Putting the “Fun” in Fundamentals

One of the things that separates types of people is how they relate to process, both individually and as part of larger work teams. Even more so how people react differently to the  adoption of new processes that may be personally inconvenient in some circumstances, but promise “soon to be realized” improvements in other areas for themselves, team members and business owners.

I believe it is safe to assume that most people have been part of some effort during their careers to improve internal process, maybe kicked off with a team-building offsite retreat or a 30 slide power-point presentation by an outside expert brought in to fix performance and morale issues.  I also assume that many  people who have experienced such efforts are incredulous about their value and effectiveness. In many cross-functional organizations, optimized team performance (vis-a-vis better processes) is an elusive holy grail that everyone yearns for but few can actually find.

There is an oft quoted adage that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results. People want processes  to fill the gaps that make their work lives difficult, even when they themselves are resistant to giving up autonomy of their own work patterns. The trick is not coming up with new and improved processes; rather it is getting people to embrace them.

Organizational leaders and change catalysts face a daunting challenge when deciding to invest time and resources in process upgrades.  Here are a few things to keep in mind that can help improve the process of improving process.

1. Mandated from the Top – Don’t excuse top leadership from conforming to newly defined best practices. Busy C-types are some of the first to eschew inconvenient, time consuming practices in favor of the personal ways of doing things that got them where they are, even if it means recording new sales contacts on the back of napkins and not directly in the new CRM system.  Employees hate double standards and will lose interest in anything that is not taken seriously by their superiors at the company. Leaders should not only play along, but publicly demonstrate their commitment to the chosen improvements.
2. Be Proactive, Not Reactive – Do what you can to determine a cohesive vision of what you are trying to accomplish. The actualization of something positive will eliminate the negative. Responding only to a list of broken processes can lead to disassociated initiatives and unmet expectations that things aren’t noticeably better right away.
3. Timeboxing Change – If process roll-outs are too small and frequent, they will come off as meaningless. If the vision is too broad and idealistic, it will seem unattainable. Take a chapter from agile project management and think about 2-4 week sprints that focus on addressing specific needs and issues.
4. Careful with Pilots – It is far to easy to tolerate ambiguous objectives and solutions when “its only a pilot.” The last thing you want is a bunch of people spending time on a half initiatives that never really get anywhere, but seem real enough to breed complacency that things are actually happening.  While there is a time and place for limited implementations of new processes, make sure that decision is driven by the clear need for phases and not a muddled sense that “we have to do something.”
5. Put the “Fun” in Fundamentals – Getting staff to embrace change, even when it can be inconvenient, is the key to success. They must be given time to adapt to new processes, and they must feel part of the shared vision of why its being done. This is beyond getting early adapters on board. It is about bringing the team together in ways that are engaging and forward thinking. Project management and team collaboration fundamentals are not overly complex, and there are ways of surfacing core concepts so that people of all types can understand and relate to them. This is probably the most ambiguous of my recommendations, but also perhaps the most important. For more information, please be in touch.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and I welcome posted responses with other ideas for leading internal process improvements in work-place environments.