5.3. Why Look at Processes?

An organization is only as effective as its processes. Organization Goals (see Chapter Four) can be achieved only through logical business processes, such as those listed in Table 5.1. For example, one of an automobile manufacturer's Organization Goals may be to reduce the time it takes to deliver a car with the options requested by a customer. The company cannot hope to meet this goal if it has an inefficient ordering process or a convoluted distribution process.

When we view the situation from the top down, we see that process effectiveness is a major variable in the achievement of Organization Goals. We can also look at the value of processes from the bottom up. At the Job/Performer Level, we can take a variety of steps to improve performance (see Chapter Six). For example, we can improve our recruiting and promotion practices. We can provide more specific, up-to-datejob descriptions, more effective tools, and more attractive incentives. We can drive decision making down in the organization. We can empower teams to solve problems in their work units. However, even talented and motivated people can improve organization performance only as much as the business processes allow.

To continue our automobile distribution example, salespeople may be thoroughly completing order forms, data-entry clerks may be accurately coding information, and dock crews may be efficiently loading cars onto trucks. However, the effectiveness of any improvement in their performance could be limited by the logic (or illogic) of the total distribution process, made up of the order entry, production scheduling, and transportation subprocesses.

People in jobs such as these can certainly influence the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes to which they contribute. However, we have found that individual and team problem solving rarely focuses on process improvement. Furthermore, actions taken in a single organizational unit often lead to the reinforcement of the functional silos and the system suboptimization discussed in Chapter Two. The net message is that, over the long haul, strong people cannot compensate for a weak process. All too often, management relies on individual or team heroics to overcome fundamentally flawed processes. Why not fix the processes and enlist our heroes in the battle against the competition?

Finally, the Process Level is important because process effectiveness and efficiency should drive a multitude of business decisions. For example, a reorganization serves no purpose if it doesn't improve process performance. Jobs should be designed so that people can best contribute to process outputs. Automation is a waste of money if it calcifies an illogical process. The pivotal link between organization performance and individual performance can be established only through the three variables at the Process Level—Process Goals, Process Design, and Process Management.