12.20.07
Examine your processes, could you be better?
Part of what I do is to examine the processes of organisations and see how they need to be altered and streamlined to take account of the introduction of a new product, service and/or technology.
Typically these activities start in the same way, a bald statement by the customer saying that they believe they are a slick as they could be given the restriction put upon them by… <insert external/budgetary/historic/personnel/personal reason here>. Usually after a pretty intense round of questioning accompanied by much chair scraping, furtive glancing, excuse making and shrugging of shoulders it’s acknowledged that, yes there probably are some simple changes which could be made which would not revolutionise, but could certainly ease the current processes.
The key with this process is to remove all of the personality and ego from the process. Even though I may have described a process which seems to work, I’m not averse to the possibility that there may be better ways to do it, and this is the mind set with which this exercise should be approached. Nothing is a personal attack or criticism it’s simply observations from a new perspective.
But this new perspective doesn’t have to be from an outsider such as myself (although I’m always happy to lend a hand 
) It can be achieved by simply being honest and asking one question over and over again until the reality of the situation reveals itself. That question is “But why?”.
Typically the root of these things is a simple and unstructured as
“It’s just always been done that way” or
“it was the cheapest way” or even
“I don’t actually know, and neither does anyone else”
Once you’ve reached this point you are able to being again and start rebuilding your processes to fit where you are today. There one thing I’d like to say about those root statements up there.. none of them are wrong, they just are. What’s more in the context of the time it may have been perfectly valid to choose the cheapest solution because it fit the business case of the time. The point here is that whatever you decide to change today not only will, but actually should come under the exact same scrutiny at some point in the future and with this in mind do yourself or your successor a favour and document everything.. remember “I don’t actually know, and neither does anyone else”? You’ve got the power now to ensure this isn’t repeated!
- J.
