Process management – six tips for how to become successful!

There is more to process management than just process documents in a desk drawer rarely touched by the light of day. It is a way of thinking and working. *Gasp* what a mouthful, you probably think. Because you know just as well as us that it was never easy to change habits or customary patterns of thought. And this is the very reason why you can reap the advantages of process management only by using some tips from change management. In this article, we present you with six of them that you can start using right away.

Being able to use process management starts and ends with embedding process work in your business. And for this purpose, we have gathered six tips that will help you succeed with the introduction and implementation of process management in your business.

However, it is important to distinguish between process management and the preparation of process descriptions and documentation.

And the act of distinguishing between the two is exactly where we’ll begin.

The preparation of process descriptions and documentation is one of the many tasks to be performed when establishing process management.
Tasks that may often be of individual value in terms of compliance with the law and that may typically involve updates at regular intervals, for example in connection with audit visits. Process management, on the other hand, is a way in which to manage and operate your company with the intention of providing support for reaching your business goals.

Thus, choosing process management means doing things in a new way and, therefore, you can get much help from the way in which you approach change projects. It is much more than merely a job to be done.

So, in order to reach a point where you can reap all the advantages of process management, you need to use some tips from change management. And they are all about …

… how to get your employees involved and turned into co-owners of the processes both when the project is kicked-off and in the future.

Before introducing process management, it is important to consider it appropriately in the relevant management group to establish:

• Which business advantages do you want to have special focus on?
• What does it require from the individual managers?
• How will you secure management’s attention also in the longer run?
• Who is the sponsor of process management (preferably the CFO if it concerns Finance)?
• Who is to drive process management?
• Who is to drive process management once it has been implemented?
• Which resources are needed for the project implementing process management?

That was quite a lot of ‘wh’ questions. But before getting out of breath in despair, you should remember this: Answering all of them carefully will ensure that a position has been taken on the elements that will form the basis of your project. In addition, it would be an advantage if you can involve colleagues experienced with change management to assist with the communicative and training-related activities.

If you want to be really cool, you will make a so-called pre-mortem, which is in brief a relatively simple exercise where you pretend that the project has run completely off track and brainstorm on the reason for this. It will help you identify any obstacles before project start and, thereby, enable you to navigate around them.

When the management group have come to terms and have agreed on the reasons for working with process management, time has come to involve the employees. Initially, the project sponsor will inform about the project in a way that makes it relevant to achieve the business goals. To make the project a success, it is decisive that the employees understand the business-related reasons for the decision as well as the method to the madness.

This also means that the initial communication should be limited to business-related reasons. And you shouldn’t expect the information to sink in right away. Therefore, it may make good sense to share the same information in various ways – share it in writing and orally – in both big and small fora. In brief: Don’t just circulate an email. Preferably, involve the management and the company’s frontline figures, who already enjoy organisational support. Studies clearly show that, when there are business-related reasons for changes, the employees will be more responsive and accepting when a top manager presents them.

Once the employees have been introduced to the intended implementation of process management, a lot of reactions and thoughts will arise. What does it mean to the individual employee and the daily tasks? It is the responsibility of the daily leader to inform about the practical implications to the employees’ ordinary work to create a sense of reassurance and transparency during the process. It is quite natural that changes generate concern about increased work pressure, about being made redundant in the longer term, and about having to learn new methods. Or a sense of excitement or eagerness to get started may prevail.

Irrespective of the resulting reactions, you need to listen to and respect the employees’ thoughts. It could be advantageous to involve them in the following:

• Which role they are intended to have in your process management set-up (such as process expert, process owner or provider of input).
• How you intend to handle increased work pressure.
• Which tasks you expect will disappear.

Use these talks to spot any insecure employees who need extra attention later in the project, opponents who must be handled before generating a negative atmosphere, and those who will become change agents capable of embracing the change when it’s there. And remember that much resistance can be prevented by listening to the opponents. The worst thing you can do is to neglect their concern. There may even be a no-sayer with a valuable point who can give the project a start because he or she has identified a big gap that you get a chance of bridging.

When you are ready to start the preparatory work, make sure to prepare the employees. Offer teaching where they can learn the following:

• What a process is.
• Which elements a process consists of.
• Which documentation standards you use.
• How they should read a process.
• How they should give feedback.
• What is expected of them in their particular roles.
• How they will contribute to reaping any future advantages.

You should bear in mind that the training will teach the employees how to do things. But they are still new to it and have not yet tried it in practice.

So, they are still far from being process management experts. Which is quite okay, but which it is good to be aware of.

One way in which to approach the training could consist in involving your change agents in a ‘train-the-trainers’ process, enabling them to pass their knowledge on to their colleagues. And make it clearly visible who they are so the colleagues are comfortable asking for help.

Because the employees have only just received the first training and are now about to get started, they still need a clear framework and support for the work. You may consider it a kind of hyper care after the implementation of, for example, a new ERP system. In process management, the system consists only of people and perhaps of some supportive software. Just as your focus will be on whether the ERP system functions as intended, the same holds true of your employees. Do they succeed as intended, and what is the reason if they don’t?

The first training is the starting signal for the employees beginning to use it and familiarising themselves with it. And this is when the change is actually implemented in your company.

Last but not least, the local leader plays an important role supporting the employees before, during and after the implementation – though a supportive hyper care function is available for support and for answering questions. It is, after all, important that the immediate manager is attentive, quickly gets a grasp of the challenges faced by the individual employees, and is continuously working with any insecure employees, any opponents and any committed employees.

This is so because hyper care and other support is of limited value if the opponents obstinately refuse to use it and merely let things slide.

Often, it will vary how quickly individual employees get a grasp of new work processes and methods. Therefore, you should ensure that it is measured how many processes have been completely documented, how many need to be completed, how many are being developed on a continuing basis, who uses them in the daily work, who provides feedback etc.

On the basis of this information, you can take follow-up measures such as extra training in weak areas and talks with the employees about focus areas. If you have chosen to, initially, focus on just one of the advantages of process management and then extend the number of focus areas as you go along, then a follow-up may also indicate when you are ready to do so. When your follow-up shows that process management is being used to the extent desired by the management group, the project is a success, and you have implemented process management.

The above points may help you get a good process management implementation. This being said, operations will not just run smoothly afterwards with the lightness of a ballerina.

Now, you have chosen a management system with focus on processes, which may give you very many advantages. As is the case with everything else, it also requires attention. So, it could be a good idea to regularly include processes on the agenda of the management group and the individual departments and teams. Since it is a general rule that employees will move focus to that which interests their managers.
Naturally, there is also a need for a new process: ‘Introducing new employees to process management’.

Process management will often involve an initial task identifying and documenting all processes and, then, the work improving and implementing the use of processes will begin. Thus, it would make sense to initially train and give your employees documentation competences and then, subsequently, go over points 4 and 5 again during your everyday work with the processes. You can also initiate work on point 6 regarding documentation, while at the same time initiating work on point 4 regarding general process work.

Now, we have described all aspects of change management in connection with the implementation of process management.

In addition, a task still remains to be done by the project management establishing project goals, managing the budget and identifying support software, just as all the tasks identifying processes, roles, systems and many other things still remain to be done.

So, you still need to roll up your sleeves. And if you ask process nerds like us, the beautiful thing is that you never complete process management.