Process Review & Continuous Improvement

Every quality control mechanism I know involves the discovery and elimination of problems. While it is essential to develop well thought of processes that are meant to bring organizations to enduring greatness, acknowledging the fact that many variables which are not directly within your control are likely to change over time might actually be more important.

It was in 2010 when I started getting exposed to process improvement while transitioning to a new role from being a supervisor responsible for looking after a team of 20 associates, to an account manager role having the overall responsibility for performance improvement, client engagement, and profitability for a contract with 500 staff. Nearly eight years later today, after a few promotions, and scaling my span by about four times, I still benefit a lot from asking six critical questions related to process review and continuous improvement.

• Have you identified the core processes that drive business operations?

What helps us drive our economy, what motivates our people, what makes our partners happy.

• Have you established a master repository of all your process intelligence?

I do not like staying in one role a moment more than what it takes to establish the processes, sourcing and developing my replacement, and getting a certain level of confidence that the clients have become an advocate of our organization.

After I go, where can my replacement access the key processes to guide him/her?

• Can you associate a process with its effect on Key Performance Indicators?

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." - Peter Drucker

Before my current organization's acquisition of the Customer Relationship Management leg of IBM, it takes twelve levels of approval to move a seat. A seat costs anything between $400-$500 a month. Can you imagine the bureaucracy involved in getting a contract worth millions signed?

Failing to update outdated processes makes business operations less efficient, costly, and more likely to make mistakes. Unless a process is resulting to successes being repeatable, and failures being avoidable, it is most probably not a process you want to keep.

• Can you measure process execution?

"What gets measured, gets managed." - Peter Drucker

This is not to be confused with the previous question. That is an external measure, it is about (how the process is positively driving results for customers and stakeholders). This one on the other hand, is about an internal measure, and should answer (how we’re doing the process, and how well are we doing it).

There are two yardsticks that are crucial in measuring the effectiveness of process execution. Compliance Review can be as simple as measuring participation rate or as complex as having a regulatory checklist, and Quality Review is measuring how well the process was executed based on earlier researched parameters identified to be resulting to delivery of intended performance.

• Does each process have an accountable owner?

Having a designated process owner is vital to the success of any process. They are typically highly effective managers, but there's a developing trend to involve front-liners who are closer to the process involved in process ownership. Here are a few characteristic of effective process owners.

• An (SME) subject matter expert.
• Someone who is directly affected by poorly functioning process, and will gain from the improved process.
• A team player who can positively influence the improvement.
• An effective communicator who is comfortable in reporting to any levels within the organization.
• A person who is results oriented.

• Is continuous process improvement within your reach?

This whole article is focused on process review and its relation to continuous improvement. It is important to note towards the end of this article though, that people are still our most important resource. People after all are the ones who create, implement, review, and improve processes. People are also the key indicator whether the organization has broken-through a culture of continuous improvement. When staff in all levels of the organization are asking these questions about the processes, it can be taken as an indication of progress

• Does this process still apply to our current reality?
• Do we need to tweak the process to make it more relevant?
• Do we feel motivated to comply and do well in executing the process?
• Are we doing well at implementation of this process? How can we do better?
• Is this process consistent to our statement of direction?
• Is this process consistent with our core values?

For the past seven years, the six questions above guided me towards leading teams and marching with them in an unending quest for continuous improvement. In today's highly competitive world, it is the same six questions I use.

Credits:

Cover Photo Background Image - Pixabay
Chest Image - Pixabay
Measurement Image - Pixabay
Business People Image - Pixabay
Growth Image - Pixabay

References:

Measuring Execution
Quality vs. Compliance
Similar Programs to Six Sigma