Corporate Leadership Series Courageous Leadership Strategies  Why Being the Best is No Longer Good Enough

Achieving Continuous Improvement by Managing Business Processes!

For organizations to produce stellar results, it takes more than just hiring good people and giving them financial incentives. It requires identifying, establishing, and managing critical business processes. We lead people but we manage business processes. Here, we focus on proven techniques to accomplish this objective.

Top organizations understand that well thought out and orchestrated business processes produce the largest portion of results. This two-day workshop not only explains the benefits of using business process management but also shows you specifically how to apply these concepts to your organization. Through facilitated workshops, you'll identify and rate your critical business processes. You'll select one process as a pilot and participate in a process improvement workshop.

Topics

Business Process Management - What is it and why should we be interested? Here we make the case for business process management by introducing, reviewing, and discussing the benefits. We also explore strategies for achieving continuous process improvement and the roles suppliers and customers play in attaining this objective.

Facilitated Process Planning - We lead your team through a planning meeting where they identify the critical businesses processes for your organization and develop an overall process management strategy. They'll select one process as a pilot for the process improvement activity that follows.

Accelerated Process Improvement (API)ä Methodology Workshop - We introduce the APIä methodology for initial process work and apply it to the pilot process. This results in identifying what changes should be considered to improve the pilot process and shows your staff how to apply this methodology in other business areas.

This two-day agenda includes multiple workshop activities throughout, which aggressively engages your organization in process improvement activities. We tap into the collective knowledge and understanding that your staff has about your business, your members,  associated problems and potential solutions to achieve results for your organization.

• Determine the role of Process Management.
• Identify critical business processes.
• Rate those processes.
• Assign Process Owners.
• Select one process for a pilot process improvement workshop.

This one-day workshop builds on previous process management workshops. Both the Leadership Team and the Business Process Consulting (BPC) Team participate.

Agenda

Process Management - The steps of Process Management, as introduced in initial education, are reviewed and discussed. This solidifies the concept of Process Ownership. We discuss the role of the Leadership Team and the Business BPC  Team and introduce strategies for initial process measurement and continuous process improvement.

Facilitated Planning - In a facilitated planning session, the Leadership Team reaches consensus on which processes are "critical," what the current ratings of these processes are, and who the process owners should be. They have thoughts and ideas from a brainstorming session conducted on these topics during initial education to assist them.

Accelerated Process Improvement (API)ä Methodology - This methodology for initial process work is introduced. A critical process is selected for a pilot APIä process improvement workshop. Participants complete the APIä document of understanding. A BPC team member is assigned to assist with the pilot activity.

The APIä is an intensive, one-day process improvement planning session. It provides a structured approach to assessing processes, identifying opportunities for immediate improvement, and implementing changes. This offering is very appropriate for processes that have not been documented and that have visible problems or visible opportunities for improvement.

• Document of Understanding
• List of Process Customers
• Current Process Flow Chart
• Problems with Current Process
• Improved Process Flow Chart
• Anticipated Benefits
• Measurement Plan
• Plan for Implementing the Improved Process

ASI leads this one-day pilot process improvement workshop. See above APIä Overview for the objectives and a description of the process. The critical process used in this workshop is the one that was previously selected by the Leadership Team for the pilot activity. The process owner and several process participants attend the workshop.

Objectives

• Complete the documentation from the pilot APIä workshop.
• Prepare outline of presentation on pilot results for the Leadership Team.
• Develop recommendations for follow-on process work.

Here we finalize the pilot documentation and prepare it for presentation to the Leadership Team by the process owner. In a facilitated workshop we also develop a set of recommendations for the presentation to the Leadership Team. These recommendations focus on a plan for continuing process work on critical business processes.

Some organizations find it desirable to developed a team of skilled internal consultants who provide leadership in the area of process management across the organization.  This workshop is designed to support that direction.

Objectives

• Review the role of the Business Process Consulting (BPC) Team Members.
• Provide an in-depth understanding of the APIä methodology.
• Define the role of each BPC Team Member for the APIä pilot.
• Review APIä process documentation techniques.

In this half-day workshop, we work with the three BPC Team members, in an informal workshop environment, to fully explain the APIä strategy and process. We explore how the APIä is implemented and define their role during execution and follow-up. We focus on skills and techniques that lead to success.