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Process, Process,
Process
Processes in an organization provide a framework in which to engage in the trusted behavior of information sharing or coordinated work, or what we call “collaboration.” One of the biggest benefits of collaboration is its ability to cut cycle time (although there are other benefits). Because the Internet has us all expecting events to happen faster, if not immediately, cycle time has become not only a critical competitive advantage but today, a bottom-line expectation. That expectation continues to increase as more and more technology becomes available in this Web 2.0 world. Combine this with the fact that processes and projects are getting more complex and distributed and we have a challenging situation.
In the 90’s, collaboration was mostly about working with colleagues within the corporate firewall. Today, it often means working with people inside and outside the organization (in your ‘value network”) who have a wider spectrum of roles and relationships in this ecosystem that develops across and between organizations. All the old rules of process efficiency and optimization still apply however, but today they must be translated to work across organizations, which often mean creating a Virtual Team Space (VTS) that is driven by collaboration. What we mean by a VTS is a secure virtual space where process or project objects can be stored, discussed, modified and searched.
Working with some Fortune 500 companies revealed that collaboration is most effective in dealing with process exceptions. A process exception is a behavioral action that falls outside the process norm. For example, most customers can get many of their questions answered by either reading the FAQ or talking to someone in first-line support. A process exception would be when an irate customer has not been satisfied from any of the standard processes and is moved up to second or third tier support. Often at these support levels not only do the support staff know more, but they will often work with each other (collaborate) to get an answer to the irate customer’s question or issue.
Pareto’s Law also applies here: Typically, 80% of focus and attention in a process is on the part that is successful, while only 20% is applied to process exceptions—the stuff that goes wrong. Just the opposite should happen, because, in reality, process exceptions take up 80% of your resources and are often the most cycle-time sensitive. Remember, that irate customers, if not satisfied will tell 10 others of their experience and there is no telling how much that will negatively impact your bottom line.
For example, not getting back to an irate customer with a good and timely solution can be extremely damaging. Or in a distributed new-product development team, if one of the team members from a partnering organization is not kept in the loop, that individual can often dramatically slow down the release of the new product.
So with this short discussion on both “people” and “process” we move on to the third factor in this triumvirate “technology.”
