For Productivity, Teach the Process to People As You Provide the Tools [video]

Three things are required in business, as we translate ideas into products and services, to fix market frictions: people, tools and processes. If you have the people and the tools (the funnel, the water, etc) and you do not have the process right, your mission will be lost.

And that explains why explaining a business objective, and how to get to it is very important. When you do that, you train the people on how to use the tools within the standard processes, and when done effectively, the mission of “filling that bottle” becomes easier!

The Lesson: never think that because you have the people and the tools, that you have a working system. Without a process (the right way to do things), missions fade!

Three things are required in business, as we translate ideas into products and services, to fix market frictions: people, tools and processes. If you have the people and the tools (the funnel, the water, etc) and you do not have the process right, your mission will be lost.

And… pic.twitter.com/Lmtgl1Chq9

— Ndubuisi Ekekwe (@ndekekwe) July 28, 2023

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Comment1: Ndubuisi Ekekwe thanks, for highlighting the three (3) major components of business organization (The People, Processes and Technology) in this write up and stressing more on the importance of process in particular. Adding Strategy and Structure makes it Five (5) components.

From this video clip,

1. Employees must be given the right tools for the right job.

2. Giving the right tools for the right job, doesn’t always translate to increase in productivity.

3. Employees training on how to effectively use the tools is equally important to achieve productivity.

4. Training the trainer being him/her a Supervisor, Lead or a Manager is of paramount importance else more inefficiency (Waste) will be the end result even with the best of tools or technologies.

   

? The above mentioned components are every key to achieving business excellence hence, Organizational leadership must ensure their availability, for them to actualize their business objectives (Survival, Growth or Profitability).

My Response: Yes indeed – the 4th is key as the “supervisor” was also confused.

Comment 2: Watch out with “standard processes”.

They only work if you have thoroughly thought them through and tested them. Always leave room at the bottom, so the people can take ownership and take decisions in situations not foreseen by your “standard processes”.

Any engineer having to deal with the standard processes of their HR department knows what I am talking about.

Standard processes can be powerful, but they can also kill your company.

I’d rather use: Business, Team, Technology as the three pillars.

My Response: If you want to innovate in a firm, the “Standard processes ” are working guides. They do not necessarily say you must do things absolutely as they are written, but they provide guides and youc an improve on them. But if you have none, not giving the worker a basis to begin, you score an own-goal as they say in African football.

Comment 2R:  In theory yes, in practise no. But I totally agree with your view.

In large companies, unfortunately, standard processes are the only hammer. Every problem must be moulded into nail form to fit the standard processes.

Have you ever tried filling in timesheets or expense claims when your company uses SAP?

My Response: I agree that in every large business that standard processes are there and could look non-malleable. But understand that in every large business, they offer a way to  improve standard processes. If you check any SOP (standard operating procedures), there is a section for revision.

So unlike startups which can move fast to change things because they can (they’re small with lesser risk to brand equity), large firms are more nuanced. But agile large firms still have ways to improve SOPs seasonally.

Certainly, I understand your point. It does frustrate but the alternative may be destabilizing.

Comment 3: At first I thought the lady knew the problem…it became even worse

My Response: Things happen and she ends up taking the man backward since the man’s process was even better , even though it was terrible.

Expanded from here

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