Improving a process and why it is hard.

Just now we are hearing a great deal about the need to make our UK Government Departments, Care Services and Business Processes more efficient and less costly. But we have heard this again and again over the years and yet our Governments, Public Services and Big Businesses seem to have made only very small improvements. Why?

At the heart of all of these organisations are large and complex processes, often developed over many years or even decades and frankly they are often poorly understood by those leading the organisations.

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Surely getting to grips with these processes and making them better is not “rocket science”

But there lies the problem, a rocket scientist or project engineer would know how to tackle the issues because they would understand how to use “Systems Thinking” [i].

Why is this important?

Large and complex processes containing many interconnected and inter-dependant sub-processes have many issues in common with the complex systems encountered by scientists and engineers.

I am not saying that someone without a science or engineering background will be unable to make their processes more efficient, but it will definitely not help!

However this is only one of the issues...

How many organisations have documented all of their processes? (I don’t mean a high level diagram that assumes all of the sub-processes are well understood by those working with them!)

Let’s taker a look at an example process, in this case one I know very well as I was responsible for both its design and the day-to-day management of the teams using it and all of the sub-processes mentioned. (Original design 2003).

This is a high level process diagram for Internet design, taking account of user needs.

However each of the boxes, in the diagram, will have a process or processes associated with it and just a few of these are shown in the image at the head of this article.

To draw all of these and their interconnections and dependancies would involve a complex multi-dimensional diagram. Even relatively simple processes such as this have many of the elements common to complex systems.

1. Interconnections
2. Feedback loops
3. Inter-dependancies
4. Linear, (non-random), progression
5. Known or measurable inputs and predictable outputs

Therefore if someone who works in one of the areas of the process shown above, say “User Testing and Evaluation”, is asked to optimise their process then their actions will have an effect on other interconnected processes, in this case both the overall design process and the service implementation process, with a possible effect on the operations and maintenance of the service - something that will have a direct bearing on the day-to-day costs as well as the original design costs!

It is essential that anyone embarking on the mission of process improvement understand the following five things:

• Before any work commences a detailed map (diagram) of all processes must be made [ii].
• Old process diagrams may be incorrect and may not reflect what is actually going on!
• Teams of people will generally try their best to be efficient, but will rarely consult other teams who either feed into their area or take an output from their area.
• Those in senior management positions generally have neither the time or experience to look at detailed process issues and rely on those reporting to them to have both the time and experience……
• How process changes can be “tested” before being implemented!

And one last VERY important rule to be followed:-

Only ever make ONE change at a time, in a complex process.

Following this rule will ensure that those managing the changes can be sure what the effects of their change are, and can if necessary reverse a change if things are not made better!

Why?

There is something known as “unintended consequences” [iii] (From wikipedia - outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen). All too often these will occur if changes are made in a sub-process without considering the effects on all other interconnected and inter-dependant processes and of course the overall process.

Finally.

I have not set out to put people off the task of improving processes. Just the reverse!

If carried out carefully and with regard to the issues I have raised then the results can improve efficiency, lower costs and increase the motivation in teams (most hate inefficient processes). But this is not easy and does involve many skills that may not exist in a team, if they have never been involved in this type of work!

So, job one - ensure that you have people with the right skills and experience!

References:

i. Systems Thinking - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking

ii. Business Process Mapping - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_mapping

iii. Unintended Consequences- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequences