David W. McCoyI’m a card-carrying fan of The Three Stooges. Yes, I’m male… so we know that my admiration is genetically-wired, but it’s still admiration. Late last night, when I couldn’t sleep, I watched some pristine new releases of classic Columbia Stooges shorts and couldn’t help but wonder: “What if The Three Stooges had been cast in a short as BPM experts?” Well, we know that would be an anachronism since BPM is a recent phenomenon, but just image the script…
No concern for rules, regulations or compliance – The Stooges never let the law get in their way. They never worried about legality, best practices, rules, regulations, compliance or anything that smacked of proper protocol. Think of how much time that mentality would save on your process efforts. No need to address someone else’s concerns or requirements. Never mind that The Stooges were constantly being arrested or threatened with arrest. Look at the time savings if you just shoot from the hip! “Nyuk!”
No concern for change management – The Stooges were masters at the quick change, but terrible at change management. Their view of change was simple: “Put on a dress and sneak past the bad guys!” I bet they would bring that mentality to the BPM world. Just change it. Do it! Do it now! Don’t worry about the impact, you knucklehead! “Nyuk, Nyuk!”
No concern for quality – The Stooges never really cared about the final quality of their products or services. They would pretend to be fine waiters, or service station attendants, or pest control experts, but they invariably failed. They would serve old shoes to their diner patrons, blow up a car by pouring gas in the radiator, or tear all the plaster out of a house as they chased a single mouse. They pretended to care, but really didn’t. Anything to get the job done – that was the motto. That was the heart of The Stooges’ comedy. “Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk!”
The Bottom Line? The Stooges would have been great as BPM experts in a comedy short, had the actors lived long enough. There would be nothing funnier than seeing Moe smack Larry with a copy of Steven and Derek’s BPMN book. And imagine Curly taking a crowbar to a business rule engine! Priceless. That’s fine comedy, regardless of your genetic structure.
But the real bottom line is this: “Are some of your process efforts reminiscent of the work of The Stooges?” Have you overlooked rules, regulations and compliance? Have you skipped the change management details? Are you serving up old shoes instead of process innovation? Are you running a comedy show and calling it a Business Process Competency Center?
If you look at your current process efforts and a little voice in your head goes, “Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk!” you might want to rethink what you’ve done so far, before you get a poke in the eyes or a 2×4 across your backside. Leave the classic Stooge’s comedy shorts to the DVD player. This isn’t the 1930s and you’re nowhere near as skilled at comedy as the late team of Howard, Howard and Fine, rest their brilliant, silly souls.
Category: Business Process Management (BPM) Business Rule Management (BRM) Philosophy Rabble-Rousing and General Hoopla Technowishing Tags: Business Process Management (BPM), David McCoy, Gartner, Philosophy
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jim Fogarty March 20, 2009 at 10:36 am
To often project needs are poorly thought-out upfront which ends up with undesirable results or a comedy show reminiscing of the Three Stooges. Rules, regulations and compliance are to often unknown or ignored. Due diligence, controlled changes, opportunities for improvement, process innovation… most of \the comedy\ come from not paying attention to critical performance and other fundamentals.
2 Derek Miers April 1, 2009 at 5:36 am
Not quite sure whether that was a back-handed compliment or just the first BPM related book you could think of. i Would have thought that any one of the “call to arms” tomes would have been applicable. Not that I am worried or touchy about the subject ;-/
Anyway, I was expecting to see you in San Diego, so I guess you ducked that one (or were you lurking in the Analysts conflab space). I didn’t attend too many sessions this time, spending most of my time in Vendor meetings.
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