Business Process Improvement efforts WILL fail if…

By Dr Jeanne Fredericks

…Executives, Managers and/or Frontline employees are not committed to the process improvement initiative. Now, it is very seldom that a person in any of these categories will outright say that they have no intention of actually making things better. So, how do you recognise resistance, as subtle as it may be, and how do you address it? Here are my thoughts:

Executives

The role of the Executive is to sponsor the initiative. To demonstrate their sponsorship they prioritise it, fund it, and show visible support for it. If the person who commissions the project is not available for project meetings, does not promote the project in other forums or consistently diverts funds and resources to other initiatives, I’m sorry to say, they are not that committed to the improvement.

Address this by having a frank conversation with the Sponsor. Highlight the consequences of having a failed or stopped project. The Sponsor then has three options:

  1. Start being the active face of the improvement,
  2. Step down and appoint someone else to be the Sponsor, or
  3. Stop the initiative.

It may seem harsh, but any of these outcomes is preferred when the alternative is a struggling initiative that does not get the right airtime to ensure long-lasting value.

Managers

Managers are meant to resolve issues that may derail the success of the project. A resistant manager may be vocal about how this project is doomed, or they can be the silent resistor who does nothing more than the bare minimum to give the illusion of support. Either way, a conversation is required. Here are some guidelines.

  • Ask what they would do to make this project a success. Add these items to the initiative’s Critical Success Factors (CSFs) list which should be monitored via a dashboard.
  • Figure out what is in it for them. Perhaps the project can solve some of their departmental problems and/or help them achieve their departmental goals. If this doesn’t work, then it’s time for escalation to the Sponsor. But, make the escalation visible to the Manager first!
  • Let the Manager know that as part of the change value realisation, certain behaviours are required of ALL people in their position. So, when these behaviours are not demonstrated there is an expectation from the Sponsor that a risk/issue must be raised. Give the Manager a sample of what you are planning to report and allow them to respond to your assessment.

Escalation is never easy, but it is necessary. Especially if realising project benefits are heavily reliant on the behaviour and attitudes of people who are meant to be the Sponsor’s eyes and ears on the ground.

Frontline Employee

A resistant Frontline employee can take the form of someone who treats any project request as a tick-box exercise… Or, they just don’t show up for stuff. One person can negatively influence many of their peers, so, issues in this group must be addressed as quickly as possible. The guidelines are as follows:

  • Find a way to connect the project goals with their personal goals. It all comes back to, what is in it for them.
  • Determine if they have been disappointed by a similar project before and figure out what went wrong. Add this to the CSFs of the project.
  • Find out (with great care!) if they are worried about losing their job, and if yes, have their Line Manager have a conversation.(Before I start any process improvement initiative I ensure that the Sponsor makes principal decisions regarding the possible impact on the team. For example, will they invest time and money to future-fit an employee that doesn’t currently have the skills to execute a new or improved process? And I usually strongly recommend that layoffs should not be on the table at all or should be the absolute last resort. I also encourage management to be transparent about these principle decisions to minimise speculation amongst Frontline employees. So, if this issue arises I can refer them to their Manager and be reasonably sure that an employee would be put at ease and that a consistent message will be communicated.)

Final thoughts!!

For an initiative to be successful it requires the orchestration of the interaction between human actors at all levels and the conceptual/physical elements of the project. Too often we are more concerned with drawing the pretty value stream, performing the most detailed process value analysis, or developing the most fabulous-looking To-Be process and we forget that all of that won’t mean a thing if we don’t have people across the hierarchy of the organisation working together to realise the value of what we are trying to achieve. Simply put, them peoples are important! Even more so than the project artefacts.

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