Many organisations initiate their Business Improvement projects with wide-ranging business objectives, including streamlining their business processes, identifying delays and bottlenecks to improve productivity and efficiency, and effectively utilising resources and manpower. However, only a few are able to achieve the desired objectives.As per reports, as many as 70% of Business Process Improvement initiatives fail. This is alarming, given the importance of Business Process Improvement for modern-day organisations to stay competitive. Lack of a collaborative approach is one of the biggest reasons that leads to the gap between process improvement project expectations and implementation. Collaboration is vital to any modern business, and when the goal is process transformation and improvement, it becomes all the more relevant as everyone needs to be on the same page on how things need to be done.Isolated improvement efforts that are not aligned with the overall organisational objectives result in delayed timelines, lack of adherence to corporate goals and unrealised benefits.
Breaking Down Silos: Benefits of Collaboration for Process Improvement
By bringing together stakeholders with diverse perspectives, knowledge, and expertise, collaboration ensures effective problem-solving and better output.Collaboration for process improvement enables several benefits, including:
- Gathering the best ideas in the organisation
- Identifying areas of overlap and repetition to create a more streamlined and efficient process
- Improving the alignment with the organisation’s goals and priorities
- Gaining complete visibility into the process from different stakeholder perspectives to identify potential gaps or areas for improvement.
- Enabling faster and improved decision-making.
- Establishing a culture of continuous improvement.
5 areas to focus on for driving Collaborative process improvement
Allow access to process information: The first step in collaborative process improvement is ensuring all stakeholders involved or affected have access to process information. This includes process maps, flowcharts, and other documentation related to the process. A centralised repository is critical here as it ensures a single source of truth, ensuring all the stakeholders are on the same page. It also removes any surprises and ensures quick and seamless communication of process changes.
Improvement objectives and goals: Decide the objectives and short-term goals against these objectives at the start of the project. Ensure that all the stakeholders are aware of these goals and objectives to enable consistent, standardised and harmonised improvement activities across the team.
Enable team involvement: Effective collaborative process improvement requires that team members are actively involved in the process. A robust mechanism needs to be in place to identify process issues and suggest ideas for improvement. By involving team members, organisations can benefit from their diverse viewpoint and expertise, leading to more effective solutions.
Select best business ideas: Process owners and doers are critical stakeholders in any collaborative process improvement initiative. They have unique insights into process delays, pain points, etc., making their participation vital to the initiative’s success. Using input of process owners and doers, you can identify and select the best business ideas that work for the business, team and customers. This approach also ensures there is no resistance to change from the front-end employees as they feel involved in the process change.
Set process to implement process ideas: Finally, it is essential to have a set process for overseeing, assessing, and implementing process ideas. This process should include regular review and assessment of proposed solutions, as well as a clear plan for implementing accepted solutions. There should also be a mechanism to keep all the stakeholders informed of the change and monitor the acceptance and adherence to these changes. Having a defined process ensures that all the stakeholders are aware of the initiative’s status and can stay engaged throughout the process.
Drive Collaborative and Continuous Improvement Culture with PRIME BPM
Get everyone in the organisation on the same page with PRIME BPM’s inbuilt functionalities for collaboration. PRIME BPM allows process stakeholders to suggest improvement directly against processes, ensuring combined and sustainable process improvement efforts. With version comparison functionality, you can understand who made the changes and what changes were made.
PRIME BPM also automatically generates change notifications for the relevant team members based on their organisational roles. This ensures appropriate acknowledgement and adoption of the process.
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