Process consulting is all about helping businesses improve the way they operate by analysing and revamping their existing processes. Here's a breakdown of what typically happens in process consulting:
Identifying the Need for Change:
- It all starts with the business recognizing a need for change or improvement. The reasons for change may include inefficiency, bottlenecks, overlap in decision making, lack of clarity or a desire to simply become more competitive.
- The consultant dives deep to understand the current processes. This involves interviews with employees, collecting data, and mapping out the workflows. This involves a great deal of work where the consultant arrives with a team of experts in various fields and has a long term activity flow.
Finding Improvement Opportunities:
- Once the consultant gets a clear picture, they analyse the processes to pinpoint areas for improvement. This could be streamlining steps, eliminating redundancy, or leveraging technology.
- Here's where collaboration comes in. The consultant works with the client to design improved processes. This might involve automation, new software, or changes in work roles. Again, this is a critical step. The consultant should ideally have the knowledge of relevant software that can aid the client. Changes in work roles can also redefine the changed strategy. For example, in one of the companies I was consulting with, the Human Resource team was doing basic HR stuff and now they partner with the Business as learning and change partners. This has brought a whole culture shift, towards more positive and purposeful from reactive and utilitarian.
Implementation and Change Management:
- Putting the new processes in place requires a plan. The consultant helps develop an implementation strategy and address any resistance to change within the organization. This also needs change champions within an organization.
Monitoring and Optimization:
- The job isn't done after implementation. The consultant helps monitor the new processes and make adjustments to further optimize them for efficiency and effectiveness.
In essence, process consultants act as objective outsiders who can help businesses identify weaknesses, understand what can be done better and implement improvement strategies that can lead to better results.
I teach OD at Business schools, work as a OD consultant and like to share whatever insights I have, to a wider network. Feedback would be highly appreciated. I can be reached at [email protected]
