A new year brings new hope. After the holidays wind down and we look forward to the promise of the unknown, we start thinking about what’s important and what we want to do differently.
I recently had a conversation with my niece who asked the age-old question “What’s your new year resolution?”
I floundered. Usually, I have at least a token proclamation of self-improvement. But this year, I didn’t have a single one. Which got me questioning, why not?
Last year I had resolved to always look for the silver lining and to realign my work-life balance. But as 2020 unfolded both resolutions got hit hard. The general atmosphere and continuous setbacks tried the positivity necessary for silver linings. And it goes without saying that my work- life balance became an amalgamation of blurred boundaries and video calls.
In many ways, the events of 2020 hit the pause button on my goals and aspirations.
APQC recently closed its annual process and performance management (PPM) priorities survey taking stock of the trends and challenges impacting PPM professionals in 2021.
So, what did we discover?
Stable Challenges and Priorities
Many of the priorities and challenges remained steady, across topic areas in 2021.
- Development of end-to-end processes—our need to holistically view how work gets accomplished was reinforced by the events of 2020. Additionally, the pre-built end-to-end processes in technologies like ERPs continue to ensure end-to-end process work remains a top priority for PPM teams.
- Responsibility through process governance—the need to ensure process work buttresses organizational goals and creates accountability in the business for process remains a critical challenge. This new reality has become particularly poignant as process teams are tapped to support their organizations’ resiliency and transformation efforts into 2021.
- Lagging on measures—there is a continued emphasis to move beyond lagging and financial measures. As organizations transform and build for the future, the fit of previous measures is in question. The reliance on lagging and financial measures do not readily support predictive analytics, which are vital to proactive management and preparation for the next unexpected turn of events.
- Clear structure for improvement opportunities—clear process measures, ongoing monitoring, and selection criteria continue to be one of the PPM teams’ biggest gaps. This in turn, makes it difficult for teams to objectively rank and stack what feels like an ever-increasing number of improvement opportunities.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, comes to mind in the face of so many consistent challenges. This quote is often misinterpreted and reinforces a negative mindset about consistency. The point of the quote is not the fallacy of consistency, but foolish priorities. None of these persistent challenges are foolish, in fact they are quite vital. Their persistence is due to a need for long-term solutions and buy-in from the business.
What’s New
Though many things remain the same, nothing is ever completely static. The events of 2020 and long-reaching impacts have also unearthed some distinctive challenges and opportunities for PPM professionals.
- Process KPIs—in addition to overall sentiments of better measures, process teams have specifically called out the need to dig in and think through the best fit measures for their processes. This ensures that teams balance productivity measures (e.g., cost, cycle time, and throughput) with KPIs that link to the value of the process’ output.
- Silo busting—whether it’s consistent measures or an enterprise approach to managing improvement projects, PPM teams understand the serious gap that operational silos create. By creating a comprehensive understanding of performance and projects, organizations improve their agility and ability to conduct holistic problem solving, which will serve them well in times of crises.
- Culture is king—the current state of challenges and transformations is trying on organizations’ identities. Corporate cultures have been put through the wringer as organizations struggle with maintaining their identity and core values with a dispersed workforce. Additionally, organizations need to understand the tactics necessary to transform their organizations into any one of the many priorities (e.g., digital culture, continuous improvement culture, or learning culture).
In some ways, 2020 hit the pause button for the goals and aspirations of PPM professionals as well. Projects and budgets were suspended or reprioritized, and ways of executing work were swiftly derailed.
There has been a silver lining for PPM professionals amid these crises—our organizations have a greater understanding of the value of PPM efforts, particularly in our ability to help fix broken processes, engage people in change, and quickly adapt priorities and resources to support the organization’s emerging priorities (e.g., going digital). However, these same organizational opportunities have reinforced the need to address many of our ongoing challenges as we roll into 2021.
You can check out the full survey results from our 2021 Process and Performance Management Priorities Survey here and join me on January 28 for a webinar where I’ll talk more about these results and answer your questions.
For more process and performance management research and insights, follow me on Twitter at @hlykehogland or connect with me on LinkedIn.