I recently spoke to Carla Wolfe, Senior Business Analyst at Elevations Credit Union, about how Elevations Credit transformed organizational BPM performance by focusing on engagement, validation, and deploying ‘Special Forces’.
Carla will be a presenter at the 2014 APQC Process Improvement Conference October 16-17.
You can follow Elevations Credit Union @elevationscu.
APQC: What was the ‘tipping point’ five years ago which pushed Elevations Credit Union to want to transform organizational performance?
CARLA: The organization did not recognize the need for a transformational change. Our CEO who was new to the organization had previous exposure to the Baldrige Framework and discussed it during his interview for CEO with our Board of Directors. I think it is fair to say, he knew the power of the framework in transforming organizational performance and wanted to ensure the organization would succeed and thrive. He declared the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) to win the National Malcolm Baldrige Award which has compelled our transformational change.
APQC: You focused a lot of energy and resources to ensure remote collaboration and stakeholder validation. How did you bring remote folks on board and keep stakeholders engaged?
CARLA: The remote collaboration/stakeholder validation is integral to our BPM methodology and is a required step for deployment. Since we started only with tribal knowledge, it was essential that the organization move/grow holistically.
Most importantly, we maintained a public and visible scorecard for process development (BPM Tracker) in which process owners were required to obtain Stakeholder validation as one of many steps needed to move from Design to Deployment. This was the first time the organization actually realized they were producing inputs/outputs for each other as well as our members.
I would say we mitigate but not have not conquered the concerns around remote Stakeholders. Our remote folks are also are frontline service providers which presents unique challenges. However, we do engage them in process validation sessions and they are engaged in testing of processes prior to deployment. Additionally, once the processes/procedures are published in our Reference Desk, all users have immediate access to a Feedback button which allows them to provide comments “in the moment” while attempting to use the processes. These comments are monitored by our team and shared with process owners to improve the processes. Everyone in the organization uses the same toolset and BPM methodology which definitely helps when interfacing with remote Stakeholders. And, all new employees receive an introduction to BPM, the language and the toolset prior to remote deployment. Our biggest gain in overcoming this challenge was the introduction of Blueworks Live. This is our cloud-based BPM software. We can have multiple users/stakeholders regardless of location engaged in validation sessions and Live Chat. And, due to our high touch Governance over BPM Methodology and Blueworks Live, our team is always aware of Stakeholder engagement and participation. Recently, we changed the Stakeholder Validation requirements to include our Training Department. Since the Trainers work with all Users across the organization, they are keenly aware of the user needs. Additionally, the Trainers use our validated processes/procedures published in Reference Desk as their “source of truth” in the classroom. They are able to provide continuous feedback to process owners regarding the needs of Stakeholders since they are in a live laboratory and are dependent on the quality of the processes.
APQC: Besides concentrating on tools and software to improve process you also used what you called ‘special forces’ to shape BPM culture by providing coaching and oversight. How did you measure the success of your ‘special forces’?
CARLA: Special Forces were recruited as volunteers and were selected based on aptitude and interest within their Category on our Enterprise Process Map. For the first year, their measure of success was a combination of intrinsic motivation (knowing it is the right thing to do and it was helping their team) and some modest public recognition since progress was publicly reported on number of processes deployed. Last year, goals were developed by our group (Enterprise Performance Excellence) in alignment with our Strategic Goals for our BHAG and shared with Leaders. Those were cascaded to all Special Forces team members and added to their performance plan (Success Factors) and they are evaluated quarterly.
APQC: If a company wanted to copy your process improvement what will be the biggest challenge to implementing the ‘Special Forces’?
CARLA: That question makes me smile. We had no formal plan for deploying Special Forces. At the time, I was the only Business Analyst in the organization. I was supporting BPM, the BHAG and all of our Organizational Project work. We went through a Core Conversion and two mergers at the same time we were deploying BPM. I simply started ‘recruiting’ purely from survival and necessity. I really did not encounter any challenges in the beginning because we provided training, modest recognition and it was considered important work since it aligned with our BHAG. At an all-staff meeting one of our managers nicknamed them “the cool kids.” Later, the biggest challenge came with turnover, promotions, and job changes. We had to build a succession plan to ensure continuity.
APQC: How did people being measured deal with the new measurement systems and was it integrated into their responsibilities and development?
CARLA: Those who were performing loved process and loved proving it. Those were underperforming, were slow to adopt process and slow to integrate metrics. Our biggest boost came when our Senior Leadership team set process improvement goals within their area of responsibility and then cascaded those goals.
APQC: Elevations Credit has an Enterprise Level dashboard of process metrics reviewed by the Senior Leadership team. What sort of performance issues has the dashboard identified that has allowed you to improve performance? Does the dashboard help make performance issues easier for everyone to agree on because everyone sees the same data?
CARLA: Although process was without doubt improving our performance, it was not until the development of the dashboards that we could PROVE it.
The dashboards were like lighter fluid to process development and performance visibility across the organization. For the first time, the organization had visibility from end-to-end on thorny issues such as cycle time for mortgage or loan processing. We could see every process involved in processing a loan from application (front) through back office to closing. Also, we now monitor multiple service performance indicators by location, by branch, by manager, by individual against our peers locally, regionally and nationally. We knew that process was improving error rates, service levels and cycle time. The dashboards made all of this visible and led to improvements in for the Retail team including enhanced formal training, variable pay and restructured jobs.
APQC: All the changes made Elevations the recipient of the 2013 Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence PEAK award winner but what do you feel will be your biggest challenges to continue to improve your processes?
CARLA: We are already facing it. Not everything can be on a dashboard so, we are exploring ways to bring more visibility to all the work of the organization to ensure the passion for process keeps burning for everyone. When measuring, it is natural for Leaders to focus on high impact areas first.
Another challenge we face is ensuring we are tackling the core of organizational improvement issues from a Strategic perspective. We want the organization to think process first rather than buying new software or implementing a new program/product/service. Although all new initiatives require a business case, we now make process evaluation an integral part of Project Requirements elicitation. Additionally, we require the evaluation of all impacted processes as part of all projects. Although we have had such a powerful start, we know there are hundreds more challenges in front of us!