Some common situations we encounter while working with Family Businesses:
Atul is an average employee and performs to expectations. He has been working with the organization for 10 years. His job consists of routine tasks which are considered simple. Atul resigns from service and is replaced by Rajesh. Rajesh is unable to efficiently perform the ‘simple’ tasks being handled by Atul. The tasks suddenly seem complex.
Varun is in-charge of the Procurement process in a mid-sized family business. At most times, the procurement is quick and painless. Yet there are some procurements, where the lead time is significant. And what gets procured differs in some respects from the requirements. When questioned, Varun blames the User Department for not providing the right specifications. The User Department blames Varun for failing to identify the right suppliers. They also claim that the specifications given were accurate.
Rashmi is a Sales Manager with a Real Estate firm. There are many customers who have been very impressed with Rashmi. They found her professional, courteous and responsive to their needs. Yet, there have been several instances where potential customers have complained about Rashmi. Customers had to follow-up several times to get further information on certain projects. An analysis of the data available showed wide variation in the days taken to follow up with leads. In some cases, leads had not been chased for a significant period.
All these are symptoms of broken or non-existent processes. Often the symptoms pass for a business-as-usual scenario. What it leads to is sudden fires – when a new employee joins, when a key customer has an issue, when a critical component does not get procured on time. In other words, unnecessary stress for you and your employees!
Ready for the magic 5-step formula? Here you go!
Step #1: Map your existing processes and identify the gaps
This is nothing but representing the steps in your existing process in a diagram. You could do this on a whiteboard, a flip-board, or straight into a computer.
My personal preference is using a large brown paper with each process step put onto a Post-It note for large processes. It is much easier for a team to collaborate and brainstorm with such a setup.
For uncomplicated process maps, you can use Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel or Word. For more advanced process maps, there are several paid and free software available.
There are three key types of process maps.
A high-level process flowchart can map the process flow and help identify fundamental issues in the flow. Here you would list down the basic 5-10 steps in a process. There should be no more than 3-5 sub-steps for each of the basic steps.
A detailed process flowchart will go into much more depth than the high-level process flowchart. You could also use BPMN (Business Process Model & Notation Specification) specifications which covers virtually every type of process and level of detail.
The third type of process map is my favourite- the swimlane diagram. The swimlane diagram indicates the departments / employee responsible and the information flow for each task. This allows you to use the process map for training new employees. It segregates the tasks by departments and hence prevents inter-departmental issues. A swimlane diagram helps remove the ambiguity in handoff from one department to another.
Whichever process map you choose, the key steps are:
- Determine terminal points of the process
- List and sequence steps in the process
- Prepare flowcharts for the identified processes
You now look at the gaps in the process. These gaps are parts of the process where the task, output or the responsible department is not well defined. Be brutal while identifying gaps. A good practice is to document all the gaps identified and focus on the gaps based on their impact.
Step #2: Generate alternate processes and select best alternative
In this step, we change the process maps to fill the gaps identified in the previous step. The alternate processes should be designed keeping in view process efficiency, personnel requirement and requirement of controls (financial, quality etc.).
Ensure that you specify department / position responsibility, timelines, approvals for each process task. To select the best alternative, bring all the process owners and users together. (Warning: This might not be a very friendly meeting!). Encourage the process owners and users to express their opinions on each alternative. While there may be disagreements, ensure that the best alternative chosen is ‘owned’ by the process owner and user.
Step #3: Prepare a User Manual
Process maps can provide a lot of information in an easy to read format. Yet, put a process flowchart in front of an employee, and chances are their eyes will glaze over! A good User Manual is essential to go along with a process flowchart. The User Manual aims to:
Describe the process step mentioned in process map. The level of detailing in the description depends on the criticality of the process step or the intuitiveness of the process step name
Elaborate on the defined process roles and responsibilities of the process owners/users
Assign timelines for each process step
Assign approvers, if applicable, for each process step
Clarify preceding and succeeding process steps
If you want your redesigned processes to be implemented, invest the time and effort to prepare the User Manual.
Step #4: Train departments / employees
The departments / employees need training on the new processes. The fundamental aim of the training is to ensure each process owner / user is conversant with the redesigned processes.
Step #5: Start implementing new processes
Go Implement! The lesser the time between Step 4 and Step 5, the better. Lesser time increases the chances of success. As time increases, inertia to implement the process increases.
Conclusion
The most dangerous phrase is “We’ve always done it this way”. That language needs to go out of the window for Process Improvement to happen. Successful teams adapt their workflow, while weak teams gripe about how difficult the process is.
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