One of the challenges for any
business is the fact that employees prefer their own way of producing the goods
or services they sell. Let’s say our business is in the accounting space and we
sell audit services. If I went and reviewed how each Audit Partner delivered
their product to the customer I am sure to find a variety of processes leading
to a wide variation in on-time delivery, quality, efficiency, client
satisfaction, and even staff morale.
It’s not rocket science to reach
the conclusion that there must be one best way; a process for delivering audit
services that achieves the best outcome on all dimensions. So why doesn’t it
happen? The main reason is that professional service firms tend to operate in
silos. In our hypothetical audit practice I would guess that audit partners
rarely get together, and when they do is to discuss the lack of growth and
declining profitability (and resultant cash-flow issues).
So how we change this culture of anti-continuous improvement? I usually
wait until they have a crisis that can be tied back to the culture and then
suggest the following five step process.
1. Get
all the Audit Partners together and commit to developing one process that
everyone must follow.
2. Invite
the exemplar Partner(s) to share exactly how they do their job. Document the
process.
3. Invite
contributions from everyone present to further improve the process.
4. Lock
down the process and set key performance indicators that will highlight any
deviations from the process.
5. Meet
at least at six-monthly intervals to review the process and document any
changes agreed. My rule of thumb is that if everyone has had their say and
two-thirds of those present agree, it is policy.
It is not rocket science. Anyone
can do this. In the quality space it is generally agreed that 85% of what goes
wrong in a business is due to ineffective processes. It is also accepted that
the custodians of the processes are the leaders of that business. That means
85% of what goes wrong in a business is due to leaders not leading. It is
essential that you build in consequences if people fail to follow the approved
(and agreed) process. It is not rocket science.
