Focusing on Processes

Change Teams reinvent work processes to help the organization move toward its vision. A process is a set of activities that produces a specific output which directly benefits a customer. Each process has a beginning, middle and end. A process starts with some raw material and transforms it into a different end product. Processes take time, incur costs and provide something of benefit that customers will buy.

An organization's divisions and departments may include one or more processes, or only contribute to part of a process. Jobs contribute to, but are not, in themselves, processes. Processes are bigger than most jobs. Organizations may define processes differently, but here are some examples:

Manufacturing the Product. This may - or may not - include purchasing raw materials and moving the product to the customer.

Customer Service. Filling the order, answering the customer's questions and solving customer problems.

Servicing the Product After It's Sold. Some organizations include this with selling.

Since Change Teams focus on reinventing processes -- the ways the organization does its work -- they are not directly concerned with changing individual behavior and attitudes or policies or rules. When processes change significantly, jobs change, and the people in those jobs must learn how to work differently. This can generate resistance to change. Change Teams must engage that resistance in a productive way.

The work of Change Teams may result in reshaping departments or divisions. This means Change Teams cannot honor old boundary lines and the old way of organizing the work. Having Change Team members from different departments and divisions helps the team deal with the nervousness of bosses.

Making lasting change means the team has to take the time to create good will towards the new way of doing work. If the team does not do this, the changes the team implemented will break and the old system will be back in business. The result? A failed Change Initiative.

© 1997 ChangeCraft ™

Written by: Heidi Jeanne Hess and Doug Wesley
(Veronica Boaz contributed)

Check Point

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