Reviewing Process Redesigns: A Lesson from the Field
By Michael Wilkinson
Managing Director, Leadership Strategies
I recently had the pleasure of working with a local affiliate of a leading non-profit organization seeking to create a sustained, long-term transformation in the way it operated. Process redesign was a key element to the work. However, reviewing process flows can be a painful process and especially mind-numbing when several are done in a row. How do you keep the review team engaged during the process and how do you ensure you walk away with a quality result?
Background
For the past decade, the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, one of the stronger local affiliates in the 1300-member United Way System, has been transforming from essentially a fund-raising organization to one with a focus on creating, sustaining, and measuring long-term positive community impact.
After working with organization design expert Jay Galbraith from the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California, UWMA concluded that it had to fundamentally change its business processes in order to fully realize its community impact strategy. Though efforts had been made in the past to "tweak" its operation, UWMA CEO Mark O'Connell recognized that a community impact focus would require far more than tweaks.
"We had been having exciting meetings about what we called 'the new work of United Way.' As soon as we would leave the meeting room, however, we would return to departments that were operating by the deeply ingrained habits of the 'the old United Way.' We realized that it wasn't enough to agree that we had to be different. We had to hard-wire that difference into the daily life of our organization. Process design and implementation is how an organization hard-wires new work."
Mark O'Connell, President and CEO
United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta
The Leadership Team identified 19 key processes fundamental to a community impact focus. The Leadership Team then commissioned cross-functional teams to redesign the processes to better align with the broad goals and specific, measurable objectives previously identified for community impact. Each process team was scheduled to present their redesigned flows to the Leadership Team for review and approval. We used a multi-step process in the review that proved quite fruitful.
Step 1: Agree on the Design Concepts...
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