What makes a difference in business

What Makes Us Different

Too often organizations take on the task of "process improvement" projects for what supposedly they think will impact the bottom line. Results of these Six Sigma efforts in service industries have been very disappointing for any number of reasons:

• There is no cultural support for these efforts.

  • Management simply wants to put on a show that they are doing something or there is no cross functional support amongst subordinates.

  • The natural and normal reaction to change is resistance. Every individual has a unique threshold for how much change they can absorb; however, the number one reason associates resist change often surprises many project teams. The top five reasons* associates resist change:

• • 1. Associates were not aware of the underlying business need for change.

    2. Lay-offs were announced or feared as part of the change.

    3. Associates were unsure if they had the needed skills for success in the future state.

    4. Individuals were comfortable with the current state; they wanted to maintain the personal rewards and sense of accomplishment and fulfillment provided by the status quo.

    5. Associates felt they were being required to do more with less, or do more for the same pay.

Solution: Providing the information to increase Associates' awareness of the business need for change is the first and most important step in successful resistance management. Additionally Project/Program Managers must have a proactive plan to deal with resistance and recognize when resistance is being exhibited in order to deal with it in a timely manner. (See article The #1 Reason Associates Resist Change.doc)

• Over simplification of processes in order to synthesize operations.

This is often a function of having to:

• • Communicate the procedures in as short a time a possible to get buy in by management.

  • Business Analysts making procedures match their workflow process maps capability rather than making the tool match the procedures.

  • Inability of Business Analysts to truly think critically/analytically.

  • Business Analyst abstracting/combining tasks at a higher level due to time pressure for product delivery.

  • Business Analyst inability to analyze complex procedures when there are too many factors that affect the permutations and combinations of tasks sequences. They usually simply show the most expected processing scenario as the “as is” situation. This “as is” scenario only represents a fraction of what happens in the real world. If they do document the procedures they usually appear as to what I will term as a “John Madden” workflow diagram. (E.g. Xs , Os and arrows going all over the board.)

Solution: Business Analysts use object oriented analysis simulation tool that allows them to:

• • 1. Concentrate on understanding/focus on the process workflow,

    2. Make changes quickly to the workflow sequences,

    3. Incorporate all the tasks that the resources do in supporting the other processes/responsibilities that they are called upon to do and

    4. Maintain their models with very little effort in order to support an on going base line for future analysis.

(See article Process Modeling, Simulation and TRIZ – An Innovative and Symbotic Solution.pdf). See Video at the bottom of this page ARENA Simulation Demonstration of Routes, Sequences and Stations.

• Too much reliance of whether Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) conveying accurately the procedures in the JAD sessions. Often times they only want to portray their ideal to management or limit their description due to project constraints.

Solution: Business Analysts need to institute Genchi Gembutsu. In Japanese, this means go to the actual scene (genchi) and confirm the actual happenings or things (gembutsu).

• Lack of creativity in solving a problem. Usually most organizations generate ideas of solving a problem by committee brainstorming. Usually only the most obvious solutions (easiest to implement or least disruptive?) are forthcoming. This can also leads to groupthink as opposed to developing break through ideas for the organization. (See article How Do Committees Invent - Conways Law.doc)

Solution: Business Analysts need to institute TRIZ. This method is a way to unearth and engineer for success solutions to previously seemingly insolvable problems of the past. TRIZ is a methodology, tool set,knowledge base, and model-based technology for generating innovative ideas and solutions for problem solving. TRIZ provides tools and methods for use in problem formulation, system analysis, failure analysis, and patterns of system evolution (both 'as-is' and 'could be'). TRIZ, in contrast to techniques such as brainstorming (which is based on random idea generation), aims to create an algorithmic approach to the invention of new systems, and the refinement of old systems.

• An over emphasis of IT automation to solve the problem. Too many times I have witnessed people envisioning an IT solution to a supposedly identified problem. In truth most processes involve data acquisition and people interaction, which amounts to well over 98% of the actual time required to complete processing. It is far too easy to jump to an IT solution to a symptom rather than the actual root cause of the problem.