The equally important third party
The other day I visited a business where a process orientation work is in progress. Within some of the operations, a number of tasks had been identified as part of a support process. In retrospect, it has been found that resources allocated to the tasks, now within the framework of a support process, have decreased. Understandably, it seems that the reasoning is: "since it is now just a support process, it is probably not as important anymore and then we do not have to spend as much resources on this as we did before". There were also cases where it was considered that what one was doing was so important that it should not be a support process - "this is important, it must be a main process!"
This made me think. Process orientation should lead to increased insight and understanding of the whole ...? Process orientation should make it easier for the employee to understand his or her role and contribution to the overall objectives…?
Our crucial task in the third party
I came to think of my own hockey career. As a kid, hockey was about having fun (rightly so!), Everyone wanted to play a lot and everyone wanted to score goals and have fun together. Over time, it became more organized and complex. When I was 17-18, my coach told me: “I need you in the third five, you will do a very good job there. I want you to play a lot in numerical disadvantage, focus on not setting goals backwards, and making it difficult for our opponents' best players to perform at the top. " At first, it didn't sound like fun; I wanted to score and score! But quite quickly I found my role, realized what I was good at and how I could best contribute to winning matches.
We did a great job in the third party (and we had fun!). The other five did as well and we won many matches. We won because we had a clear strategy and goal, we had control over each other's capabilities and abilities, we knew our roles and how we would contribute best - and we had a clear leadership that kept the team together and led the way. Our coach had the ability to highlight good and important efforts, whether it was about scoring goals or playing well in numerical disadvantage.
A functioning whole
Playing in the third party can be likened to being part of a support process. After all, it is not the one that the goals are normally produced. But there are hockey teams that invest everything in a first-class main process (compare first-quarter) but miss thinking about the third-quarter and ensuring that the team as a whole works. They may score six goals forwards but allow seven innings. In the same way, there are businesses that have a world-class product but dissatisfied customers - then the goals will not be achieved. Like the fact that one does not win any hockey matches without the third-person, it becomes difficult to achieve their goals as an organization without well-functioning support processes.
In a process-oriented organization, it is important as a leader / manager to be able to grasp the whole and at the same time be able to highlight how different parts work together and contribute to a successful result. It is important that both managers and employees have insight into the various parts of the business and what strategies, goals and sub-goals exist and how they are to be achieved. It is important that everyone is aware of their respective roles and how to best contribute. Finally, it is important that everyone also has a basic understanding of process orientation, it is not enough that this knowledge exists in certain parts of the business.