Why do many organizations continue to suffer under bloated business processes in spite of constantly launching change initiatives and projects? While investing resources into improving an organization is a major component of success, many organizations neuter these initiatives by continuing to adopts substandard practices.
They keep going back to the same trough
You’ve seen this before, senior management crafts a grand vision, works with a big-box consulting firm to develop costly presentations and reviews, gets buy in from shareholders, and decides to press forward. This new initiative will transform the way the organization does business, reducing administrative efforts, and allowing deeper customer focus. Unfortunately, the initiative gets handed to middle management and led by individuals with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, focused on internal politics, the potential impact to headcount of their individual departments. The end result is all too common, the initiative gets delayed, is poorly implemented and steering group meetings devolve into discussions.
Focus on empowering non-management members of an organization to drive your initiatives. Find fresh insights and vigor by going to the team members that are mired in the day-to-day processes you are trying to change, and then transitioning reporting authority directly to a member of senior leadership to ensure they are empowered to act and drive success. In many cases, bringing an external program manager onboard can speed things up significantly as they are not mired in workplace politics, fearful retaliation from middle management, or blinded by the way your organization currently operates.
They focus on “business as usual”
Many organizations struggle to transition to automated pricing, billing, and tracking systems. While technology has taken giant leaps forward and many user friendly and cost effective options exists, a constant focus on how an organization has always conducted business makes finding time and cost savings all but impossible. Initiatives get mired in taking a streamlined piece of technology and trying to cram an archaic 25-step process into what could and should be a 3-step endeavor. The driving factors behind this tend to be fear of change and avoidance of accountability, everyone wants to change and improve until it is their department that needs to change.
Any initiative to improve an organization, be it to implement a new system or streamline and existing operating process, should be bold and decisive. Ask the hard questions and be brutally honest about the current approach to business in your organization. Don’t know what questions to ask? Talk to your peers in other organizations that have successfully implemented what you are attempting to do. In larger organizations with a performance review process, adjusting annual goals and tying bonuses to successful implementation can and will go a long way toward ensuring participating members drive an initiative forward. More importantly, senior leadership must have some skin in the game, clearly communicate their willingness to be accountable for any short term problems and revenue dips, and be available to make quick and decisive rulings.
They keep unwinding improvements
Success is only half the battle, like any diet or fitness plan, maintaining a new process can sometimes be far more onerous than launching it. Many organizations overwhelmingly focus on implementation and then pass post-implementation responsibility and ownership over to whomever can absorb the responsibility. This typically results in a speedy unwinding of success as minor issues crop up and the initiative is dismantled piece by piece due to pressure from middle management and team members that want to revert back to old habits.
An effective approach to avoid falling off the wagon is having post implementation ownership stay with an individual or a small team that is empowered to say “no” and can wield senior management authority both offensively and defensively. Ownership should be retained in this manner for 6-12 months before being transitioned to a more permanent team or dismantled. Anything new in an organization needs to survive long enough to be perceived as business as usual. Another alternative is oversight by senior management or an external appointee, typically the program manager, that will continue to push adoption and challenge attempts to go back in time.
Having the right team and culture can go a long way toward ensuring the success and constant improvement of our organization. This doesn’t happen overnight, but circumventing inefficient practices, continuing to press forward with advancements, and bringing in the right people will eventually make the pursuit of perfection part of your organizational DNA.
