Alec's Methodology For Business Process Change — Transcript

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1. 0:02[Music]
2. 0:10hello friends
3. 0:11and welcome to the latest webisode in
4. 0:14this series on business process
5. 0:16change sponsored by our friends at
6. 0:19lucidchart
7. 0:21in this installation i'm going to pull
8. 0:23back from looking at
9. 0:25detailed techniques and instead look at
10. 0:27how they
11. 0:28stitch together into the methodology
12. 0:31that i've been refining for
13. 0:33more years than i like to recognize
14. 0:36now this webisode just like the previous
15. 0:41one
16. 0:41was helped out by my wife over coffee
17. 0:44at the beach she asked me could i walk
18. 0:47through the key points of the
19. 0:49methodology
20. 0:50just off the top of my head so i set out
21. 0:53seven stones representing the seven
22. 0:56phases in the methodology
23. 0:58and i walked through them showing how
24. 1:01they collectively
25. 1:03set our scope and objectives understand
26. 1:06the as
27. 1:06is and help design the to be
28. 1:09and going through this helped me realize
29. 1:12that what i really wanted to emphasize
30. 1:15is that even though this methodology
31. 1:18looks straightforward
32. 1:19maybe even obvious there are some subtle
33. 1:23and important points that i want to
34. 1:26highlight
35. 1:27and the key features in this methodology
36. 1:30came out as a response to the problems i
37. 1:34would see most commonly
38. 1:36both when i was new to this but i still
39. 1:39see when i'm called into clients to do
40. 1:41project recovery work and here's one of
41. 1:45the common issues
42. 1:47premature diagnosis of the situation
43. 1:50my hardest consulting assignments are
44. 1:53the ones where the client has
45. 1:55already done a problem statement so
46. 1:58please
47. 1:59don't formalize that too soon yes there
48. 2:02will be some goal
49. 2:04or issue but you don't want to nail it
50. 2:07down and commit to it
51. 2:09until you've taken a look at the bigger
52. 2:11picture
53. 2:12otherwise you end up with an
54. 2:13organizational focus
55. 2:16second common problem failure to
56. 2:18identify
57. 2:19true end-to-end processes so we're going
58. 2:22to apply the rigorous techniques we
59. 2:24looked at in the first two webisodes
60. 2:27and finally a common problem is a rapid
61. 2:30descent into unhelpful detail so we're
62. 2:34going to focus on the idea
63. 2:36of clarifying the big picture first
64. 2:39and then taking a controlled descent
65. 2:43into progressive levels of detail
66. 2:46now those are some of the things i
67. 2:49deliberately built in
68. 2:51there's other points that i built into
69. 2:53the method but i didn't really
70. 2:55realize the significance until clients
71. 2:58pointed them out
72. 2:59for instance in recent years i've had
73. 3:02clients tell me that
74. 3:04they like the methodology because it
75. 3:06builds support for change
76. 3:08and a program manager recently said what
77. 3:11we like
78. 3:12is that that support for change is built
79. 3:14in throughout the methodology
80. 3:17bringing everyone along for the journey
81. 3:20and another point that actually was a
82. 3:23bit of a surprise to me
83. 3:24was when i was running a process change
84. 3:28session
85. 3:29we had identified some key features of
86. 3:32the 2b process
87. 3:33and one of the participants said this is
88. 3:36great
89. 3:37we don't have to implement this as a big
90. 3:41bang we can implement feature by
91. 3:44feature which was something i hadn't
92. 3:47realized but that makes this more
93. 3:49agile and iterative and frankly it just
94. 3:52makes it faster
95. 3:53feature by feature plus starting with
96. 3:57the big picture which avoids a lot of
97. 3:59rehashing
98. 4:01so we're going to look at all of these
99. 4:04techniques
100. 4:05in future webisodes let's dive in now
101. 4:08and take a look at the first phase of
102. 4:10the methodology
103. 4:12which is to build the big picture
104. 4:13identify and scope
105. 4:15our business processes it's not where i
106. 4:18used to start early in my career and
107. 4:21it's not where a lot of people start
108. 4:23usually people start too quickly
109. 4:26into doing detailed flow modeling
110. 4:29i ran into all kinds of issues when i
111. 4:31was doing that questions about
112. 4:33where does the process begin where does
113. 4:35it end
114. 4:36and so i learned to go back and clarify
115. 4:40scope and context so whether it's a new
116. 4:43initiative
117. 4:44or project recovery i always
118. 4:48first develop a process scope model then
119. 4:51develop a process
120. 4:53summary chart these were formats
121. 4:56i came up with to help my workflow
122. 4:58modeling sessions go more
123. 5:00smoothly now we looked at those more
124. 5:03closely in the webinar in the first two
125. 5:05webisodes
126. 5:06so right now just a quick reminder our
127. 5:08scope model
128. 5:09describes what the process is using the
129. 5:13track framework that we have looked at
130. 5:16and then we put it into context with a
131. 5:19summary chart
132. 5:20that has a simplified view of what and
133. 5:23then also
134. 5:24shows us who is involved and how the
135. 5:27process
136. 5:28is supported now we'll look at that more
137. 5:30in the future
138. 5:32our immediate concern is now that we
139. 5:34know the who the how and the what of the
140. 5:36process
141. 5:37we're in a good position to answer the
142. 5:39question
143. 5:41why does this process need to change
144. 5:45and we're going to do that with a case
145. 5:48for action
146. 5:49but let me share a little bit of our
147. 5:52thinking here
148. 5:53when i saw that word why does the
149. 5:56process need to change
150. 5:58that made me think of simon sinek's
151. 6:01best-selling book start with why
152. 6:03when he helps us understand that
153. 6:07people and organizations don't choose
154. 6:09who they're going to deal with because
155. 6:10of what they do
156. 6:12it's just as much why what are the
157. 6:14values
158. 6:15and then we go through the
159. 6:18how and the what great advice for the
160. 6:20enterprise but for a process
161. 6:23my experience is the exact opposite
162. 6:26order is more
163. 6:28appropriate what is the process
164. 6:31who and how and then why does it need to
165. 6:34change and we're going to answer that
166. 6:36question
167. 6:37why does it need to change with a more
168. 6:40nuanced form of problem statement called
169. 6:43a case for action it has three parts
170. 6:46the first is a stakeholder based
171. 6:49assessment
172. 6:50which makes it real shows that all
173. 6:52stakeholders have
174. 6:53issues second we make it blame
175. 6:57free by establishing context what has
176. 7:00changed in our environment that caused
177. 7:02these problems to surface
178. 7:04and finally what are the consequences of
179. 7:07just
180. 7:08leaving the status quo in place which
181. 7:11can help to make it
182. 7:12compelling now we're going to go
183. 7:16on to the point where a lot of people
184. 7:18start with the as
185. 7:19is modeling and i'm going to extend
186. 7:24our scope model here by creating an
187. 7:27augmented scope model which adds
188. 7:30detailed activities
189. 7:33in what form verb noun within each major
190. 7:37activity
191. 7:38and then i'm going to add the who and
192. 7:40the how which actor performs this step
193. 7:43using what tool or system if at all
194. 7:47and often that's good enough we don't
195. 7:50need to do detailed
196. 7:52modeling we know enough about the as is
197. 7:54but if we do
198. 7:55need to go in and model the initial
199. 7:58workflow
200. 7:59i'm going to emphasize simplicity
201. 8:03so everybody can be engaged and also
202. 8:06making the flow visible because we're
203. 8:09looking at the overall process
204. 8:11not procedural level details so the goal
205. 8:14here
206. 8:15is understanding the as is not
207. 8:18documenting it in excruciating detail
208. 8:23so now we know a lot about the reality
209. 8:27of the as
210. 8:27is so let's take a look at what we have
211. 8:31learned while we were doing our
212. 8:33as is modeling by assessing the process
213. 8:36by all six enablers and that's really
214. 8:41the heart of this methodology for
215. 8:44instance
216. 8:45we might be considering motivation and
217. 8:48measurement
218. 8:49and realize perhaps
219. 8:52the performance measures or the reward
220. 8:55system
221. 8:55are encouraging behavior that's bad for
222. 8:58the process
223. 8:59so when we go through each of these six
224. 9:02enablers
225. 9:03through a framework i can promise you
226. 9:06that
227. 9:06always uncovers issues that would have
228. 9:09been missed otherwise
229. 9:11and those issues always generate ideas
230. 9:15for the 2b state features as we're going
231. 9:18to call them
232. 9:19so let's take a look at these next two
233. 9:23phases
234. 9:23where what we want to do is take the
235. 9:26issues that were
236. 9:27identified during the assessment by
237. 9:30enabler
238. 9:31and the improvement ideas that also came
239. 9:35out of that
240. 9:36and we're going to decide which are
241. 9:38going to be elements
242. 9:40of our future state process some we
243. 9:42might say
244. 9:43nope not going to go any further with
245. 9:45that
246. 9:46others are important enough that we will
247. 9:49select
248. 9:50them as features a significant change or
249. 9:53improvement
250. 9:54or a significant factor in an all new
251. 9:57process
252. 9:58and then we're going to apply the
253. 10:00concept of enablers again
254. 10:03on each feature so we'll assess each
255. 10:07feature in a matrix and ask
256. 10:10what changes are needed enabler by
257. 10:13enabler
258. 10:14to make this feature work so for
259. 10:17instance we might realize that
260. 10:20direct service order by customers
261. 10:24that might have some implications on the
262. 10:26commission earned by the sales rep
263. 10:28will they get full commission or partial
264. 10:31commission
265. 10:32and thinking this through in advance is
266. 10:36really all about avoiding unanticipated
267. 10:39consequences
268. 10:40and now we know enough
269. 10:44about what we want to see in the future
270. 10:46state process
271. 10:48that we can start to lay out the future
272. 10:51state workflow
273. 10:52and again we're going to follow this
274. 10:54idea of what first
275. 10:56who and how next so we will determine
276. 10:59the essential
277. 11:00activities then lay them out in their
278. 11:04essential sequence showing real
279. 11:07not imagined dependencies before
280. 11:11we factor in who is going to perform
281. 11:14each activity
282. 11:15and how is it manual is it a person
283. 11:18using a system
284. 11:19is it entirely automated then
285. 11:23we're going to be able to link those
286. 11:25activities into a first cut
287. 11:27swim lane diagram and only then
288. 11:30will i factor in non-value added but
289. 11:34still
290. 11:34necessary activities such as record
291. 11:37keeping
292. 11:38and approval so the basic idea here
293. 11:42is we're going to lay out our new
294. 11:44process around the
295. 11:45essence not around approval and inform
296. 11:49paths and we are not going to
297. 11:51prematurely determine the who
298. 11:53and the how so
299. 11:57that in 12 minutes or so is our
300. 12:00seven phase methodology for process
301. 12:03change
302. 12:04and i want to close with a couple of
303. 12:06thoughts one
304. 12:07no i'm sorry you can't take best
305. 12:11practices
306. 12:12from some other organization and leap
307. 12:14right into the design of the 2b
308. 12:17you need transparency and involvement
309. 12:21and all of your people all the impacted
310. 12:23people
311. 12:24to come along for the journey as a
312. 12:26client of mine
313. 12:27said recently you can't skip the therapy
314. 12:32so a phrase i often use
315. 12:35is that simple but not simplistic
316. 12:38techniques rigorously but not
317. 12:41rigidly applied help us accomplish
318. 12:45much more than we might have imagined
319. 12:48in a short period of time so
320. 12:51there you have it our seven phase
321. 12:54methodology for process change
322. 12:56i hope you'll feel free to contact me
323. 12:59with questions and comments
324. 13:01and i really hope you'll be around for
325. 13:03our next webisode
326. 13:05on the stakeholder-based case for action
327. 13:08a framework i always find adds value
328. 13:12thanks again for being here see you next
329. 13:16[Music]
330. 13:18time
331. 13:24[Music]
332. 13:28you