SOME DOS
✔ Get the unequivocal support of top management. Business process reengineering is a
revolutionary, quantum leap process. [☛5.4 Change Scale]
✔ Spend as much time on the people side as you do on the technical issues of redesign.
Also, be attentive to the politics. [☛5.8 Human Transitions]
✔ Get the time and budget to do it right. Process mapping, innovative redesign, and sys-
temwide change take considerable time and effort. [☛5.2 Major Change]
✔ Look at the organization as an outside customer or client would. Work from an objec-
tive and nonvested perspective. [☛5.7 Stakeholder Groups]
✔ Be clear about goals and results. The redesign is driven by clear goals, not by the tasks
involved. [☛2.3 Directional Statements]
✔ Get lots of technical help, especially at the redesign phase.
✔ Question everything. Sacred cows will dump all over the redesign.
✔ Get commitment and buy-in, early and often. Breakthrough changes require a lot of
coordinated effort and support. [☛5.1 Change Equation, 5.2 Major Change]
✔ Use a lot of two-way communication. Don’t wait until the change is announced to
bring people on board. [☛8.3 Organizational Communication]
✔ Map the wider system that the redesigned process needs to fit into. (Failure to have
your recommendations accepted is often related to a lack of support, rather than to a
technical problem with the recommendations themselves.) [☛2.1 Systems Thinking,
4.1 Organizational Design, 5.6 Aligning Systems]110 SECTION 4 TOOLS FORDESIGNINGPRODUCTIVEPROCESSES ANDORGANIZATIONS
❑ Form a steering
committee.
❑ Select a core
process.
❑ Determine the
process redesign
owner.
❑ Form a redesign
team, with key
stakeholders
represented.❑ Get baseline
measures on the
effectiveness of
the process.
❑ Map where
breakdowns,
errors, conflict,
etc., typically
occur.❑ Obtain senior
managements’
unequivocal
support one
more time. The
more significant
the change, the
more support
and perseverance
will be required.
❑ Thoroughly plan
the change
required, both
technical changes
and human
changes. (See
Section 5, Tools
for Leading
Change.)
❑ Ensure that all
systems are
aligned to
support the
change.- How could we accom-
plish these goals with
the least effort, time,
and expense? - Where can we optimize
the process? - Where could
information technology
help us be more
efficient?
When a new process design
prototype is completed, test
and refine the prototype.Be prepared for people not
wanting to share information
for fear of job loss, “It can’t
be done,” “It won’t work,”
etc.