Jim SinurThere is a communication gap between BPM professionals and top management that has to be spanned in order to help your organization to further process efforts. BPM types erroneously think that is obvious to top management that processes are essential to the operations of an organization’s at a minimum and an organizational differentiation at the maximum. It’s our fault (process types) and it can be fixed. Organizations that have done so are progressing quickly leveraging the visibility and agility that BPM affords. The proof point is that 63 % of the BPM awards submissions had CXO sponsorship and 84% had at least one senior manager supporting the BPM efforts.
Why the communication disconnect? Senior management wants to know how BPM contributes to EBITA in profit making organizations and positive organizational outcomes driven by goals and measurements. The CXO wants to know how BPM helps leverage the organizational brand, products, unique position, people, financials, innovation and unique history.
Saying “that processes make you more efficient” or “processes save money” just doesn’t cut it any more because executives hear this all the time about different programs and projects that promise the same. Why should they invest in processes over the other efforts presented to them? We have to be able to articulate how process connects to all the values the executive has in his or her mind. Process is standard way to connect the value producing portions of their organizations with BPM. There is enough evidence to show that BPM is involved with delivering multiple benefits that directly supports what the executives want. It’s up to us to communicate how and show delivery hopefully in an incremental fashion.
Category: BPM Business Process Improvement Tags: BPM
1 response so far ↓
1 Mark McGregor September 21, 2009 at 6:08 am
Hi Jim
Right on the money (no pun intended). If we can’t explain how what we might want to promote (process) is simply the vehicle to deliver on their objectives then we will keep failing.
One thing successful people do is to look at a company’s annual report, read the key strategies and objectives, as told by the execs and then relate how what they can do (process wise) is simply a more effective way of the execs delivering on their stated objectives to the market.
As an aside I have been meeting a number of CEO’s over the past 12 months, and every one has told me that BPM is of no interest to them! When one digs further every one of them has been interested in what BPM can do for them, they just felt that it was another TLA and another fad, hence they said, they were not even listening when BPM ideas were pitched at them.
I guess it is the old story of selling features instead of benefits and using the language of the seller instead of the buyer. As you say in theory easy to fix but requires a culture shift in the way process people pitch their thoughts and ideas, either as vendors or internally within organisations.