TL;DR: Just because someone says it’s true, doesn’t make it fact.
A nice “everyday” kind of project today, one that we can probably all relate to on some level.
An internal service had so many bottlenecks and missed so many service standards that they asked for some help to fix it. So I led a process re-design to help get them back on track.
Since things had been a mess for quite some time, the first area of focus was to determine where things were breaking down.
So we held some process mapping sessions with the whole team.
And that led to… some interesting observations.
Process Mapping Sessions Don’t Lie
If you’ve never done a process review session before, it can be pretty straightforward.
People are often tempted to refer to this policy document, or point to another presentation, and almost build a case on what the process “is” just because someone “said” it was.
But if you really want to get to know the environment, you throw all of that out the window.
The most effective way to run these sessions is to stand in front of the group and ask, “What do you do first?”
After they tell you, then you simply ask, “What’s next?”
Of course you probably need to prompt them from time to time, because when someone performs the same tasks every day, so many details are glossed over that you need to make sure you extract them.
But mostly you just follow their orders.
Everyone Thinks They Know the Process
That simple process, however, relies on the premise that everyone knows the process.
What shocked me in this session – and this was not even close to the first one I’d ever done – was just how quickly it became clear that they were all doing things differently.
Maybe two steps into this (20+ step) process, they already started to disagree about what they should do.
It was never contentious, and it was almost always packaged in surprise.
“What? You do that?? I thought we were only allowed to do X!”
“I was told you only did X if it was for a Y requirement.”
“I’ve never done X before, I keep telling people that the manager needs to do them.”
Literally within minutes of a two-day session, we’d discovered the root of the problem.
There was what management asked of the team, and what they actually did.
Even Small Teams Fall Out of Sync
Yes, in case you’re wondering: they had established processes, and they had informal on-the-job training for every newcomer.
They also had active senior management involvement who had a desire for consistency.
They just didn’t have it.
Again, this was a small project with a small team – if memory serves, there were only about ten employees on staff.
And they all worked at the same site, in an office space over which everyone could be heard if they spoke loudly enough.
Size was not a problem.
Ability to communicate was not a problem.
And they still had no idea what everyone else was doing.
When Leadership Assumes Too Much
I don’t have enough fingers to count the number of times senior management has told me exactly what is happening on their watch only because they insist that that’s what they want it to be.
“We have processes,” they might say.
“I’ve told them at least three times in team meetings.”
People seem to want to believe that they can will activities into place. Especially when they’re in positions of authority: “They have to do it because I said so!”
But employees don’t disobey because they’re unruly. They only follow what they understand.
And all too often, what they understand is what someone told them that someone else told them five years ago.
“No need to consult the manual,” they might say. “I’ve got this down pat.”
The Broken Telephone of Project Execution
The lesson here isn’t to consult a huge list of tools that we can use to get back on track.
The lesson is that senior managers have to realize – and truly understand – that their voices can only be heard from so far away.
They have to understand that every single day is the “broken telephone” game, and the only way to stay plugged into the daily routine is to explicitly check in.
It can make a huge difference when it’s a routine process.
When it’s a project with an expiration date, coming to the light at the end might just be too late to save it.
Lesson: Just because someone says it’s true, doesn’t make it fact.
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