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It’s Time to RAID Business Processes

It’s Time to RAID Business Processes October 31, 2017

In science, there’s a principle known as Occam’s razor, which basically means that when faced with two or more theories regarding a phenomenon, usually the simplest one is best. This principle is called a razor because it is used to “shave” away complicated items.

Albert Einstein once said that “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” As with many things Einstein created, developed, or commented on, there’s much wisdom in this quote. Our goal is to make things as simple as possible but not to the point where the thing we’re simplifying no longer makes sense.

Both Occam’s razor and Einstein’s quote indicate that where possible we should choose the simplest solution when faced with a choice. The same is true when implementing business process methodologies. Make the process as simple as possible, which, for our purposes, means it’s easily implemented, repeated, measured, and followed.

For example, humans tend to remember five to ten things (e.g., numbers, names, etc.) at a time in their working memory. This is one of the reasons why telephone numbers in the U.S., for the most part, are ten digits since this number of digits is generally easiest for humans to remember and commit to long-term memory. It helps that this also happens to give a large enough number of digits to support a huge amount of unique number combinations.

If a process methodology or workflow has a lot of steps, then we generally forget them unless we use some sort of mnemonic to help us remember them. Beginning musicians use a mnemonic such as “Every Good Boy Does Fine” to remember the notes of the bass clef. The notes are E-G-B-D-F, or “Every Good Boy Does Fine.” Here, the mnemonic helps them remember five notes and their order. Clearly, if we were looking at remembering 30, 20, or even 15 items, the task would be a bit more difficult even if a mnemonic is used.

It’s important to reduce the process down to its simplest form, but not to the point where it’s no longer coherent. There are several process methodologies that describe multiple steps in order to execute the process. The more steps there are, the more there is for us to remember. The more things for us to remember, the more likely we are to forget them, and, in turn, the higher the probability we won’t use the process.

In my opinion, the simplest form of any process is when the process is described as an input->process->output. This tends to be too simple for most people because it has unknowns. The major unknown is the word “process” in the middle. People tend to want to know what the “process” is before they buy into this as the simplest form. People tend to shy away from unknowns. People also think the other two attributes, “input” and “output,” are unknown. This is a case where the process workflow, input->process->output, is simpler but has gone too far so it’s useless as a process (i.e., it is only useless in this example). If we take a look at describing or briefly defining these three components, one way to do that is:

  • Input – When something is RECEIVED. Here, “something” is anything we wish to process.
  • Process – This can be a two-step procedure at a high level where we ANALYZE the “something” and then IMPLEMENT it.
  • Output – Where the results of our analysis and implementation are DELIVERED.

As noted, there are four components to better describe input->process->output. The four components are Receive->Analyze->Implement->Deliver. So the process workflow in its simplest form without being too simple is to Receive something, Analyze it, Implement something based on your analysis, and then Deliver the results of your implementation. I call this process workflow RAID which is the first letter of the four components Receive->Analyze->Implement->Deliver.

In the early 1900s, there was an attempt to make implementing processes within organizations a science. Years later, this work culminated with the introduction of quality programs such as TQM, ISO, and Six Sigma just to name a few. In my experience, I’ve found that implementing process improvements is more of an art than a science because it’s difficult to ignore the human aspects when it comes to process improvement initiatives. I believe that starting in the dot-com boom of the 1990s, the art of process improvement was lost. Starting with process simplicity as a primary goal, RAID is an attempt to help organizations think about a process workflow that is not too complicated and simple enough to help organizations quantify their success with minimal process overhead.

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Dr. Milton Mattox is an Executive Coach, CEO Peer Group Facilitator, Motivational Speaker, Author and Technologist who has worked with some of the world’s most acclaimed companies. An authority in helping CEOs overcome everyday business challenges to achieve the success that they seek, career coach and expert in “all things technology-based,” he continues to practice the leadership techniques and methodologies outlined in his books and articles to successfully increase return on investment for companies, organizations, and individuals seeking to be all that they desire to be in life.

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