Have you found the optimal balance of people, process, and tools? (Part 2- Process)
- kdthompson12686
- Jun 6, 2021
- 8 min read
As discussed in the previous post, Have you found the optimal balance of people, process, and tools? (Part 1- People), The Triumvirate (people, process, and tools) is a key component of The Professional Services Ecosystem™ (PSE) and provides the primary levers businesses use to deliver services to their clients. These three components are inextricably linked and must be effectively managed to become a competitive advantage. The Triumvirate is constantly evolving and as such, is also dependent upon continuous measurement and improvement to deliver sustained operational efficiency. Let’s take a look at the process component in more detail.
The Triumvirate - Process
Processes, the second component of The Triumvirate, constantly evolve as your business evolves. As a startup, your company often just needs to deliver the service and meet the client's requirements. You are small enough that everyone chips in to get the deliverables over the line. The process is secondary to delivery.
As you grow, it is often easier to continue to throw people at problems versus take the time to truly engineer an efficient process. In some cases, no one knows how to go about the redesign in the first place, much less have the time to do it. This often leads to inefficiencies that compound over time and create problems in cost containment and scalability.
The next evolution often occurs as some teams improve processes within their departments. While there is some value to this approach, it often builds more silos and inefficiencies in the organization overall. For example, a typical area of inefficiency in a startup is pricing and contracting. You’ll often find improvements made in sales or services that come to a screeching halt as they wait for a deal to be priced and a contract to be written up and executed. As the business grows, this bottleneck becomes more of a deal blocker. The company must look holistically at the end-to-end process and how they impact the client and the organization overall. It is then that real improvements can be made that facilitate the sale of services.
The company must look holistically at the end-to-end process and how it impacts the client and the organization overall.
It is natural to identify improvements we can make in the operations we lead, but we limit ourselves by not engaging related stakeholders and process performers from other parts of the organization. This makes sense as you can make changes faster and easier if the changes only impact areas within your span of control. Process improvement gets a lot more difficult when you involve other departments. Once you have different leaders involved, often with competing priorities and objectives, there may be an unwillingness to act cross-functionally in a manner that helps to truly optimize the process. This is often how siloed operations evolve.
As businesses reach the point that they need to start to scale, it is in the area of cross-functional process improvement that many companies get the biggest bang for their buck.
Whether using formal methodologies like Lean and Six Sigma or simply mapping out a process with sticky notes and asking “the five whys”, businesses who look holistically at their processes can almost always dramatically improve efficiencies.
As businesses reach the point that they need to start to scale, it is in the area of cross-functional process improvement that many companies get the biggest bang for their buck.
This holistic process thinking involves looking at the organization as a set of processes and subprocesses versus the normal set of functional departments. This helps to break down the silos so often found in growing organizations. That doesn’t mean you don’t need departments, but if you look across your organization at the broader process, ignoring the departments, and think about the Suppliers – Inputs – Processes – Outputs – Consumers (SIPOC) it helps breakdown those silos and offers the opportunity for real efficiency gains. It takes a certain amount of organizational maturity (some manager maturity too) and must be supported by all leaders in the organization. All it takes is one powerful leader to say, “I don’t want to change that!” and the wheels quickly come off, and your back to your siloed thinking.
This holistic process thinking must also be approached with a constant eye on the value of each process to the client. Client personas can be useful here. Too many processes are focused internally and don’t effectively support the client experience. If you agree the focus of your business is the client, then you should actively understand how each process relates to client value. It may not be immediately obvious. For example, a process for eliminating busy work for your employees may make those employees more efficient and in turn, provide them with more time for client-facing activities. The key is ensuring the additional time is spent on those client-facing activities and not moved to some other back-office function.
It is also critical to inform process discussions with as much actual data as possible. However, don’t assume that the only time to address process issues is when you have a robust dataset to support the discussion. Most people who work as process performers know when that process sucks. It is almost always obvious there is an issue or issues, and it is often easier than you think to turn it into a measurable issue that can be improved. Another great source for qualitative input is your clients. Digging deep into survey comments and polling clients on specific topics is a great way to get more insight into how your business is performing through the eyes of your clients.
Don’t assume that the only time to address process issues is when you have a robust dataset to support them.
In our pricing and contracting example above, the salesperson will feel the pain of having to follow up frequently to get the pricing and contract to the client. Good salespeople are impatient and want to close deals. It becomes pretty easy to see that it is taking too long to get a contract out the door. It will also come up in sales reviews and QBR’s. It is pretty easy to measure when you lose a $100K deal because of a delay. Measurement is relative and while it is important to gather data to inform process improvement value when available, it is often much easier than most would assume.
Here are some red flags indicating potentially broken processes:
The process includes a large number of process performers in different roles.
The process crisscrosses multiple departments.
The process goes in and out of a department multiple times.
The process seems too complex with too many hand-offs.
The process has places where nothing happens for long periods (wait time).
Your data indicates the process or a part of the process is operating outside established parameters.
The process has a lot of errors or is expensive when errors occur.
Clients complain about the process.
People that should, don’t know that there is a process.
The process is often circumvented.
Process performers complain about the process.
New people complain about how difficult the process is versus where they worked before.
There are a host of inexpensive tools available to make the process easier.
While there are other indicators, these are common ones that should initiate a review of the process.
Some key steps to encourage holistic process thinking
Demonstrate a focus on process improvement at the highest levels of the organization. To have the C-level sitting in and breaking down siloes sends a powerful message to the rest of the org that this is important.
Develop some standard frameworks and tools for process improvement in your organization. This can be anything from formal Lean/Six Sigma certification to homegrown variants that are proven to deliver marked improvement.
Personally, I don't believe in process improvement departments per se. It is important to not just train one person or a few to do this work. This is basic training for the organization as a whole. A good Six Sigma Yellow Belt class works great for this. When your entire organization is focused on process improvement, with a common set of tools, is when you gain the most benefit.
Involve the doers in the improvement process. Once you've trained them in the tools and best practices needed to improve processes, involve them in projects, supporting them through their first few. They will be your greatest source for improvement ideas.
Don't try to boil the ocean. Delivering process improvement in an iterative, agile way allows the business to advance and make progress without getting into extensive multi-year projects that frequently fail.
Ensure the organization understands the rules of engagement and the rollout processes for new process initiatives. Remember that the business needs to prioritize those initiatives of most value and ensure the quality of the rollout. These initiatives must align with corporate objectives and facilitate the achievement of those goals.
Reward process improvement with recognition of those that identify the issue and the team that works to improve it. Make that level of recognition commensurate with the value of the improvement.
As you improve processes, ensure you incorporate the gathering and reporting of ongoing performance metrics on the new process. Build acceptable operating parameters into the new process then act when performance varies outside those parameters. Sorry, a little bit of DMAIC squirted out there, think C=Control.
As new services are identified and discussed, think about the processes to support service delivery, and build out an efficient, measurable process from the beginning.
Make holistic process thinking a key part of every role in the business, with a constant focus on the value that your client gets from the process and its improvement. If there is no value to the client, why do it at all?
Recognize that as your business changes, processes frequently will as well, and that is ok. If you have built out a structure as outlined above, you’ll recognize these changes and can act to minimize their impact.
We’ll share additional tools and techniques for incorporating holistic process thinking and process improvement into your organization in future blogs.
So, what does it look like when your organization is focused on process improvement at all levels?
An organization that is focused on process improvement at all levels looks like this:
Each team member understands their work, it is documented, and it has clear success measures which are actively monitored by the process performers, not just management.
There is a sense of ownership with a willingness to question why something “must” occur and a bias toward simplifying and improving things for the client.
Process performers actively look for ways to do things better and feel empowered to engage others to look at improvements.
For things within their power, and that align with goals, the process performers use the companies established methodologies to evaluate and improve processes. Additionally, they are encouraged to act on improvements if they are clear on the impact and expected results.
Your employees expect and look for improved performance based on the changes implemented.
Many of the best process improvements are driven from the bottom up versus from management down.
Obviously, you can’t have everyone in the organization randomly deciding to change processes. Business leadership acts as the gatekeepers and helps ensure that the actions of their teams are encouraged and incorporated into broader initiatives as appropriate. Additionally, improvement ideas should be aligned and driven by organizational objectives with a clear understanding of how the process change supports them. Finally, recognition should be given for anyone successfully delivering improvements to the business, and remember to always ensure there is value to the client. This type of holistic process thinking throughout the organization is a critical component of The Triumvirate but even more important, it is key to breaking down siloes, creating a continuous improvement culture, and delivering exceptional services to the client.
For over 30 years I’ve worked with and in professional service organizations in the IT services and SaaS spaces. In that time, and with a lot of help from some tremendous people, we’ve developed a repeatable process whereby these organizations have enjoyed tremendous success delivering high-quality solutions to our clients. The Professional Services Ecosystem™ is a key construct of that success.
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