As mentioned in our previous post ‘Why It Is Important to Resist Process as a Proxy‘, too much process can be bad. But not enough process can be very bad as well and actually I spend a fair chunk of my time designing processes for clients that are desperately in need of them to take proper decisions and expedite them. There is really a paradox here: a set of processes is needed but it should not become an end by itself.
One of the issues I observe in those organizations that have already processes is how they struggle to make them evolve over time. Sometimes, even projects supposed to revise the entire management system don’t produce any novelty. Actually, designing and then updating processes is tough (good for me and my company because that’s what we often do, but generally bad for organizations that don’t evolve quickly enough to respond to changes in their environment).
Two key pointers to overcome this paradox:
- Process should not remove the need for competence and experience. It is an Industrial Age illustion to believe that with the right process you can give the work to underpaid incompetent cogs workers.
- It is absolutely essential to make the effort not only to develop but only to review and redesign much more often than organizations generally do the process they use.
Process are needed but they need to be understood and very often examined for suitability to the changes in environment and business. Review your processes more often and become more nimble!
