Once employees understand their role in the business process and the impact they have, they are able to take co-responsibility for delivering on the organisation's strategic objectives and customer promises.
We believe that one of the major reasons that many companies struggle to realise the return on investment they want from their enterprise applications and business process re-engineering solutions, is that they rarely deliberately align their people and structure to the processes and the technology. Much of the focus is on the technical architecture of both the system and the processes rather than on the people who enable both.
In many companies, workers focus solely on their own tasks with little context, understanding or visibility into how their jobs link into the rest of the organisation's chain of business processes they remain unaware of their place within the organisation's value chain.
The result is a misalignment between people in different departments because workers have little understanding of what other people in the business are doing at an operational level. For this picture to change, workers must be given a holistic view of how the business as a whole operates and where they fit into its business processes. Most importantly they need to be able to determine the value they create for their customers and assess how they execute and create that value.
Each person - from the most junior accounts clerk to the shop floor manager and the procurement officer - has a direct impact on organisational performance. If just one person ignores a standard procedure or policy, or takes a shortcut while doing his or her job, it can impact on the productivity and efficiency of the whole organisation and ultimately customer service.
Systems thinking has an important role in helping people to understanding their impact on other people and processes in the business - and ultimately, its profitability, efficiency and productivity. This involves deep engagement with people at every level of the organisation.
In practice, this involves a range of mechanisms, from analysis and problem solving, performance support tools, training, coaching and thought to e-learning. Perhaps the most important part is getting people from across the organisation together to share experiences and learn from one another's point of view.
The process involves getting people to ask themselves and others a range of hard questions about why and where the current business processes break down, the issues and risks they and their colleagues must manage every day, the cause of these problems (people, process, functionality etc...), what business policies and procedures govern them and those they work with, and how to release the blockages to smoother process flow.
By getting people to interact with others outside their own departments and silos, they learn more about doing their jobs in a manner that improves the efficiency of the organisation as a whole and within the context of the business objectives and business value chain. When people understand why they do what they do, and how what they do affects the business value chain, they are far more able to be accountable for their role in ensuring that the new processes and technologies that are being used in their business deliver the anticipated business benefits.
This is not about training. It's about making sure the money you have invested in business processes and IT systems delivers the value and return on investment you aimed for.
