Most organizations operate in a matrix structure. Each functional area may have its own set of performance goals and incentives; cross-organizational workstreams have been divided into narrowly defined roles and responsibilities embedded across these functional areas. You can improve a tiny piece of a process in this structure, but because teams only know their piece, they can’t influence major improvements. The workflow is so granular and divided that handoffs, redundancies and errors are almost impossible to address.
I am working with a company now on continuous process improvement for marketing campaign management. There are five teams involved, 103 process steps - and from idea generation to execution, the process takes 111 days – and that’s if everything goes as planned. An error in their workflow (which was rife with data quality issues, inconsistent quality control mechanisms and an insane amount of handoffs between teams), could result in rework that set the process back two to three weeks.
Over the past year, they initiated two significant events that have resulted in quantifiable improvements: the first was to take a more process-centric view of the organizational structure – three of the teams were reorganized into a single unit, with unified goals and incentives. The second was to lock all of the stakeholders in a room for two days and map the entire process out. Until the group did this, they actually didn’t know what the entire process was. The mapping exercise gave the group a clear picture of areas for improvement – they identified several quick-hits that could be immediately implemented. This exercise also helped the team identify what additional investments they would need to make (across people, process, data and technology) to move forward with their goal of becoming a world-class marketing analytic organization.
The critical success factor here is the executive leadership needed to cross organizational borders. Without the buy-in of the other process stakeholders, the ability to optimize this process would be largely unsuccessful. The team can certainly identify areas where they can improve quality and workflow for their group, but they won’t have any control over the other aspects of the process.
So why aren’t more organizations taking a harder look at the entire business process and information flow?
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________*التــَّـوْقـْـيـعُ*_________
لا أحد يظن أن العظماء تعساء إلا العظماء أنفسهم. إدوارد ينج: شاعر إنجليزي
أمس في 10:06 pm من طرف freeman
