[With apologies and gratitude to Monty Python1]
ERIC (a skeptical executive): Roger, you keep saying we should manage and improve our processes. You want me to invest time and money to identify them, to measure them, and to appoint people to own them. That’s nonsense. We don’t need to manage them; we need to get rid of them. I agree that processes are a big problem, but for a very different reason. They just get in the way and stop us getting things done.
ROGER (an enthusiastic advocate): Eric, without business processes you get nothing done. Processes don’t stop us doing things. They are how all work gets done in every organization. Without processes we can’t create, we can’t deliver, we can’t succeed.
ERIC: Argh! We spend way too much time talking about processes, drawing pictures of processes, measuring processes, and generally wasting time on stuff that’s not even real. I want everyone’s head back in the real business of management, not drawing pictures of it.
ROGER: Processes are really important, Eric. They are the way we execute our strategy. They show how we deliver on the promises we make to our customers and other stakeholders. They must be actively managed.
ERIC: No, no, no. Come on, Roger, we’ve got to get rid of them. What have processes ever done for us?
ROGER: They deliver our products to customers.
ERIC: OK. Yeah, they do that. I agree they get stuff into the trucks.
ROGER: And they reduce costs.
ERIC: What? How? Surely, all this process work is an increased cost?
ROGER: In the last year, we’ve run three process improvement projects that have saved a million dollars.
ERIC: OK, yeah. That happened once.
ROGER: Three times.
ERIC: OK, three times.
ROGER: It’s starting to happen continuously. As our managers and their teams see the possibilities they are looking every day for new opportunities.
ERIC: Nah. They should be doing that anyhow. What’s process got to do with it?
RANA (another enthusiastic advocate): Process documentation and analysis helped make customers happier when we streamlined complaints handling.
ERIC: OK, yes, I guess that happened.
RANA: You bet it did – we halved the number of complaints and reassigned some staff to more productive work!
ROGER: You remember the problem we had with the industry regulator and how that was solved?
ERIC: Ummm, was that about processes?
ROGER: Yes, it was. They wanted to be sure we knew how we executed key transactions and protected sensitive data. Our detailed process documentation impressed them – and solved a few operational problems for us as well.
ERIC: Lah-de-dah. OK, but what else?
ROGER: Understanding and documenting processes means that we can standardize how key activities are carried out, so everyone knows what to do and how to do it.
ERIC: Whoop-de-doo. That’s just asking people to do what we pay them for.
ROGER: But they need to know what we want them to do.
ERIC: Pfff. Well, obviously we have to do that.
AMIT (a passing enthusiast): And don’t forget automation.
ERIC: What? That’s just IT stuff. What’s that got to do with processes?
AMIT: IT automates processes, so you must know what they are. It’s tricky to automate guesswork.
ERIC: It’s still IT. What do processes ever do for the real business?
ROGER: They made the risk team happy.
ERIC: The risk team is happy?! I never thought those words would be in the same sentence.
ROGER: Developing our process architecture also helped everyone to better understand our organizational strategy. It shows what the strategy means in an operational sense. Our process architecture provides a coherent view of our strategy execution.
ERIC: Surely, our strategy is clear. It’s on the wall. We don’t need more diagrams.
ROGER: The Executive Manager of the Strategy Office says she understands the strategy much better having been in the process architecture development workshops.
ERIC: She does?!
ROGER: And process analysis generated new revenue.
ERIC: They did what? Did we sell the diagrams to some mug as artwork?
ROGER: Duh. No. Process analysis uncovered the idea for the new Excelsior Support service.
ERIC: I thought that was my idea?
ROGER: (Oops. Moving on…)
ROGER: The smooth merger with Acme Services was a process triumph!
ERIC: A what?! How?
ROGER: Both organizations had well-defined and managed processes, so we just went through both sets picking winners. Ta-da! An optimized set of merged processes.
LOURDES (yet another wandering process enthusiast): And don’t forget Business Excellence.
ERIC: Now you are talking. Look at that wall full of certificates! That’s what we need, business excellence, not process management.
LOURDES: Ahem. You can’t have business excellence without process excellence.
ERIC: Really? Oh.
ERIC: OK, but apart from delivering products, keeping customers happy, saving money, making us more efficient, enabling automation, clarifying strategy, generating new revenue, facilitating mergers, gaining business excellence accreditation, and reducing risk, what have processes ever done for us?
ALL THE ENTHUSIASTS: Executed strategy … increased profits … kept us in business … eliminated problems … enabled innovation … reduced staff turnover …
ERIC: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But apart from all that, what have processes ever done for us?
ALL THE ENTHUSIASTS (joined by fellow enthusiasts around the world): Sigh.
If you are asking who/what Monty Python is, my condolences. Also, https://bit.ly/What_Have_They_Done.
Roger Tregear is Principal Advisor at TregearBPM with 30 years of BPM education and consulting assignments in Australia (where he lives) and 14 other countries.
For two decades he was a columnist at BPTrends and a frequent contributor for the Business Rules Journal. All his columns can still be accessed. Roger continues to publish his insights into process-based management in this Process Pathways series published monthly on his website.
Roger has authored or co-authored several other books: Practical Process (2013), Establishing the Office of Business Process Management (2011), Business Process Standardization in The International Handbook on BPM (2010, 2015), Questioning BPM? (2016), Reimagining Management (2017), Process Precepts (2017), and Process Provocations (2020).
Further information about Roger and the services of TregearBPM, as well as access to all his published material, can be found on the tregearbpm.com website.
Process Pathways is published monthly. Other publications include my books, videos and columns.
Connect with me on LinkedIn to get notice of all my publications.
