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"I Hate Velocity!"

A while back I was working with a company that was attempting to instill a Continuous Improvement culture internally, but had multiple executives who proudly proclaimed "I Hate Processes". It seems that their previous experience with instilling standard work was too constricting. The person who facilitated the mapping of processes for them drove process mapping to the minute detail, and with that, this person stifled flexibility and creativity. This was another example of an inexperienced tool user making the tool (Process Mapping) look bad.

The purpose of process mapping is to drive operational improvement. First, this is done by making the processes transparent to all. Doing this allows us to improve coordination amongst departments and allows us to identify points in the process where critical hand-offs are missed or delayed. Second, process mapping is the starting point for determining how to make a process more efficient and customer responsive. This is done by identifying wasted activities, such as unnecessary wait time & process steps that can be taken off-line or made parallel (vs. sequential), and by determining how to modify the operations to be responsive to emergent customer requirements. Third, process mapping accelerates the speed by which new employees get up to speed on their role in the organization; since the process map becomes part of the tool set used to teach them about their job.

Unluckily, because the basics of process mapping are so easy to learn, many people think they are expert process mappers after minimal training. Process mapping training teaches a person the science aspect of process mapping. This training doesn't guarantee that you are able to determine the right level of detail for the process map, and it doesn't teach you how to develop standard processes that are flexible enough to deal with the contingencies that can arise.

So when I hear a person say "I Hate Processes", it makes me wonder if they also hate velocity. Velocity exists. It is not something to be liked or disliked. It exists, period. By understanding velocity, I am able to apply the concept to create better products and/or processes. The same can be said for processes. Processes exist. Whether you choose to understand the processes you manage or not does not in any way impact whether processes exist. To me, though, I would rather understand my critical processes so that I can control them, rather than let my critical processes control me!