2 ms·

Not sure how much startup potential there is, but in my industry we struggle with adhering to procedures, and the root cause of that is because our procedures a

by zelon88 10y ago

Not sure how much startup potential there is, but in my industry we struggle with adhering to procedures, and the root cause of that is because our procedures are written in the dark by management that doesn't always have a complete picture or much insight into what they're enforcing. The problem that creates is that employees only look for work-around's for the procedures (because they are misguided or misinformed most of the time) and it creates a bigger mess than if we had no procedures at all. It's almost as though if we had a Procedural Consulting firm that could come in, look at the big picture, and help companies to create EFFICIENT and WORTHWHILE procedures that ACTUALLY do justice to the customer requirements without breaking the bank. Then they can sit everyone down and explain the procedures and enforce the assimilation that most companies usually have growing pains with. I noticed that when moving to a new company that is trying to grow and achieve higher levels of accreditation. Management had intended a two-way assimilation to take place between my procedural knowledge and the procedures they already had in-place. What happened instead is old procedures are etched in stone and new ones are seen as an obstacle... The assimilation was one-way and the other middle-managers like myself are mainly concerned with keeping everything the same, despite there being improvements that could easily be made.

Jtsummers 10y ago
There are probably a fair number of consulting firms you can find for that. But another (part of the) solution is using workflow software. Something that allows you to define and share procedures, indicate status of various taskings along the defined workflows, move data and such along. This clarifies to the employees what's needed, and gives an opportunity for them to provide feedback for improvements (too much granularity, not enough, too inflexible, etc.). Management, then, also gets better insight into the actual status of projects and taskings. It's part of continuous improvement to constantly be evaluating these sorts of procedures and clarifying, culling, adding to them. Management that's unfamiliar with these concepts is just bad management. In the manufacturing world, the Procedural Consulting firm would conduct "lean events". (NB: Many, if not most, places do this incorrectly.) The correct way is to collect metrics (meaningful) over time, encourage and reward employee feedback about ways to improve things. Then improve them (sometimes as a move across the board, but often by conducting experiments to see how well the new concepts work, then roll out to everyone). The risk is that improved efficiency will obsolete employees, some fear this (like may have actual panic attacks about this level of fear). Instead, you need a culture that sees this improved efficiency as an opportunity for growth (the same number of employees can now do more once people get retasked to new things).
analogwzrd 10y ago
I'm not sure what industry you work in or what size company, but my old department had a similar situation. It sounds like your processes are either immature (no one really knows what the best way to do things is) or tribal (you have to know the right guy to talk to to find the information or knowledge you need). Premature optimization is god awful, because it locks you into a world of pain - your business is inefficient and the people actually trying to follow the procedure find it incredibly painful and limiting. If your process is immature, you need to invest some time and money into finding out what the best way to do whatever it is you're doing. If your process is tribal, you need to find the guy or guys that understand what's happening and pick their brains about everything they know. Their implicit knowledge needs to become explicit. In my situation, I found that just agreeing on common definitions was a huge help. If you're grossly inefficient, don't write a procedure for a bad process...you're just ingraining inefficiency. Once you've found a good process, then write the procedure so you can train your people to repeat good, efficient practice. And maybe most importantly, train your people to the procedure but make sure they understand it on a level so they know where it doesn't apply and give them authority to deviate from the procedure when necessary. Sorry if none of that applies to you. I'm just speaking from my few limited experiences.

by zelon88 10y ago

Jtsummers 10y ago

There are probably a fair number of consulting firms you can find for that. But another (part of the) solution is using workflow software. Something that allows you to define and share procedures, indicate status of various taskings along the defined workflows, move data and such along. This clarifies to the employees what's needed, and gives an opportunity for them to provide feedback for improvements (too much granularity, not enough, too inflexible, etc.). Management, then, also gets better insight into the actual status of projects and taskings. It's part of continuous improvement to constantly be evaluating these sorts of procedures and clarifying, culling, adding to them. Management that's unfamiliar with these concepts is just bad management. In the manufacturing world, the Procedural Consulting firm would conduct "lean events". (NB: Many, if not most, places do this incorrectly.) The correct way is to collect metrics (meaningful) over time, encourage and reward employee feedback about ways to improve things. Then improve them (sometimes as a move across the board, but often by conducting experiments to see how well the new concepts work, then roll out to everyone). The risk is that improved efficiency will obsolete employees, some fear this (like may have actual panic attacks about this level of fear). Instead, you need a culture that sees this improved efficiency as an opportunity for growth (the same number of employees can now do more once people get retasked to new things).

analogwzrd 10y ago

I'm not sure what industry you work in or what size company, but my old department had a similar situation. It sounds like your processes are either immature (no one really knows what the best way to do things is) or tribal (you have to know the right guy to talk to to find the information or knowledge you need). Premature optimization is god awful, because it locks you into a world of pain - your business is inefficient and the people actually trying to follow the procedure find it incredibly painful and limiting. If your process is immature, you need to invest some time and money into finding out what the best way to do whatever it is you're doing. If your process is tribal, you need to find the guy or guys that understand what's happening and pick their brains about everything they know. Their implicit knowledge needs to become explicit. In my situation, I found that just agreeing on common definitions was a huge help. If you're grossly inefficient, don't write a procedure for a bad process...you're just ingraining inefficiency. Once you've found a good process, then write the procedure so you can train your people to repeat good, efficient practice. And maybe most importantly, train your people to the procedure but make sure they understand it on a level so they know where it doesn't apply and give them authority to deviate from the procedure when necessary. Sorry if none of that applies to you. I'm just speaking from my few limited experiences.