Change is the only constant is a much used
saying. Publications of best practice standards and frameworks have helped
businesses become more lean and efficient. This has led to better performance
for many organizations who have become giants in their own space. It has also
made products better and this has resulted in increased consumer satisfaction
and user experience. This is true for all industries from FMCG to automobiles
or even IT. While most focus has been on the processes and technology aspect,
organizations can fail if they neglect the human element of processes. A much
occurring debate is how much focus should an organization pay to processes or
what comes first process or people.
While there is no definitive answer to this debate,
it is worthwhile to look into the aspects an organization needs to pay
attention to while taking a decision on process implementation. The people
element is a very key ingredient in a successful process implementation. It is
therefore very important to have a buy in from the impacted team of people for
any process which an organization plans to implement. This can be done by:
Involvement in Design: An organization cannot
just design a process and hope that it will get implemented successfully. In
fact people who are part of the current process are the best people to come up
with suggestions and improvements in the process. This not only results in
better ideas coming in but also ensures that the teams that will be responsible
for the process already have committed to it and want to see it succeed. Top
and senior management needs to be open to suggestions. Various techniques can
also be used to elicit responses from the people involved in the process to
seek their opinion on how they want the process to be changed / modified.
Training: Many a times an existing process may
not be in place at all and people would be used to ad hoc steps being taken. A
classic example of this can be deletion of separated users on an application. In
some cases HR teams may inform IT teams to disable the accounts. In other cases
Application owners / Business may inform about account deletions etc. Also
compliance requirements may demand that a process be changed. In such cases it
is very important to ensure that all the people affected by the new process
undergo a formal training to reduce ambiguity. In the example mentioned, since
multiple teams are going to be involved conflicts may arise. It is important
for the organization to quickly identify the potential areas of dispute and
take measures to resolve them. This will ensure that when the process is
actually rolled out, all stakeholders are aligned and implementation is smooth.
It is very important to educate the users of the process to understand the
benefits of the process. Once they see and realize how it will make their work
easier the buy in from them will be a mere formality.
Monitor: A process implementation is not a
onetime activity. It needs to be monitored continuously in order to ensure that
it meets its set objectives. A process owner should be identified who will be
responsible for the smooth functioning of the process and to suggest
improvement measures. This is where even internal audits can help as it will
identify any shortcomings and auditors can have the responsibility of
suggesting remedial measures.
To sum it up, people and processes will always
have to work hand in glove for both to be successful .One cannot do without the
other. Organizations have to realize that a good process implementation is
bound to fail if the people do not believe in it. On the other hand people are
also likely to fail if there is no process being followed for activities to be
performed.
About Author:
Kintu Racca is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at: kintu.r@spluspl.com
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