You've developed a business process. It describes how certain activities in your business should work. You've gotten relevant feedback from people involved in the process and they seem to feel that it accurately describes what they do. Then you implement the process and instead of running smoothly, problems occur. The people implementing the process let certain details slip through the cracks or a situation comes up that wasn't anticipated and instead of being to respond to it smoothly, people aren't sure what to do and make it into a big problem. You are left feeling frustrated and wondering what happened and why this process didn't work the way it should. Take heart in knowing you aren't alone in having this problem and there are some solutions.
No matter how much work you do to design a business process, there will inevitably be situations that occur which show where the cracks in your process are. It's impossible to anticipate every single thing which could occur, but what you can do is recognize that and understand how to deal with the problems that show up in your process. The first thing not to do is start finger pointing. By casting blame you aren't dealing with the actual problem. If anything you are making it worse because you're too busy trying to pin the problem on somebody instead of just dealing with it. Another thing not to do is bury your head and ignore the problem. It won't go away and it needs to be dealt with. So what do you do?
1. Identify the problem. When the problem occurs or a situation occurs that exposes it, identify it. Look at the entire process and determine where the problem shows up. You might find out that there are actually multiple problems. For example, I recently helped a client analyze a process and we discovered three different problems that came up because of a situation that occurred. Those problems weren't all related to each other and happened at different points in the process, but nonetheless running through the process showed where the problems were.
2. Discuss how to resolve the problem with your staff. It's really important to bring in the people who implement the process. Share what you've discovered and get some suggestions and feedback from those people on how the problem can be solved and the process can be improved on. You may discover, when you share this problem with the process, that the staff has insights you hadn't considered. By bringing everyone on board you can get some ideas on what needs to be changed and then make the appropriate changes.
3. Implement the solution and test the process. Once a solution has been devised, implement it into the process and then test it to see if it fixes the problem. You may need to go back to the drawing board or revise the solution. Keep implementing and testing until you are satisfied that the process works the way you wanted it to work.
4. Remember no process is perfect. Any business process can always be improved. Don't get sold on the process as it is...instead keep yourself open to improving it. Other problems and situations will come up that call for you to change the process. Adapt as needed and you'll find that your business thrives because you recognize the need for change and make it a proactive part of your business.
Photo Credit: Business Process Development/shutterstock