Keeping Your Process Ambitions Alive During a Pandemic – Tip #1

The current global pandemic has created a dramatic shift in corporate priorities and investment. Some are doubling down on digital transformation, while others are scaling back to essentials. With so much top down direction, it can be hard to see how mid-managers and more junior employees are able to influence any change in a time like this. 

This scenario can end up creating a vacuum, where only large-scale change is implemented by a central group, while the rest of the organization is left to manage the status quo. Or worse, the entire firm starts running around like a headless chicken solving one production issue after another. For someone who is particularly passionate about process improvement, these additional barriers to your own change initiatives might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back…

The good news is that this can be resolved, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this! It is wholly possible to navigate new and existing barriers during this crisis period. And it may even set you up for more dedicated improvement time once this period of uncertainty is over.

Crisis Prerequisite 

Firstly a prerequisite: master your process! Especially in times like these, being able to support existing services remains priority number one. In other words, you must be able to manage your process before you start to improve your process. Furthermore, true experts of a process tend be sources of the coolest and most impactful opportunities anyway. 

Ready to dive in? I’ll focus on one of my favorite tips to start but rest assured there are many more. As always, this tip and future ones abide by the following principles:

• Minimal effort to implement
• Costs no extra money
• Does not require training / complex skills
• Can improve crisis handling abilities
• Helpful for both short and long term goals

Tip #1 – Create a Process Backlog

Furthermore, this list of ideas does not even need to be ideas at all. A list simply of process issues you can ideate on in the future is still an asset. Bringing visibility to issues across the team can actually bring out more diverse sets of solutions. But more importantly, this removes any barriers to capturing this data. Simply see an issue and log it! No other work is required in the moment. 

Getting Started (An Example)

Setup of this backlog can be extremely low touch in your first iteration. A straightforward spreadsheet that is shareable across your teammates is all you need to get started (think Google Docs or SharePoint). No budget approvals or prioritization required. Here is one example that may work well with your team:

Process	Issue	Potential solution (Optional)	Benefit (Optional)	Status

• Process: Some context as to what this issue is related to (ie Submit Client Reports)
• Issue: Name / short description (ie System X loading time takes 30 minutes each morning)
• Potential Solution: Short description (Change report submission from daily to once a week)
• Benefit: High level note showing how big this idea could be (ie Save 2 hours per week in waiting time)
• Status: Is it being worked on, not started or complete

Again to note, “Potential Solution” and “Benefit” do not need to be filled in initially. Also, it’s great to log multiple solutions per issue. That way you can be flexible with how to solve a portion of the issue, rather than waiting months or years to implement that perfect all encompassing solution.

Final Thoughts 

This backlog “tool” can take on a more robust form post-crisis but for now, capturing the issue and idea data is all that is required. 

The great opportunity here is that this mechanism can carry on long after the virus. The sky’s the limit to how far you can embed regular improvement solution sessions, team huddles, etc etc now that you have a source of data to drive your team forward together.

Stay tuned for more barrier-free opportunities to keep your process improvement ambitions alive and kicking, even with the crisis craziness around us.

Happy Improving!

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