Legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley, initiatives involving continual improvement like Six Sigma, and trends like workforce globalization have bolstered the importance of the Process Architect in most organizations. In my opinion, we’ve needed talented Process Architects with strong communication skills to parallel the efforts of Database and Application Architects as we’ve implemented significant computer systems in our businesses. Most of us have stories of how what might have been a wonderful computer application caused significant damage to an organization’s efficiency because no one knew what to do with it once it was installed.
At the same time, the Process Architect, just like any other architect, deals in the abstract. (John Harrell, a architect friend from my Georgia Tech days, would argue with me on this point!) Setting an organization or process design requires that significant assumptions are made so that components of the process can be modeled. This is not too dissimilar from the “black box” approach for system design, which is an abstraction technique that identifies the inputs, outputs, and processing rules of the “black box” component, while stopping short of designing how the “black box” achieves the implementation of these processing rules.
Every good Process Architect allows for the fallibility of the people in the process design. However, the rest of us routinely forget to account for the inherent inaccuracy of human nature. We all fail to consider that a person working at 3:00 a.m. may not be as focused as one working at 10:00 a.m. We know that someone can perform a menial task one time with high accuracy, but fail to account for the boredom that comes from one hundred consecutive iterations of this menial task. In that same vein, most of us (outside certain medical specialties) were surprised at how large an issue repetitive stress injuries in office environments became in the last thirty years, yet we often assume that the lack of muscles in the cranial cavity means repetition has no adverse effects.
For leaders to get the best from their people means understanding both the lack of precision in what people do and the assignments and work styles that exaggerate this inherent fallibility. As such, good leaders will incorporate processes and designs to catch human error early, will structure activities to enhance alertness and engagement, and will manage the culture of the team so that errors do not trigger an exaggerated negative response.
Catching errors early reduces the impact of the error and the difficulty of correcting the error, so encourage each of your team members to “sanity check” the reports they produce and they read. Design cross-checks into reporting procedures, especially those that use computerized spreadsheets. Encourage your team members to take the time to implement and execute their own cross-checking for work they do–if for no other reason, to save them the embarrassment of someone else catching their errors.
At the same time, it is important that all team members are performing individually at acceptable levels of productivity and accuracy. I don’t agree with the old adage teaches that a chain is as weak as its weakest link, because this mindset compares each person to other people instead of to the requirements for each of the roles on the teams. The goal is to have a team where all roles are filled by people that exceed the requirements, but when a team member falls short, be aggressive in coaching the team member, communicating the requirements, and if that is not successful, drop the person from the team. I like this quote attributed to Tom Peters: “Give a lot, expect a lot, and if you don’t get it, prune.”
The unique personalities of your team members mean that each may require different circumstances or stimulation to remain alert during or to stay engaged with an activity. This uniqueness means that you as the leader should offer and allow a variety of approaches, and encourage each team member to contribute to the tactical design of the work–while adhering to regulations and meeting the requirements of the work that is to be done. Don’t shy away from reminding your team that difficult tasks frequently require hard work, so support their sense of accomplishment when they succeed at completing those difficult tasks.
Regarding the response to failures, the culture of the team, and of the larger organization in which the team belongs, is essential to encouraging team members to take risks while producing accurate and reliable work. A good leader refuses to accept one or the other, but insists on both.
Developing a team culture that encourages taking measured risks means that the decisions team members make sometimes will be wrong, and the new work they perform sometimes will fall short of the requirements. When I played high school basketball, my father used to coach me that if I never committed a foul, it was a sign that I wasn’t playing hard enough. You need to ensure your team members know it is okay to make some mistakes, within the right environment. This is why the team’s focus must be on “measured risks,” ensuring that the reward of success is worth the risk of failure and that there is a fallback plan in place that will meet the requirements should the risky plan fail.
Finally, take these risks, measure your achievements, and celebrate your successes as a team. This is not a replacement for recognizing individual contributions, but for the health of the team and to encourage the essential cooperation of the team members, you need to recognize all those who contributed to the achievement. As one example, the bold and risky idea that was implemented would not have been attempted had someone not taken on the unheralded task of preparing the fallback plan. The successful big picture initiative is made up of a multitude of basic detailed implementations. To use a football metaphor, the broadcasters may rave about the abilities of a star running back, but that running back will rave about the well-executed blocking performed by the guards and tackles. When you team scores, make sure your team gets the credit.