21 Aug Common process improvement mistake #1: Too much technology
FACT: An organization will pay millions to implement a new tool or technology to realize a 10-20% return but they will refuse to invest 10-20% into identifying, analyzing, and cataloging their processes to realize millions in ignored and unrealized value points.
Good foundational process work requires the investment of effort, time, and vision. The false urgency to be cutting edge and solve everything with technology has led organizations to over pay, over extend, and over hype the very companies generating that urgency for their own profit.
Technology is not the sole way or even the right way to solve problems within operational processes. There’s a good chance technology is actually making problems worse while steadily increasing an organization’s total cost of ownership.
A technology-first approach deprives organizations of valuable improvements embedded within other process enablers such as organizational design, performance measurements, motivations, and physical environments. Each of these play an equally vital role in the action and result of a process, not just technology.
The good news is that such an approach to your processes doesn’t have to be the organizational default. You can change how and where your organization invests its time, effort, and vision in its processes to meet operational goals.
Process Practice Suggestion
➤ INVEST
… in a structured process leveling and analysis exercise. This will scope processes to the appropriate size by allowing them to speak for themselves through the people who make the work happen.
SO YOU CAN: Isolate and articulate the problem(s) easily and succinctly.
➤RESIST
… the inclination or request to approach technology as THE way to solve process problems. Make it the last thing you look at when completing process analysis.
SO YOU CAN: Engage with the entire process ecosystem and build a dynamic process view and understanding.
➤PIVOT
… to prioritizing the exploration of the other process enablers identified for the problem process. Going deep on these can usually uncover solutions that are easier and cheaper to implement and maybe even sooner.
SO YOU CAN: Focus your effort and time on articulating and solving the problem and not the solution(s).
Too much technology and too much emphasis on technology pulls attention away from what really makes your company run – its people and its processes. Without either, technology has no one to make it perform and nothing to do.
A process-centric view of your company prioritizes the process work, increases the value of that work, and appreciates more organically the people who are doing the work and evolving that value.
And by putting a similar amount of effort and time into your processes that you do for technology (or even 1/10th) will result in simplified technology needs and ultimately a lower cost of ownership.
