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Many organisations play lip service to training, they say they will do it but never follow through. Managers need to realise it is an investment and a must do. What you can do
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You need someone to take the organisation wide view of the process and do what is best for all. What you can do Appoint a single process owner (not just a scape-goat)
Common practice when implementing new computer systems is to train the minimum required with the intention of undertaking more training later. Unfortunately more often than not, does not happen. What you can do Step 1 Look at job roles and determine the system functionality required. Then ask or assess how well the functionality is used. If it is not used well undertake training to improve it. Step 2 Ask people if there is other functionality within the system which they would like to know more about. You may need to explain what functionality there is. Prioritise the list and agree the priority with them. Then arrange for someone who knows how to use the functionality to train them, working your way down the list. The training resulting from the above steps should should be done either on a 1-1 basis or in small groups of 2 or 3, anymore people and you will need a fully structured training session. Even if you believe the requested functionality is outside a person's job role considering training them on it, as long as there are no security issues. The more comfortable people are with the system the better users they will be. If a manager acts as though a process does not matter, others will do the same.
What you can do
What to do and why
Never assume that people know what they need to do or understand the consequences of their actions. How many times have you heard "if only I'd known". This applies equally to what they need to do and to the impact if the task is done incorrectly. What you can do List the key areas of the process that people must understand. This should include their own and down/up stream activities. These key areas could relate to:
Then list against these names the areas of the process you think they should know about. Now develop a short quiz on these areas to test people’s knowledge:
If you are happy with the results, great, move on. If not, then:
Non-technology improvements are independent of scale (anyone can do them), are potential DIY initiatives and are worth the effort. You can improve a process by as much as 10%-25% by focusing on the non-technology aspects of the process and the people:
For the process you need to look at its steps, controls, paper flows, etc, and how current technology is used. For the people you need to look at their skills and knowledge, ie: what they do, how they do it. And for a process improvement to be effective it needs to achieve at least one of the following:
You may consider your processes to be unique, there will be some specific aspects, but most processes are fairly generic across organisations, industries and even countries. The regulatory requirements and cultural influences are different but the processes are fairly generic. As a consequence of this I believe the DIY improvements I outlined in this Blog are applicable no matter where you are or what industry you operate in. Remember, analysing and improving a process is not rocket science. All you need is an open mind, a desire to learn, time and common sense. You ask questions, sort out what is useful from the answers, and then build a picture of what is happening, why and whether it is what should happen. The analysis part is not hard, determining what to do to improve your process, then achieving consistent, sustainable change is. What makes this so hard? People do. All processes rely on people to support them. If one person has a bad day, or does not understand the consequences of what they do, the process will suffer. It is a fact of life, something we will never get around and why, every so often, we should take the time to analyse our processes to ensure what is happening is what we think it is; what it should be; as simple and easy to follow as we can make it. How you approach non-technology process improvements depends on the:
§ Size of the organisation and/or process § What you are trying to improve/achieve Before you start you need to appreciate that most non-technology improvements are about “good management”: § If you make them a “project” you may give the impression that there will be a beginning and an end when what you are seeking is a cultural / attitude shift and for the improvement to become “business as usual”. There may not be a clearly definable end point. § Include the users and have them own/drive the change. Make them an “extra” for good performers as role development, but make sure you allocate them time in the workload to achieve and give them support and guidance. You should be able to manage non-technology improvements within your own organisation. It is not that hard - it’s just a matter of finding the time. For technology based improvements you will probably need expert advice unless you have a good in-house IT resource. People have asked me to and I've finally got around to it. This is the start of my Blog. I'll be posting every Sunday night and, as suggested, I'm going to focus on my DIY process improvement tips. Each week I'll outline a process improvement you can do yourself, either personally or as a mini-project for someone. These are process improvements that you should be able to implement without any outside help if you have the time and focus to do it.
In this Blog I'll look at how to improve a process without using technology. I'll outline improvements you can undertake yourself in the key process issue areas of: people and skills; culture and change; systems; processes; leadership and people management; and communication. This post is the kick off. The next will be the start of what will hopefully be really useful stuff. |
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The Process HubThe Process Hub is a mix of process improvement advice and weekly Blogs on things we find interesting. It has lots of useful information - and its free (but there are ads - its a small sacrifice for access to so much useful information). BP Consulting LinksView Noel Currie's profile and join him on LinkedIn
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