“Procrastination is the theft of time.”
I don’t know who said it, but it’s so true. Think about what you keep putting off, and just decide to stop or start whatever is in your best interest. Remember, oxygen mask on you first.
Monthly Archives: June 2016
Big Reengineering Project Checklist
Congratulations, you’ve just been asked to lead a big reengineering project. Huge..with very significant impact and exposure. Now what?
Like many things, successful projects are dependent on the pre-work…..the work you do before the project is formally underway. This can sometimes seem bureaucratic, and a waste of time, but if you can’t answer the following questions, the team is guaranteed to struggle. I went through Rummler-Brache training…it was one of the best programs for reengineering. Continue reading
Not Fooling Anyone
So once I got to attend an “executive coaching session” a few years back down in Florida. It really was group therapy intervention. I should have known when they told us there would be no alcohol allowed for the week, and that they strongly urged us not use any drugs (e.g. painkillers). The other giveaway? Tons of tissue boxes scattered around the room. But I digress.
Teaching A Class
A friend of mine is an associate professor at NYU, and he asks me to come and guest lecture for his students. This class is focused on process reengineering.
People underestimate the importance of process. Processes are horizontal, but organizations are vertical, so there’s a tension. Processes are end to end, but because organizations are silos, they only see their piece of the process which is usually well managed…it’s the “white space” between the functions that is where the disconnects usually lie.
Here are the reasons why I think bad process happens to good people.
- The 80/20 rule: the 20% of your work that is exception-based will make up 80% of your effort.
- Manual processes get created as an interim “fix”, but never replaced with automation.
- The group “handing off to you” doesn’t understand your process.
- Process breaks are built into the process, requiring human intervention for fixing, which is usually in people’s heads, creating key person vulnerability.
- The metrics are silo focused: no metrics that measure the cycle time end to end because it goes across functions/organizational reporting lines.
- No one owns the end to end process.
Everywhere I’ve worked, I’ve found that processes are broken. Not people.