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Delivering world-class performance is largely predicated on installing and executing world-class processes. Sounds easy enough…right? Not necessarily, but SOLV(X) has developed a blueprint for implementing world-class processes. When you ask yourself if your company is delivering world-class processes, there should be NO DOUBT!
“NO DOUBT” stands for New, Organic, Documented, Owned, Usable, Best Practices, and Teachable.
NEW: First and foremost, your processes should be new and fresh. Continuous process improvement is key, and while you should never change for the sake of change, chances are if you’re still doing things the way you did them 20 years ago, you’re probably losing market share to someone who has found a better way.
ORGANIC: Processes should not exclusively be designed by your company’s leadership team. Process development and improvement should be organic. It should come from the people who are doing the job every day. It is highly likely that, when encouraged to do so, your employees will come up with a better way to do the things that you ask them to do every day. Make them a big part of the effort to improve your processes and let their voices be heard.
DOCUMENTED: This one should seem like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised to learn how many companies fail in this regard. Processes should be documented. All companies obviously have processes, but many of them do not have these processes documented. And when people must rely on tribal knowledge it extends their learning curves and leads to a lot of mistakes, rework, and lost opportunities.
OWNED: All of your company’s processes should be owned by specific people. While a company’s processes may be documented, they may not be current, they may have significant holes in them, or both. And when you have an outdated and/or flawed process, who do you call to fix it? Do you hear crickets chirping? I do. Typically, nobody knows. This is why process ownership is so important. When a documented process needs to be improved, you need to know who to contact to make it happen. Every process should have an owner.
USABLE: Again, this should seem like a no-brainer, but processes need to be usable. This means that they should be well-written, easy to follow, have clear graphics, and functional links to other related content. If a documented process is not usable, it may as well not be documented at all.
BEST PRACTICES: Many companies have “processes”, but few truly have best practices. And while you can survive with good processes, you really win when you implement best practices. There is a best way to do everything, and if your company leverages your valuable employees and maintains a great culture of continuous improvement, you can achieve best practices for all of your core processes.
TEACHABLE: Lastly, processes should be teachable. There is a fine line between process documentation and training content, and I’m pretty sure nobody (not even me) wants to try to digest an 18-page process document. Keep the process document manageable and support it with great training content. Links to training modules and videos within a short process document will go a long way. Ensure that your process management system and your learning management system work hand-in-hand.
There are obviously many levers that you can pull to improve your company’s employee satisfaction, client satisfaction, and financial results. One of the most critical things that you can do is to ensure that your company is utilizing best practices within a great process management system. This is not an easy thing to do, but trust me…the juice is worth the squeeze. And if you need help, give us a call. We would love to partner with you to ensure that you have NO DOUBT!
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