Dec 3, 2009
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Tip to Not Getting Stuck When Writing Down a Process
We have a client who wanted to document their current processes. This is a good thing to do. It has many advantages and is crucial for setting a path to growth and higher customer satisfaction. But they seemed to always get stuck in the process.
The project of writing down the process would suffer from the worst scope creep. Then the scope creep would kill the project for a while.
Every time they’d start to get things down, they’d stop to discuss some item that came up. The discussion would grow, more people were pulled in and suddenly the whole project was pushed back for another two months.
After watching this happen a few times over the course of a year, it was clear that whatever it was they discussed, was poison to the project.
Some people suggested that it was a problem of how they were discussing the item and the steps they were taking to develop conclusions. Others suggested that it was a matter of poor decision making process and that either more power was needed to be given to the people involved or the decision itself should be pushed higher up the chain to someone who had more power.
I took a look at this situation and it was clear that none of these factors was the problem. The group itself pretty efficient at discussing things and, while it was true that the people at the table didn’t have the right decision making authority, this was not a problem of decision making. It was a problem of content.
The items they were discussing were not part of their current processes. They were new items, new decisions that had to be made. They were totally novel concepts for the organization and were out of scope of the project and out of the decision making authority of the team involved. The items had more to do with process improvement then in documenting the current process.
What would happen is, that as they would document their process, they would see ways to do things better. That’s great. Its one of the big advantages of writing things down. But instead of tabling the item or making a note to come back to it later, they would tackle the issue right there.
Instead of documenting what was already in place and working in their organization, they used the whole project as a springboard for process improvement or process modification.
That, is what was killing the project. Noble intentions and good, creative thinking, but out of scope for that project and team.
After helping them stay focused on the project itself, and creating a bucket for all the good ideas that came up along the way, the client finished documenting their processes in under one month. They were well on their way to better management and greater growth.
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