Managers and Process Management

Do you know what managers are supposed to do…..? Well the immediate answer you will be getting is "They are supposed to manage" and would go in to elaborate as functions of management which is Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling. Thus application of functions of management in to any area that a manager is given for management is what managers are supposed to do. Well understood I guess.

One of the major requirements for managers is to manage the work. If you look at organizations, you will see work everywhere. It seems that stress is inevitable where ever the work is. Stress occurs to people, when work is for people. Hope you agree.

Role of managers starting from the Strategic Management would be to identify the amount of work required by the strategy, and organize the work in a manner that work will be managed using the best structure to obtain results. In fact the structure which comprise of people, are in fact a structure of work. Structure in another way is structured work that is assigned in chunks of manageable size to people.

Essentially, businesses are about conversion processes, value adding processes. Adding value in the market, using structured set of work assigned to people. Starting from the top level, as shown in the diagram manages are supposed to apply the management to this conversion process.

So I argue that a major portion of management should be responsible in Planning, Organizing Leading, and Controlling of processes. Every manager should have the expertise on Planning processes, organizing processes, leading processes, and controlling processes. If a manager attends to "Process Management" properly, they will make their life as well as the lives of people around them far more effective. 

Concept of the "Next Level Process"

We work with processes all the time. In one way the processes are standardization of work. Some may argue, why standardize when people like variety, hence let the processes evolve. Although I accept the said argument, I accept the argument for the standardization as well. Just look at the nature. Nature’s way is the best way for anyone. Imagine a world that nature does not standardize. If the nature had not use the concept of standardization, whenever a new baby is born, Doctors will have to locate where the mouth is including the other organs. How much of a hazel a mother should go through to feed her baby. However you know how easy it is for a mother to feed a baby and a baby to find mother’s breast. That's the nature’s way of standardization. Simply due to the standardization of the nature, people can predict and build toilets/ commodes, imagine if such standardization were absent.

Given above is only a very simple argument to say that nature’s standardization really works.

Yet there are situations where nature has allowed the randomness to exist as well. Just go in to a jungle, and try to predict what is about to happen in the next few seconds. It is not humanly possible. In a jungle things are very unpredictable. Thus nature keeps everything in balance when it comes to the Standards and Randomness.

Thus I argue that business processes are things where the order or the standardization is required at the optimum level. In the Next Level Process;

1. There will always be order.
2. It will always be possible to measure.
3. Will always follow an improvement approach without creating chaos within the business.
4. Will be complete, that allows to properly cater for Beginning - Mid - End activities.

Above all the Next Level processes will always to capable of improving an organization and its people with a readiness to go to the "Next Level".

Organizations will benefit by people having a high level of clarity in performing their tasks. There will be fewer ambiguities in work. Even when new staff joins, they will be productive within a short period of time.

If the management wants to create a second instance of the same business, it can be achieved faster, if all the processes are properly designed and optimized.

Putting people before processes

The management of one of my previous companies had a good argument, when they requested me to head the Human Resources department where I was already the Head of IT Department. After assessing several outside candidates, they pointed out that the individual, who heads the Strategic HR Function, should have an excellent understanding of the processes of the organization together with the people skills.

I subsequently proved that argument. However it was not a smooth sail. This factory I am referring to had 3200 employees with eight staff members in the HR department. Well, gradually 4 employees resigned, yet we did not fill the vacant positions in the department. Ultimately the HR department was equipped with only four employees, and jobs that were perceived as work for eight were handled by these four remaining employees.

So What was my secret…? It is putting people before processes. Once the processes are optimized people worked fine.

Another example to prove the same comes from a service organization, where I was the Head of HR and the department was located in the basement of the building. In fact someone may say that the particular department deserved to be in the basement, by looking at the results it was producing at the time I joined. Once assuming duties in the said company, I started by measuring the critical processes there. Found out that to issue an Agency contract, they were taking 47 days to 81 days. To process a separation they were taking average of 47 days, these are just two of the examples. Obviously the internal customers were not happy, nor were the Directors. Information produced was never accurate. However I did not blame the staff there or asked for new blood but worked with the same employees.

Streamlining the processes and optimizing the processes were the main focus, among many initiatives to get the department out of disgrace. It took three months for the other Head of the Departments to applause the performance of the HR department in one of the HOD meetings. Employees, who were taking sick leave once a week, came to work every day. HR staff was happy, and had a good team work. It is all about putting people before processes.

These are just two examples of getting results by process management.

We ought to look at the processes, and optimize the processes before blaming the people.