The management system as a management tool - communicate process changes effectively

The problem of managers and their opportunity

It is sometimes difficult for supervisors to decide how work processes should be changed. It can also be really exhausting and time-consuming.

Imagine you're part of a team of executives or decision makers in a company. You're all sitting around a big table to make an important decision. Let's say you've done it: After endless discussions and meetings, a decision is made in that meeting. After exchanging countless ideas, they said “yes” — or at least no more objections were raised.

Now is the time to really get started: The changes must be implemented. The focus is on a central question: How do you effectively bring the planned process change into everyday work, i.e. process implementation? This is not an easy question and at the same time one that every manager must answer again and again. The same applies here: One person's pain is another person's opportunity. The pain experienced by managers can be an opportunity for quality and process managers who want a cohesive management team that actively supports their initiatives — because they have the solution within reach! The management system.

Two types of process change

Well, the implementation of planned process changes in everyday working life can be carried out in various ways, depending on the type of change and affected processes.

Let's first talk about the technical process changes think. This includes:

• replace the machine,
• Insert a mandatory field into the software or
• Adjust the tolerance limits of the mechanical testing process.

In these cases, the process changes are of a technical nature and require specific measures, to implement them. These process changes can be enforced in the broadest sense.

But what about organizational process changes? These are process changes in which the human being is the acting subject. These processes are relatively free of technical guidelines:

• Sales offers no longer have to be approved by sales management,
• The preparation of new risk assessments must now be initiated by the specialist departments
• Master data maintenance now follows a different logic, or
• A technical service should be carried out with particular care.

These are process changes that typically cannot be technically enforced. Organizational process changes are therefore based on the fact that those involved must change their previous behavior and adapt to new ways of working. This means that people are asked to behave differently.

The (frustrating) path today

To communicate effectively and ensure that decisions are implemented, we need to think about our current course of action. In many places, people currently rely on the information to be disseminated via various channels and hope that the process changes will take effect. Typically, this is done by:

• e-mail with the decision to large distribution groups,
• discussed in team meetings,
• Teams or Slack channels full of change announcements
• and a debriefing after a few weeks to check whether the changes are already having an effect.

This type of communication is based on the assumption that we reach everyone. In addition, this type of communication is based on the premise that humans have an almost infinite ability to remember all current process changes. It also implies that the decision is very time-stable, because how could you reset the information machinery as soon as the same process changes again? This type of communication is slow, time-consuming, laborious and inaccurate.

It's frustrating. Especially when making decisions involving multiple departments. You finally had all the interfaces on board and then the decision was silted up. This state of affairs is also annoying for everyone involved in the process. Where can I find the current status and procedure? What is expected of me? It is symptomatic of this type of communication of process changes when new employees in companies innocently ask, “How do you do that here? “and get seven different answers. This type of communication of process changes therefore appears neither effective nor sustainable in practice. Doesn't that get better? We know: Yes.

The solution

The solution to these challenges is to establish a management system that allows process participants to obtain information on how to carry out the process:

• There is a clear location where process information is available.
• There is a clear place where process changes are communicated.

This massively increases the speed and success rate of decisions that change processes and become effective in the organization. In practice, this introduction of Management system as a decision-making interface for acceptance as a management tool. One or the other management system already has this change of perspective From document cemetery to the management stage lifted.

The solution is now obvious: A process-oriented management system that is used in the literal sense of the word to to manage the (process) system.

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