Sailing towards process excellence

Changing tack on the huge square-rigged sailing ships of the 18th century could take up to half an hour, with as many as 100 crew wrestling lines and canvas on the deck in barely-controlled bedlam. It’s not an exercise you’d undertake lightly, but if the ship was to get to its destination, it had to be done.

Change management in business can feel the same way sometimes; a messy and chaotic challenge that exhausts everyone but essential to achieving your goals.

According to research by Gartner, those on the decks of many businesses can identify with the sailors of yesteryear too. With the upheaval of recent years, people’s appetite for change has reduced dramatically and, compared to less than 10 years ago, only half as many workers are willing to support change. Change fatigue is a real experience for many and all the more reason for careful and intentional change management.

Effective change management has been narrowed down to a five-step process by Harvard Business School. Just like those dozens of crew on a sailing ship, each element is essential to bringing meaningful change to an organization. Effective process management and automation supports and enhances that capacity to transform a business and set it on a new course.

Establish your bearings

It is hard to know where you need to go if you do not know where you are. Establishing the current state of your processes is the first step to finding a new direction. Intelligent process automation is ideally suited for helping identify some of the breakdown points in your existing processes. Bots can rapidly and comprehensively collect information about your existing processes and practices, making evaluations and collating data that identifies potential changes. This sets the stage for change that will be effective.

Signal the new direction

Communication is essential for reducing the effect of change fatigue. Work closely with your teams to validate the focus points you have identified and clearly communicate both the what and why of the changes. Invite collaboration through robust process feedback systems in your process management platform and bolster communication processes to keep everyone on the same page.

Haul the mainsail

Change is not change until something is different. Implementing change can be destabilizing, but it does not need to be destructive. Automation tools can focus change activities by collecting and collating the changes necessary, creating tickets or frameworks within your project management software from the data you have assembled and approved. Process management tools can utilize those data points to direct efforts, and teams can incorporate the new ways of working into their workflows through a collaborative process platform.

Tie off loose lines

Driving change is not an end in itself. It is a step on the journey to process excellence and, as new practices and procedures are bedded down, the new normal needs to be reinforced. Use your process platform to reinforce the revised approaches, keeping modified processes visible and accessible to those they impact the most. Highlight changes in key procedures and emphasize the value of compliance for all concerned.

Chart your course

Not every change in direction leaves you heading where you want to go. Evaluation is essential in any change management and checking the outcomes of your initiative ensures your business does not stray from the intended goals. Automation tools are excellent for providing rapid and granular analysis of your processes, identifying wins or unexpected pain points and reporting on the effectiveness of new strategies. Use automation capabilities to capture an accurate picture of what your changes have achieved and begin to plot out any further adjustments that will accelerate your business.

Turning a 500-ton sailing ship is no mean feat. Nor is changing the direction of an organization. By harnessing the power and ease-of-use of effective process management and intelligent process automation, you can set your business on a more efficient course and deliver better outcomes for your customers and the teams that serve them.