Process: What good process produces, how to identify bad process, and how to avoid it
"Process." You probably just had a reaction to that word. You might equate it with bureaucracy or stifling creativity. You might think of it as a key step to scaling an organization. So what are good uses of process and how can we identify bad process?
What are some good uses of process?:
- a) Protect quality
- b) Ensure reliable results
- c) Prevent past mistakes
- d) Guard against real or perceived risk
- e) Increase speed of delivery
- f) Leverage employees' competitive advantages
- g) Remove complexity from real-time decision-making
Often, good process produces a number of these positive outcomes simultaneously. A overly simple example is the assembly line. Without thinking too hard, we can see how, vs. a piecework system, the assembly line generated all of these benefits for Ford.
OK, now here's the tricky thing with bad process. The vast majority of the time, bad process was created in an attempt to produce one or more of those good process outcomes. It's also likely that at the outset, the bad process was successful in generating the desired outcome.
This is what makes hastily ripping out or changing bad process dangerous. It's tempting to view bad process only in the light of its negative side effects without analyzing its initial aim. We must first ensure we have an alternative way to deliver the outcome.
That said, what does bad process look like? Here are some archetypes of bad process to watch out for:
Bad Process A: Process that focuses on only one stakeholder. We've all seen processes that make things easier for employees but create difficulties for customers. Or processes that are great for profit, but bad for the world. Good process must consider downstream effects.
Bad Process B: Process that is administered with no exceptions allowed for those asked to execute it. These processes often start as trying to make decision-making easier for frontline employees, but they remove power from those teammates to make common-sense allowances.
Bad Process C: Process that ignores tradeoffs (solves 1 thing, makes 10 others worse). More common in larger organizations where silos make tradeoffs difficult to see and/or employees are incentivized around narrow metrics that encourage them to be myopic.
Bad Process D: Process that is "just the way we've always done things." A parable (bear with me): A young man is watching his father prepare a ham for the holidays. The father goes to the garage and gets a saw and starts sawing off the bone that's protruding from the ham...
The son asks his father, "That looks like hard work, why do you saw off the bone?" "That's the way your grandmother always did it," he says, "so I do it, too, because her hams were always delicious." But the father realizes it's a good question...
He calls his mother. "Mom, why did you always saw the bone off your hams?" "Oh," she replies, "it wouldn't fit in my tiny little oven with the bone still on it."
Organizational memory for process is longer than organizational memory for the purpose of that process. So while some "always done that way" processes still have merit, many have outlived their purpose.
Bad Process E: Process executed manually that is easily automated. The challenge is figuring out how much time we should invest in automating a particular process. The best resource on this question is a comic from @xkcdComic (yes, really). https://xkcd.com/1205/
Bad Process F: Process that's created first. New ideas and the correct implementation of those ideas are two separate challenges. Locking a new idea into a set process too early can confuse which was incorrect - the idea or the implementation.
One of the biggest idea killers is systematizing too early. One of the biggest success killers is systematizing too late.
Bad Process G: Process that protects someone's job or multiple jobs, or gives one person undue control of outcomes. This is a more ossified version of D (always done this way) but it is worth calling out because of the sensitive nature of fixing it.
So process, in moderation, can be used for good! Focus on the desired outcome, and remember:
- A) Consider all stakeholders
- B) Allow flexibility
- C) Ensure it's worth the tradeoffs
- D) Make sure it still makes sense
- E) Appropriate automation
- F) Create process, but not too early
