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 Priority: Process Improvement!
The last few years have been tough for some companies. Many companies took a short-term approach to strategy, with the intent of simply surviving. With a new, more promising year upon us, we should broaden our scope and look at more far-reaching initiatives. Process improvement is one such area. Process improvement is a long-term strategy that offers big gains to companies. Yet, company leaders need to utilize discipline when implementing process change. In the early days of a new process improvement effort, it's tempting to be over eager and try to effect change in too many areas. So many process improvement initiatives start out with a bang, but quickly fade because priorities change, people lose interest, or change doesn't occur quickly enough. Avoid this by carefully prioritizing your processes. Select the processes that will help the company the most--the core processes--and focus on improving these. More tips for great process improvement: Integrate As you undertake any process improvement initiative, make sure the effort is understood and adopted by all. Most companies are good at optimizing processes within functions and departments--sales, finance, customer service, etc. The leading companies are those that optimize processes across functions and departments. They take an end-to-end approach to improving processes. Allocate Proper Funding When you contemplate implementing process improvements, be careful to budget adequately. Without the proper allocation of resources--including budget, time, and infrastructure--process initiatives will likely fail. Often initiatives are multiyear endeavors, so establish budgets and plan accordingly. A surefire way to kill process initiatives is to unfairly borrow or redirect key resources from the initiative to day-to-day operations. If you need to redirect resources, be certain to replenish them. Be an Active Manager Management, at all levels, must enthusiastically support and work toward process improvement. It is not enough for a leader to convince employees of the need for change and then walk away. Managers should have worked to identify the specific processes to be improved and they should subsequently support the change every step of the way. Only with careful, constant leadership, will process improvement initiatives succeed. Engage Your People Process improvement is about change and change affects people. Often people will be required to makes changes in behavior, priorities, and thinking. Openly acknowledge these changes and their inherent challenges with your people. Seek your employees' ideas and input and engage employees in the process redesign and implementation. Achieve buy-in. The more they "own" the change, the better the chances of success. Be Clear with Expectations and Communicate A key to buy-in and the ultimate success of process improvement is to have clearly defined goals that are aligned to the business objectives and strategic direction of your organization. Set realistic expectations and communicate these with your people--early and often. Create a detailed communication plan and follow it. Your plan should identify all audiences, methods of communication, and feedback mechanisms. Don't Forget Training Hand-in-hand with communication and management goes training. A vital component to success is making sure your people understand the changes to the processes and how to use the new processes. Provide training in the processes, standards, and procedures that are relevant to each individual. Measure Just as managers set initial expectations, they should also monitor quantifiable performance outcomes. A select group of process performance targets should be measured regularly to determine progress and identify setbacks. A note of caution: Don't try to measure everything your company does. Choose a set of metrics that shows how the initiative is making customers happier or lowering costs--or better still, both. Make It a Core Competency Once process improvement is in motion, keep it going. Spread the responsibility of improvement from the process team to everyone in the organization. Continuous process improvement should be a core competency of everyone. Be sure process improvement is part of the strategic plan and that it is embedded into the corporate culture. Process improvement is rarely easy, but the rewards are often great. Although every business has hundreds of processes, I would suggest emphasizing those processes that directly affect customers. You typically can't go wrong by improving customer acquisition and retention processes. After all, without customers there would be no need for processes! | 
