Process Management
Remember last week I told you I was taking a family week out to Centre Parks (it was wonderful by the way and seriously recommended)? Neither Caela nor I took our laptops. We didn’t need to because of the systems and procedures, together with management tools and good people, that give us the confidence to enjoy lakeside walks and breathe.
One such management tool is our attention to writing and testing processes.
Business Process Management (BPM) is a disciplined approach to identify, design, execute, document, measure, monitor, and control both automated and non-automated business processes to achieve consistency across the business.
This week’s Fortnightly Focus at the Leadership Meeting threw up a number of issues. That’s the intention of the meetings … if we don’t highlight issues, we’re just not looking closely enough.
Guess what?
Broken, or ineffective processes came up more than once. Those BPMs that let me breathe by a forest lake!?! Broken.
So.
So, the focus is now to review JGF processes.
Bottom line – you can’t just write a process and say … there we are, there it is, process written, all’s well with the world, ‘Caela – call Centre Parks again!!!’
Nothing stands still. Change is constant. Writing a process is just the beginning. Managing it is just the start.
When it comes to running a business, two things can make or break your success: efficiency and reliability.
What is a Process?
This is the definition I think works best:
?‘A process is a series of steps that will lead to the desired outcome. Processes are repeatable and consistent; they are used to ensure the same result is achieved each time, whoever is carrying them out.’
Whoever is carrying them out, that's the key thing – transferability.
The efficiency of a process has a direct impact on the overall performance of an organisation. It’s not too much to say that ‘a broken process is a broken business’.
I'm going to repeat that, because it is vital that we all understand why I bang on (and on) about processes: The efficiency of a process has a direct impact on the overall performance of an organisation.
The first reason to create a process is to reduce the risk of making mistakes. You want to ensure that your team members are on the same page and working towards the same goal, so having a defined process will help you achieve this.
Three key elements of a process are:
What next?
Although it will have to be concurrent activity (we can’t just stop what we’re doing) we are about to conduct a thorough review of our BPM. Certainly not a fun task, but an essential one, and one I’ll share with you in View from the Powerhouse quite soon.