sea of information and data to find the truth.

The short answer is that you will never understand everything and you shouldn't expect to. It is ridiculous for us as process analysts to walk onto a project and set about trying to learn every piece of information on a subject that has taken years to create and which sits within the heads of numerous subject matter experts. To quote a sage friend of mine, we need to take the approach of "how much do you need to know to know that you know enough".

Whilst workshops can have value, and depth interviews, well, add depth, I am a great fan of walking the process. This involves very simply following the flow of information through the process - walking to each person or department and asking them to take me through their work. Info will always disappear into systems and pop out somewhere else, but we can still follow that too.

What walking the process achieves for me is to build a visual picture of flows in my head. It also helps me to build relationships with the staff involved in the process and to explain what I am trying to achieve. There is something about walking the process that helps the staff to build a sense of trust and to speak openly about the work they perform and the issues they face. Putting the same staff in a workshop environment creates a totally different set of group dynamics where staff may not be so open with their thoughts.

So as a starting point do not underestimate the power of walking the process. It's an ideal first step.

Eat Your Own Dog Food

I worked for an  IT Company that had an IT helpdesk that was beyond helpless. I worked for a Telecommunications company where the boss created an atmosphere of fear and hatred. I worked for an insurance company where the staff would burst into tears. I worked for a bank with a stationery cupboard with no stationery in it.

If this is the way we treat our employees, how do you think our customers will feel? But no, we treat our customers like kings, right? But if we look upon our employees, no matter where they sit in an organisation, they all have (or must have) an end impact on the customer experience – we are all part of the chain that leads to the customer. Break that chain or pass the wrong message down the line and we do damage.

So when you come to work for a company that earns billions of dollars profit a year and you don’t have paper to write on, don’t have a cup to drink out of and the printer has been broken for a week, what is the impact? Do you turn up at work full of the joys of spring? Or do you brood and fester your discontent until it spreads like a slow poison?

For too long now businesses have been treating their staff like disposable assets, and in the last year or so employees have been taken advantage of more and more. Whilst many organisations have suffered, many still continue to reap huge harvests – but that doesn’t stop them from cancelling xmas parties and forcing “imposed leave”. So when you talk in fuzzy Marketing speak about how you are going to look after your customers, remember that it all starts within your gilded doors. If you can’t eat your own dog food then how do you expect anyone else to?

The tide is turning, the boats are waiting on the shore.

Are you going to be one of “them” or one of us…?

- TPN

Meet My Alter Ego - The Cafe Ninja

And in case you are interested, meet my alter ego The Cafe Ninja at www.thecafeninja.com !!! Watch out for my interview in the Entrepreneur section of The Australian newspaper on 25/9/09.

The Church of BPM

I see a lot of "Process Evangelists" out there in linkedinland. Some of these guys seem to have almost cult-like following. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that's a bad thing at all - in fact it gave me an idea.

A few weeks ago I had a coffee with a fellow BPM enthusiast - a recent convert to the process way of thinking. After he was finished with his enthusiastic speech I said to him "Finding Process must be a bit like finding God..." - he agreed. We'd both had that lightning bolt moment when suddenly the way that we saw business had changed forever - and it was a powerful moment.

So maybe what we need to do is not to educate the world in BPM, not to send out white papers, not to hold conferences - maybe what we need is to be fundamentalists, preachers and pilgrims. Maybe we need to start shouting, singing and clapping our hands and saying "praise be" to the church of BPM. So what I say to all of you out there that feel the need to spread the word - let's stop being timid and let's start making some noise.

If the brothers out there aren't a listenin' yet, then they'll be a hearin' the callin' a real soon...

The Concept of "Dead Time" in Processes

When I was at University I studied the classic Human Resources stuff - Maslow's hierarchy of needs, etc. One of the classic studies (of which I have forgotten the name) always sticks in my mind.

The experiment measured how workers in a factory worked most productively. It essentially discovered that those who worked rapidly could only keep up the rapid work for a certain amount of time before they "burned out" whilst those that were most productive worked at a steady pace throughout.

What this shows is that the "fast" workers were probably operating near to 100% productivity, while the others were operating at, say 70%. When the fast workers burnt out they (for example) dropped to 30% productivity - so overall their productivity was less over the piece.

Where I am going with this is what I call the concept of "dead time". In any process where human beings are involved you will rarely or never have 100% productivity - it's just not our nature. "Dead time" is the gap between 100% productivity and actual productivity.

So why is this important? Well it needs to be considered when looking at processes. This is because it is a waste of effort, time, money, etc. to improve process steps that fall into "dead time". For example is it worth installing new lifts in a building that are super fast to enable employees to get to their desks quicker? I'd say probably not as this period of time may fall into "dead time". Is it worth spending money on a super fast coffee machine in the kitchen? Probably not because people will still stand around and talk to whoever is in the kitchen at the time.

These are simplistic examples, but it is always important to realise that there will always be percentage of "dead time" in every process - it isn't always worth optimising every stage of the process - making the judgement call of what fits into "dead time" is the tricky part.

- TPN

10 Things I hate about BPM

I bet you never thought you'd hear me say it, but here we go. I hate:

The fact that it's reduced to yet another boring ackronym - it's so much more interesting than that

The fact that people are still arguing about what BPM / Process improvement and all the other phrases including process actually mean (it doesn't matter!!!)

Boring, elongated articles on process that try to turn it into a science - please people, go back to university and leave us alone!

People arguing over their tools "my tool is better than your tool!" - stop it - you're all tools!

People jumping on and off process bandwagons "Ooooh Six Sigma was so 2007" - it's not fashion so get over it

Lumbering software giants that charge a squillion dollars for poor installations that give process a bad name

People who write process blogs, but who can't write (does that include me - ha!)

Senior Managers who can't see the value of process (go die you dinosaurs!)

People who think because you've drawn a process map you've solved world peace

Those who cannot see "THE GOAL"

Harsh, aren't I?

- TPN

Ninja Tip: Separate work and personal opinions

It is fine with being friends with people at work, but to maintain a healthy balance it is important that you are able to separate your personal and professional opinions. If you have a colleague at work who isn’t performing, it needs to be addressed, whether or not they are your friend. Vice versa you shouldn’t cast aside a good friend because you are embarrassed by their ability to do their job or that you don’t like the work they have given you to do. It may help for you to think of each person as having two sides – a work side and a personal side – and one should never tarnish the other.

 

This is a hard leap for some people to make and it may sound harsh - but ultimately you will be the one looking bad for protecting an underperforming staff member. The converse is true; just because you don't get along well with someone personally, you must not let this come in the way of a professional work relationship.

 

If they're good, they're good. If they're bad they're bad.

 

- TPN

Some Process Wisdom from My Dad

My dad's a very smart guy - he's an accountant. Don't hold that against him. He's worked for a ton of top firms around the world and ocassionally throws me a nugget of wisdom like he did today:

 

"Just remembered something from the days when I managed Budget-rent-a-Car for Appleyard 35 years ago.  The UK MD of Budget used to talk about the telephone being the "money machine".  The call was an enquiry about the product - car rental.  The call had to be handled properly and turned into a rental.  There was no point in the phone ringing if some dumbo answered it and lost the potential client.  It might have been less costly for it not to ring in the first place.  Today's equivalent is wider than the phone - it still includes the phone, but is much wider.  Anyway the moral of the story is that enquiries have to be handled timeously and correctly to turn someone's interest into a sale".

 

What dad is saying, essentially, is that there is is no point in having a million ways that the customer can easily communicate with you if you don't get your entire sales process correct. Think about it. If you have a shop in the busiest street in the busiest town, you'll still sell nothing if your salespersons stand around chewing gum and talking.

 

So think long and hard about communication methods in your company, but don't think that's the be-all and end-all. Making a sale is still making a sale, whether that's an automated system or someone in the flesh - there is no margin for error.

 

- TPN

Building Sandcastles: Why the world needs Process Analysts, not Business Analysts

I'm not a BA god damn it! I'm glad I'm not. I used to be one and I hated it. But why do agencies still call me about every BA job under the sun?

If you are not aware there is a huge differece between a BA and a Process Analyst:

BA: Scoping, requirements gathering & documenting, testing, training, etc

Process Analyst: As-is and to-be analysis, mapping of process, gap analysis, recomendations, change management, communication.

To me, the roles are chalk and cheese. A BA is down and dirty with all the intricate details. A BA is a car mechanic tinkering with nuts and bolts. The Process Analyst looks at the car and identifies its flaws or they design the car.

So why are there so many BA's and so few Process Analyst roles? To me it's basic ignorance. Most companies think a BA can do the job of a process analyst as well as the job of a BA. Judging by a lot of the process maps I've seen, that's not the case. Process is a speciality, a skill, a mindset. You wouldn't get a handyman to build you a house, you'd get a builder.

The good process people I've seen aren't focussed on the nuts and bolts - they see the big picture. For me, the ideal combination is a BA and a process analyst working in unison. The Process Analyst painting the picture of the landscape and the BA focussing in on the process analyst's recommendations.

But time and again I see projects filled with BA's, and time and again I see projects doomed to fail. BA's fill a very important role, but without a process perspective those projects are merely building castles of sand.

TPN

EVERYTHING is Process

My favourite band of all time, Oasis once sang "You're all part of the Masterplan..." and that's how I think about process.

What a lot of people seem to forget is that everything we do is a process. When you get up in the morning you follow a process, when you brush your teeth you follow a process. A lot of what we do has become routine and habit, but once upon a time they were new to you - you probably just don't remember when the switch from being a new process to being "just something you do" occurred.

How is this relevant? - well we have to stop thinking of process as being a thing that we fix or we tweak or we control. It is all of those things, but it is so much more - process IS everything that we do, and the sooner we can make decision makers understand this way of thinking, the sooner we'll change the world.

Process is rock n' roll. They just don't know it yet.

TPN