Is that really your best practice?

Why your most firmly ingrained processes might be slowing you down

Most people view routine as healthy. You get out of bed at the same time, work the same routine at the gym, and then head into work, where you sit at the same desk and follow the same workflows. We assume that repetition and documentation breed operational success.

What we often fail to notice is how our routines hold us back. Instead of thinking critically about why we do the things we do, we keep turning the crank, perpetuating processes that may not serve our bottom line or customers.

Recent developments in healthcare serve as an example of how deviating from routine created an opportunity for innovation. When an increasing number of patients said they’d switch to a provider that offered telemedicine, healthcare executives moved quickly to adapt.

Instead of clinging to traditional forms of patient care, they adopted the digital-first mindset of their customers and created programs to meet their needs. This approach has fueled massive growth, with 90% of healthcare executives stating they have or plan to implement a telehealth program.

Your status quo might be strangling innovation

Leaders at these institutions don’t have a crystal ball that provides a peek into the future of medicine. They do, however, have a willingness to listen to their audience and the foresight to make every decision with them in mind.

Most of us don’t have the advantage of working in a rapidly developing industry. But what we do have is the ability to look at how our employees really do their jobs and respond by altering our internal processes — even if those processes are deeply ingrained.

That’s the difference between truly innovative companies and ones that are trying, and failing, to make old systems fit the demands of modern customers. Instead of questioning old processes and creating new ones that support employees, many leaders choose to uphold the status quo.

They mindlessly “lift and shift” existing processes into new applications without questioning where those processes originated and why they persist. They spend their time focusing on the idealized methods for doing business without thinking about how their employees really do their jobs. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Magellan’s Winning Rx gives employees a consumer-quality experience

ServiceNow client Magellan, a healthcare company known for their innovative approach to patient care, was struggling to apply the same forward-thinking methods to their internal processes. This was especially evident in their HR department, where a small call center struggled to address questions from the company’s ten thousand employees.

Magellan turned to us to completely reinvent how employees ask and receive answers to important questions about payroll, benefits, and company policies. The old method, which involved answering many of the same questions day after day, was straining the system (as well as the individual HR team members) and leading to long waits for answers to complex questions.

Our solution provides employees with a searchable database with answers to commonly asked questions, helping to deflect over 70% of calls to HR agents. They now have more time to address more complex inquiries in less time, and they’re able to get back to employees within a few hours instead of a couple of days. And employees have a system that exists to serve them, instead of a system that simply upholds the old way of doing things.

As a pleasant side effect, the HR team has experienced a major uptick in morale. They are able to focus on proactive, value-adding activities instead of low-level call center tasks. For instance, the team is already looking at incorporating reimbursement and tuition into the platform. HR is now able to directly demonstrate its positive impact on the organization, and employees in all departments at Magellan

“First, we wanted to stop this dependence on the call center. Second, we wanted to change the behavior of Magellan associates; we wanted to make it possible for them to take responsibility—and have accountability—for their own work, knowledge, and career at the company.”

Pat Tourigny, Senior Vice President of Shared Services, Magellan Health

Reinvention 101: How to build a better process

Instead of trying to prop up Magellan’s existing process by adding more call center employees, or providing them with new software to manage increased call volume, we helped their leaders completely reinvent the methods employees used to get answers. The result is a transforming culture, where employees feel empowered, and the HR department is impassioned to take on bigger projects. 

Here are a few strategies you can use to re-examine your existing processes and reshape them for better:

●     Gain insight into daily routines

Think what your employees do each day. How does it deviate from documented methods? How are the norms holding you back from innovative thinking?

●     Start at the foundation

Begin with the problem you’re trying to solve and work up from there. This may involve abandoning some long-held beliefs about the way things are done.

●     Reduce repetition

Identify areas where effort is being duplicated. New processes and tools should seek to reduce repetition and unnecessary efforts, not contribute to them.

●     Reverse processes

For example, turn approval processes into disapproval processes to give your team more time to focus on the decisions that make the biggest impact.

●     Focus on customer needs

Eliminate anything that doesn’t serve your customer. Are you accomplishing anything for your customer in those weekly review meetings, or just eating up your team’s valuable time and resources?

Your processes should serve your purpose

Every routine change starts with thinking strategically about what your end goal is. Leaders at Magellan looked for the best solution to their core problem, even if that meant abandoning a comfortable, familiar routine.  

Our success at starting with our client’s end goal is only one of the many reasons why Forbes recently awarded us the number one spot on their 2018 list of the world’s most innovative companies. We don’t provide a dashboard or a shiny tool that supports the old way of working. We’re there to help you discover an entirely new way of solving your company’s biggest challenges.

So ask yourself: Is what you’re doing really your best practice? Or just the way you’ve always done it?

If you’d like to discuss your approach to process engineering, I’d welcome hearing about it. You can reach out to me here on LinkedIn.