I recently spoke with process management practitioner, Christa Bol of UPS, about her transformation efforts to de-mystify process work and reconnect UPS with it process thinking roots.

What’s the primary reason an organization fails to turn a grand vision into an actual strategy for process improvement?

In my experience, a barrier to success when turning a grand vision into an actual strategy for process improvement, is a focus on one-off improvement efforts with short-term pay off. Instead organizations need to translate their vision into actionable work tied to longer-term outcomes and engage multiple levels of employees in understanding the benefits of having a strategy around process improvement.

Why are intuitive tools and common language critical to create the change needed for a culture of process improvement?

I am a big believer in the diligence associated with process improvement methodologies. However, if you want participation from business professionals, who are trained in their specific field of expertise, you must make the methodology accessible. This also means you must avoid the perception that your participants must learn a new profession. Once introduced to process tools and techniques, one can always choose to take their skills to the next level based on interest and business need.

How do you measure if your tools and language are hampering your process improvement goals?

I look for key indicators, mostly related to pace and progress of the improvement project lifecycle, to make sure that the right efforts and level of depth are reached. We start our cycle with process scoping and definition, including a SIPOC exercise. If this first activity is executed within our designated timeframe, it is a good indicator that the team is engaged and ready for the next steps. 

Additionally, I find that most project teams need help transitioning from evaluating the current state to analyzing root causes and prioritizing the issues in order to formulate recommendations for change. It’s at this gap that we invoke a few key tools to help move the effort forward.

I’d venture to say that our simplified toolset is designed to help progress towards our goals.

How did you get employees to buy into language changes?

I think that bringing clarity and a simplified tools set, rooted in industry standards and enabled by intuitive modeling technology, lends credibility and drives enthusiasm. Our partners really appreciate a flexible structure to guide their process improvement efforts. 

We encourage participation in a certification project which asks them to apply the concepts learned in our in-house process improvement workshop to solving a real business problem. Once they see evidence of their own successes, they often take it to the next level on their own. 

Join Christa at APQC’s Process & Performance Management Online Summit, October 6-8, to learn more about UPS’ journey and how its Enterprise Business Process Management Office evolved its methodology, established intuitive tools for process work, drove a culture shift, and created lasting partnerships within the business.

For more process and performance management research and insights, follow me on twitter at @hlykehogland or connect with me on LinkedIn.