Reviewing Process Redesigns – A Lesson from the Field
By Michael Wilkinson, CMF
Managing Director, Leadership Strategies, Inc.
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
The teams were asked to present the following information to the Leadership Team before stepping through the process flow.
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Sample |
Implement year-round integrated marketing and communications. |
1. What is the purpose of the process? Why is the process needed at all?
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Purpose |
To ensure our stakeholders have a full understanding of our mission and work, to deepen their engagement with our community impact agenda, and to increase stakeholder loyalty |
2. What are the critical success factors for the process? What are the key conditions that result in success if the process design satisfies them?
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Critical |
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3. What must be different from the way we do the process today to take into account the new direction of the organization?
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What’s Different? |
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After hearing the three design concepts, the Leadership Team then had the opportunity to discuss and agree upon the design concepts.
Step 2: Walk through the Flow
A member of the Process Design Team then walked through the new process flow, step-by-step, highlighting instances where elements of the design concept were incorporated.
Step 3: Check the Flow against the Design Concepts
After the walk through, the Leadership Team (not the Process Design Team) was asked to speak to how each element of the design concept was satisfied through the new flow.
Step 4: “Does the redesign go far enough?”
Both the Leadership Team and the Process Design Team asked, “Does the redesign go far enough in achieving our objectives? Can it be pushed further?”
Why it Works
I think this review process worked well for a number of reasons:
- The Process Design Teams knew what the Leadership Team would be looking for and could prepare accordingly.
- By starting with the design concepts, the Leadership Team became very focused at the beginning of each review and was prepared to listen for the specifics of the process flow under study.
- Asking the Leadership Team to check the flow against the design concepts helped ensure the Leadership Team understood the flow and the design.
- Asking, “Does it go far enough?” helped to push people to stretch their thinking about what could be achieved through the process.
It’s especially nice when clients have good things to say about your work!
“Michael’s facilitation pushed United Way to the next level of strategy development in so many ways. He is a joy to work with given his skill to keep everyone focused and energized and his consistent ability to help groups reach breakthrough results – in our case, a road map to achieve our community impact vision.”
Ayesha Khanna, Chief Operating Officer
United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta
Additional Considerations
Based on experience using the approach described, here are a few additional thoughts for consideration:
- Consider adding “measures of success” as a design concept. The measures will help ensure that there is even greater clarity around the purpose and the goal. Setting specific targets would also let you know if the redesigned process is achieving the intended results.
- Consider having work teams gain agreement from the Leadership Team on the design concepts for each process prior to the process redesign. This will help ensure that the work teams are performing their design based on an acceptable understanding of the goal.
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Michael Wilkinson is the Managing Director of Leadership Strategies – The Facilitation Company and author of The Facilitative Consultant training course. Prior to Leadership Strategies, he spent eight years with Ernst & Young’s Management Consulting Group. He recently published The Secrets of Facilitation andThe Secrets to Masterful Meetings. He is a much sought after trainer, facilitator and speaker.
