Shipulski On Design

There are many tools to improve processes.  The difficult part is not understanding the tools.  The difficult part is choosing which tool to use.  And to do that, you’ve got to understand the process as it is and let that inform which tool to use first. You’d think it an easy thing to understand an existing process that your company has been using for a long time, but it’s not.  First, it’s difficult to get the group to agree on the format to use to define the process, then it’s difficult to get agreement on the steps of the formal process, and then it’s almost impossible to characterize the if-thens of the branching process steps and the informal elements known only by the people who do the work.

Here’s a rule: If you don’t agree on the process as it is, you can’t improve it.

Here’s another rule: Process improvement is 90% definition and 10% improvement.

There are many processes to improve systems.  Understanding how to follow the processes is not the difficult part.  In my opinion, the most difficult part is choosing which process to use first. And, in my opinion, the secret to choosing the right process is to understand the system as it is. Systems can be large with many elements and can have many possible improvement trajectories.  And if people are part of the system, it’s likely a complex system that can be understood only by probing the system.  That means running small experiments in parallel and observing how the system responds.

Here’s a rule: It’s difficult to understand large systems where people and their judgment are involved.

And another rule: Probing systems like these can be an effective way to see their propensities.

Before there can be improvement, there must be a common understanding of how things are. And before that, there must be a desire to develop that common understanding.

Image credit – Andy

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