Lesson Learnt: Importance of understanding Business Process
Shahrinaz Ismail
Independent Researcher | Accredited Trainer | Technical Consultant
One thing I learnt from the previous companies and universities I've worked for is that we need to understand well the business process to be a good leader. This is not a chicken-or-egg thing because we may already have the characteristics of a good leader, but understanding the business process and how things are done in the company will enable us to guide others better in their work towards their goals.
I realized that the topic of business process management is often being embedded in the courses offered by universities. As a person who have seen the worst-case scenario of a misinterpreted business process in real working situation, I tried my best to emphasize the importance of business process to my students. Often, this topic will be covered in capstone courses, courses that summarize and relate all other fundamental courses into one big picture - courses that are mostly offered in the final four semesters of a Bachelor degree. The content structure may differ, but somewhere between the lines there would have this topic lurking in the corner.
Unfortunately, getting knowledge from learning in classes and materials is often insufficient to fully understand the real business process. Only when we are in the process itself and being affected by the process that our eyes would open wide with realization. This, I could not make my students achieve no matter how many examples I have laid out to them including their experience in the university system. Unless they have working experience before and relate what they experienced with the context being taught, they can understand well.
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Business process management also waltz along with project management, in most cases. Especially in IT Management related courses, these two are often mentioned next to each other. You can't manage a project efficiently if you don't know how the business process is managed in your company - that's the whole point of it.
To cut this short, I would want to highlight the importance of understanding how things are done in the company, i.e., business process, so we won't get so stressed out in our work or communication in the company. When this knowledge is fully grasped, come what may, we could solve any issues and guide others in fulfilling their tasks hence making them less stressful.