05 Feb
Did any of you ever have that one boss who just knew the right way to do everything? No matter the department, task or project – they had the answer to everything and knew the best way to tackle anything. Anyone?
Now, was it always the best way? That’s open to interpretation and most likely, the majority of the time, it wasn’t the best way. This is just one of the ways that People and Process go wrong.
People and Process need to go hand-in-hand in order for either to be effective. When they don’t, you end up with costly mistakes, inefficient solutions, unhappy employees and customers, etc., etc. You get the picture.
There are 3 critical downfalls and mistakes most companies make when it comes to People and Process.
- The leadership team locks themselves in a room (or go to a fancy resort) and emerges with the right way to do all the processes across the organization.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy! “We are the leaders of this organization and because of that we obviously have the answers to everything.” Wrong.
Once your organization grows beyond a certain size, think a handful of team members, the leadership are no longer the right people to provide insights and solutions to certain things, such as process and process improvement, at least not in a vacuum.
Do we still need to align process and improvement efforts to organizational goals? Of course.
Do we still need leadership to provide their expertise and guidance? Of course.
But the people with the insight into the actual problems, solutions and path forward are your employees who do the job on a daily basis.
Do these employees still need guidance to get out of their own way? Absolutely.
Does your team still need input on how to best solve inefficiencies and what the goals should be? Absolutely.
So the moral of this story is that in order for People and Process to be effective it needs to be a collaborative effort across the organization, and never relegated to a small group of employees seeking no outside guidance.
2. The organization forgets to consider the employee experience as part of their process improvement efforts
“The customer is king and everything should be designed in their favor and with them in mind. Employees will just have to bend to whatever processes we need to put in place in order for the customers to be happy and satisfied.” Wrong. Please don’t do this.
Yes, your customers pay your bills and your employees create bills, but your employees are the ones who are responsible for the entire client experience and customer satisfaction. They might do a better job if they feel like they have been considered in process improvement efforts, eh?
There should always be two lines of thinking when looking at process improvement efforts:
1. The Customer Experience, and 2. The Employee Experience.
It is possible to improve both at the same time and keep both groups happy and satisfied. And when you do, you end up with real, long lasting results.
3. Thinking people don’t want process
When owners and leadership teams think of processes and systems, they often envision being put in a box with all of their creativity and magic on the back burner. I think we can all agree this is their worst nightmare, and quickly leads them to enable employees to do things “their own way”.
We assume our employees have the same needs as us and think the same way as we do. But, if this was really the case, everyone would be a business owner, and they’re not.
While employees DO NOT want to be micromanaged, they DO want to know the “right” way to do things, and then be given the freedom to customize their work where it makes sense.
Your team does not need unlimited creativity when it comes to their day-to-day jobs. They want to perform well, consistently, and in order to do so, they need process.
Letting employees do things their own way actually increases their cognitive load, making them less productive, less creative, and less likely to make the best decisions for your business because they are fatigued from trying to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of their day-to-day work.
Your team wants structure, processes and systems. When they have those things, they can perform better because they know how to do things, when to do things, and why to do things.
Is your organization guilty of any of these mistakes? We all make mistakes, but when it comes to People and Process, make less of these and you will find yourself on the right track.