Over the last five months, we have all gone through many stages of frustration and the need to rethink our priorities and approaches. Some of these have been professional and some personal. However, the silver lining of any crises or struggle is that people are resilient and find innovative solutions.
As I sat down to write this blog, I initially struggled to pinpoint any personal workplace innovations. Being a remote employee, I just assumed that most of my adjustments were personal. But upon reflection, even I’ve been deeply impacted by the need for change and supported by brilliant people that find ways to stay flexible and try something new.
Which brings me to the purpose of this blog, some of my favorite workplace innovations by process people due to the pandemic.
Digital Products or Services
According to Proactive to Reactive: Next 90 Days, 52 percent of organizations have created new products or services and 61 percent have shifted their delivery channels in reaction to the pandemic. COVID-19 has spurred new digital services as organizations look to meet the needs of their customers in a pandemic. For example, one process person noted that his organization has recently developed two new apps for customers. One helps customers find the organization’s products more easily and points them to the nearest stores where they are available. The second app, derived from the organization’s restaurant delivery channel, delivers the organization’s products directly to customers in their homes. Furthermore, both apps are here to stay, even once the pandemic subsides.
Building Relationships Virtually
As teams have been forced apart physically, it’s more important than ever to find new ways of coming together digitally to build the relationships and rapport that sustain collaborative work. For some teams this means carving out time every week specifically for chatting, having fun, and sharing personal lives with each other. For others this means dedicating personal check-ins as part or regular meetings. The important part is that in a virtual setting this requires us to interact on a personal level, careful and purposeful cultivation, and maybe even a process for enabling it.
Redeploying People
Adjusting to the immediate crises and settling into the new normal, has required some to redeploy employees to other business units or departments where their skills are most needed, both to ensure their continued employment and that the right skills are in the right places. For example, one superintendent said that when school campuses closed, the district creatively redeployed employees to help shift to a virtual environment. A bi-lingual custodian in one of the schools now works as a translator for English-learning students’ families, while daycare employees assist teachers with digital courses.
Training the Next Generation
My absolute favorite innovation is how process people use the time with their children at home to instill a love of and the rudimentary skillset for improvement work. One process person installed a Kanban board at home to help her children manage projects and keep the work on track. Another has gone even further, taking her three children through Lean Six Sigma training, including the 5S methodology.
Innovations at APQC
There have been several innovations for us here at APQC—new digital products in the form of online training, use of games during weekly virtual happy hours to reinforce and build new bonds, and even the redeployment of staff in targeted areas over the last few months.
Our biggest innovation however, is a shift from our traditional in-person Process and Performance Management Conference to a three-day Online Summit, October 6-8, 2020. While there are some changes to our annual event, our commitment remains to help organizations collaborate, connect, and equip themselves with the tools and tactics they need to communicate the value of process management, advance improvement initiatives, and sustain behavior change.
Our theme this year remains “challenging the as-is”. Though this idea is at the heart of process and performance teams everywhere, there is no better time for us to come together, share our experiences, and learn how we have all innovated and challenged our as-is to continue to drive success.
What innovations have you seen or created?
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