Scrum – an Agile Framework

Agile and scrum are familiar terms in
most workplaces.  Together, they make
project management and development faster, more streamlined, and more
cost-effective.

But what are “agile” and “scrum”?  And is your organization using them?

Agile methodology is an umbrella
term for a set of frameworks and practices based on specific values and
principles.  It is a project
management
 methodology
that promotes flexibility, acceptance of change, and frequent deliverables.  Scrum provides structure and rules to
implement agile processes, define roles, manage meetings, and more.

High-Value Features Within Short Cycles

Agile helps organizations build the right product in a
more responsive way, delivering benefits to both the organization and the
customer. Development and delivery of high-value features or priorities within
short cycles decreases overhead and improves efficiency for the organization –
while being more responsive to requirements of the customer.

As small incremental releases are made visible to the stakeholders throughout the development cycle, issues can be identified at an early stage, making it easier to respond to change, which in turn enables enhanced quality and risk management.

How the Scrum Works

Image courtesy of Visual Paradigm

Scrum is distinguished from other agile
approaches by specific concepts and practices. Here are some basics:

A sprint is a short, time-boxed cycle (one to three
weeks) when a team works to complete a set number of deliverables.

In Scrum, teams contain three main
roles: Product Owner, who manages the product vision; Scrum Master, who manages
the process; and Scrum Team, who completes the daily tasks required for
each sprint.

Sprint events (or meetings) include:
planning at the beginning of each sprint; daily touchpoints held at the
same time and place every day for 15 minutes during the execution of the
sprint; review after a sprint execution is completed to provide a working
product demonstration to the product owner; retrospective  at the end of a
sprint to evaluate the process and identify areas for improvement; and backlog
refinement  prior to the next planning to prepare the backlog for the next
sprint.

The goal is to have a deliverable
product ready at the end of every sprint.  When a sprint is complete, the next one
begins.  This real-time process enables
teams to make rapid decisions based on results.

Is Scrum Right for You?

Its purpose of Scrum to make
unmanageable work manageable through a set of defined processes structured to
allow flexibility.  If your project has uncertain
requirements or technology issues where change is likely and requires knowledge
creation and collaboration,
then an agile framework and Scrum is for you.  

Click
here
to
learn more about Trindent’s approach and methodology to effective project
management.


Coding for Consultants

 

Companies that are frequently associated with coding and programming are tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft (GAFAM). However, as companies digitize their businesses there is often more data than can be consumed. This has resulted in coding becoming one of the most important job skills for professionals across many industries including management consultants.

Like GAFAM and major banks, consulting firms have either been building or aggressively expanding their data analytics department. They are seeking individuals who can design algorithms and construct complex models. A dedicated analytics team that works with general consultants to analyze large data has proven to drive business decisions for clients; I have personally found that the ability to analyze data, develop applications, and create tools to enhance a client’s business are skills that are invaluable at many points during client engagements. While I agree that a dedicated analytics team is useful and perhaps essential to being competitive in the industry, I believe that all consultants should have some general knowledge and proficiency in coding.

Data analytics beyond excel

Most generalist consultants neither code in Python or R nor do they use SQL for database management. Fluency in manipulating data on Excel is often the base requirement, but it is time to expand beyond this skill set as the world is becoming faster and more automated. As we know it, automation will have a profound influence on the future of all industries; machines will be able to perform an increasing number of tasks both efficiently and simultaneously, and if consultants are not able to equip themselves with skill sets that support this change, it makes it difficult to truly be effective and provide value to our clients.

Excel has gained extreme popularity since its inception in the 80s and it has become the go-to tool for all types of data analysis. However, many of us do not stop to think whether it is the right tool for the task at hand. While Excel is a great mass-market tool that provides the power of statistical analysis in a relatively user-friendly way, it does not separate the numbers from the process which makes it difficult to follow the logic behind an analysis, find the error, and manipulate a spreadsheet that someone else has created. Furthermore, it can be relatively slow when handling large data sets as many of us know.

That said, my challenge is for consultants who are unfamiliar with Panda and Python or R to learn something new – try to develop a basic understanding of data visualization, statistical analysis, debugging, and commenting on codes using these tools. Learning to code can be intimidating but it is a form of problem-solving that will get better with practice. Finally, while it is up to the individual to be committed to learning something new, I believe that it is worthwhile for consulting firms to invest in their staff by providing the necessary tools and training for coding.

The author of this blog, Kevin Kim is a Senior Consultant at Trindent Consulting


The Pyramid Principle: Lessons in Effective Writing

How many times have you read a piece and thought to yourself, what did I just read? I know I do that on the daily and I cannot stop but wonder, do my readers feel that way about my writing? During a discussion about effective communication, a mentor of mine led me to the following book: The Pyramid Principle.

The Pyramid Principle advocates that “ideas in writing
should always form a pyramid under a single thought.” The single thought is the
answer to the question at hand and the supporting arguments are found under.
Then comes evidence for each argument. “Ideas at any level in the pyramid must
always be summaries of the ideas grouped below them.”

Written by Barbara Minto, the Pyramid Principle describes how to effectively structure your written pieces. She argues that by using an answer first methodology, grouping supporting arguments and logically ordering supporting ideas, one can structure their piece of work in a way that is for the human brain to process.

Answer First Methodology

The first rule of effective communication for any consultant is to answer any question ‘answer first’. For many scientists and engineers like myself, this top-down structure is counter-intuitive: it goes against the structure enforced in technical writing such as scientific papers. However, in business, an answer first methodology is the golden standard of effective communication.

An answer first methodology maximizes your time with the audience. From my experience working as a consultant, I learned that executives are busy people who rather know the result instead of the details on how you got to the result. Using an answer first approach, therefore, allows you to provide them with the answer they are looking for in a timely manner.

Moreover, an answer first methodology favors a top-down approach that is naturally easier for our brain to process. Laying out the bigger picture first helps the brain process the remainder of the information.

Grouping supporting arguments

Grouping supporting arguments helps the brain process large
amounts of information at a single time. Take this as an example, which
shopping list would be easier to remember?

  1. Tomatoes, chew toy for the new puppy, bananas, broom, oranges, dog brush, plates, and toilet paper
  2. Fruits (tomatoes, bananas, oranges), puppy stuff (chew toy, dog brush) and household items (broom, plates and toilet paper).

Our brain has a natural tendency to group information as it
reads it. Therefore, grouping arguments in writing greatly helps the reader to
categorize information, helping the overall absorption of information. In the
example above, the second shopping list is much easier to remember than the
first because it separates a list of mixed items into three distinct groups.

This principle can and should be applied to writing in a business setting as it will help the writer get his thoughts across effectively.

Logically Ordering Supporting Ideas

Lastly, the organization of evidence is crucial in formulating a compelling argument. You must make sure that evidence grouped together to present a clear inductive or deductive argument.

An inductive argument “will take a set of ideas that are
related simply by virtue of the fact that you can describe them all by the same
plural noun”. An example of an inductive argument is:

  • Pomeranians help with alleviating stress
  • Samoyeds help with alleviating stress
  • Dachshund help with alleviating stress
  • Therefore, dogs help with alleviating stress

A deductive argument, on the other hand, presents arguments
in successive steps. An example of this is:

  • Businessmen wear ties to work
  • Ties are part of a business formal outfit
  • Therefore, businessmen dress in business formal

Next time you're about to write something, why don’t you give this pyramid structure a try. I can guarantee that it will lead to more effective communication because it has done so for me!

This blog's author - Meng Zhang is a consultant at Trident Consulting.


Lean Concepts For Knowledge Workers

The core idea of “Lean” is widely recognized even by those
who don’t know the terminology.  The
fundamental objective of Lean is to create and maximize value while eliminating
waste.  It’s a principle aimed at optimizing
the people, resources, efforts, and energy of an organization with the goal of
creating maximum value for its customer.  

Basically, Lean means doing more with less while doing it
better.

The continued success of Lean thinking, principles, and methodology makes it one of the main building blocks of almost every process improvement initiative that consultants tackle.

Adding Value Through the Elimination of Waste

In Lean, there are traditionally 7 types of waste:

Lean practitioners often add an eighth type of waste – unused talent.

When waste is removed, only the necessary steps required to
deliver a product or service to the customer remain in the process.

Using a Lean Lens to Look at Knowledge Worker Efficiency

Although traditionally applied to manufacturing operations, the concept of creating and maximizing value through the elimination of waste applies to any operational processes, including those performed by knowledge workers.  A knowledge worker or a “white-collar” worker is defined as someone who uses and handles information and data daily to perform their job.  

White-collar jobs tend to be very fluid in structure, constantly evolving, adapting, and innovating to meet current situational needs, so identifying Lean types of waste in knowledge workers can be challenging. 

Here are two examples of Lean recommendations Trindent frequently
makes to clients with knowledge workers:

  • “Cut and Paste” saves time.  Receiving information in an appropriate format plays a huge part in reducing over-processing in a system.  Reformatting is a tedious and time-consuming task that can be avoided if the information is transmitted in the correct format in the first place.
  • Don’t get consumed by data.  Getting fixated on and sidetracked by extraneous details results in trying to juggle too much data and too many KPIs.  Focusing on value-added information when setting KPIs will prevent overproduction and accumulation of data inventory.  This will keep the process Lean and prevent information clutter from slowing workers down.

Inward Reflection for Consultants

For consultants, Lean should not start and stop with their clients.  

As knowledge workers, consultants must practice what they
preach by using Lean
consulting principles themselves.  Preforming inward reflections to draw focus on
waste creeping into their work allows them to maximize their own value output.   

Consultants need to work in a very lean manner to provide
the maximum possible value to their clients, which in turn will translate to
their clients becoming a lean operation themselves.    


Why Digitization Doesn't Solve Everything

It’s exciting to think of the
opportunities technology has created over the last several decades, and to
imagine how many more are still untapped and underutilized.  

One of the most significant changes
technology advancement has had on business has been the digitization of
information and the analytic and communicative power it brought with it.  This article looks at why, even with all the
benefits digitization can bring to running organizations, its value can become
diminished if it’s not properly utilized.

Access to Data Does Not
Automatically Provide Business Insight

The business world has historically been at the forefront of capitalizing on digitization because of how much it has enhanced the ability of companies to collect, store, and analyze data.  However, gathering information does not mean that it, by itself, it is sufficient, meaningful, or actionable, or that possessing it will automatically lead to sound business decisions.  Without having the capability to understand the data you’ve gathered – whether you have the correct data, what it means, how to synthesize it, how to use it to gain insight – it’s an unworkable tool.

A famous example of this is the 2008 collapse of the US economy.  Prior to that year’s market crash, Wall Street gathered a glut of information, all pointing to the instability of high-risk sub-prime loans.   Lots of people had access to the data, but only Michael Burry, whose story was made famous in the movie The Big Short, knew what to do with it.  He knew how to understand what the data meant, acted on it, and made hundreds of millions of dollars while the rest of Wall Street was left in bail-out mode.

The Ability to Reach Customers Does
Not Guarantee the Right Outcome

Another by-product of digitization
is the myriad new ways for businesses to reach their customers.  With the proliferation of social networks and
digital media, it became possible to not only reach target audiences in a much
more efficient way, but to also get almost instantaneous feedback about them.  Companies gained access to previously unthinkable
levels of detail about their customers’ demographics and preferences.

However, not everyone with access
to that information was capable of using it to their advantage.  For every company who knew how to successfully
capitalize on their digital presence to target their customers in just the
right way, there were many more who sunk untold capital into digital marketing
without budging their market share.  Why? 
Because companies like State Farm Insurance realized that simply gathering
information about clients wasn’t enough; the information needed to be used
correctly for their targeted marketing efforts to successfully drive sales of
their product.

Digitization may now be necessary to compete in today’s marketplace, but without knowing how to utilize this still burgeoning form of communication properly, a business can not guarantee it will help them grow.

Collecting Data Related to Business Processes Does Not Guarantee Efficiency

Similarly, collecting vast amounts
of data about business processes does not automatically give insight into their
efficiency or improvement.  Companies can
spend significant capital installing systems to rapidly collect massive amounts
of data, without knowing how to utilize it in a way that justifies the
financial outlay.  Management can spend a
disproportionate amount of time generating and looking at irrelevant reports
instead of being handed properly gathered and analyzed data.

Companies still need to apply sound business principles and good analysis of the data in order to use it to help them reach the most correct assumptions.  Otherwise, the information, especially in large quantities, may become more of an impediment.

Redefining the Approach to
Digitization

So, while digitization does lead to progress, how do organizations ensure they use it correctly to drive bottom-line improvements?  How do they avoid falling into the trap of progress for progress’ sake?

The answer can be found in redefining digitization as a means to an end, rather than a silver bullet for competitive advantage. Organizations need to pivot their approach to begin seeing digitization as a means to create sound management tools because on its own, digitization can’t solve working capital management problems, or revenue growth, or improve key drivers of financial performance.  These are processes driven by implementing sound methodology, proper systems, and the right behaviours.  Digitization can help achieve these targets of operational excellence, but it can’t get there on its own.

Click here to learn more about Trindent’s approach to creating sustainable and long-term value through its business management consulting services to address core business principles.


Refinery Maintenance: Defect Elimination

There
is a famous quote, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but
expecting different results.”  By this
definition, it is senseless for a refinery to all allow major equipment to fail
the same way multiple times.  These types
of failures can lead to expensive production stoppages and result in unplanned
overtime, both of which come at a higher cost than Preventative Maintenance.

At Trindent Consulting we believe in using Risk Based Decision Making to support Defect Elimination – also known as Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA).

Defect Elimination is a process to identify the root cause of a failure, determine efficient ways to prevent the failure from reoccurring, and implement those changes.  But not all Defect Elimination programs are created equally, and there are key guiding principles that can greatly enhance the outcomes of the program.

  • Find the Balance – Once set up, a Defect Elimination program can be a powerful tool; however, it can also be a great burden. It can be tempting to try to use the program to prevent every failure, but this can result in misguided analyses and diminished returns.  A proper Defect Elimination program will have thoughtfully crafted criteria for investigation selection and prioritization.  We can help you find that balance.
  • Accountability – Your employees are hard at work, and Defect Elimination programs can seem like an unwanted distraction and disruption to the normal flow of work. Creating the proper RACI matrices and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) can streamline the process to become status quo. Without the proper accountability, momentum for the program may vanish.  We know how to implement changes in a sustainable manner.
  • Common Understanding – The foundation for any strong process is the underlaying system that enables the change to occur in a consistent manner.  SOPs are the backbone of a Defect Elimination program.  The proper SOP can facilitate the learning process, set clear definitions with terminology, improve the analysis process, and enable the optimal outcome.  SOPs create a common understanding that allow for a process to be repeated and reproduced in a consistent and reliable manner.  We know how to build strong foundations.
  • Right Tools for the Job – Using the right system tools,
    methodologies, and frameworks makes the overall program more efficient and
    drives results. Using incorrect tools can make the process burdensome,
    cumbersome, or altogether ineffective.  We
    have methodologies, frameworks and system tools that can be quickly tailored to
    your needs.  Using best practice templates
    expedite the execution timeline - allowing for quicker execution and savings.

To learn more about how Trindent can Make it Happen in your company, reach out to our team on LinkedIn or through our Contact Us page.

The author of this article, James Greey is a Senior Consultant at Trindent Consulting


Teamwork - A Coveted Skill for Consultants

Teamwork.
  It’s a skill most people have on their
resume, but few truly embody.

Although every employer views teamwork as a needed skill, some
professions depend on it more than others. 

In consulting particularly, the ability to work effectively and productively with others – whether it’s colleagues or clients – is one of the top consulting skills essential to achieving project success.

Recognizing Challenges Within a Team

In
consulting, we need to work as a team to succeed.   This
might sound easy to do, and for some, it is. 
However, for a lot of consultants there’s always that one or two people
with whom their personalities and styles just don’t mesh.  It could be a co-worker that they don’t get
along with, a client who’s questioning them at every process change, or a boss who
seems to always have it out for them… it seems to be an inescapable part of the
professional landscape.

Being able to recognize these roadblocks to teamwork when they arise and
addressing them effectively takes great skill.  When disagreements emerge between colleagues,
for example, they are faced with two choices; either take the easy road out – ignore
the situation and hope it goes away, or jump to confront – which often causes
more harm than good to the team. 

It takes real teamwork skill to find the right solution, one that lies
somewhere between ignoring and confronting. 
 

Knowing When
to Listen…And When to Escalate

The first step in working together, especially when facing disagreements and adversity, is knowing how to listen – and knowing the difference between listening to hear and listening to respond. 

Listening to hear a team member allows you to understand the
situation from their point of view, which can open your eyes to positions that
you hadn’t considered, and can potentially change your own outlook on the
situation.   It also works to keep all members of the team feeling
engaged, valued, and respected.  By
allowing open dialogue to then emerge, this alone can often solve a
disagreement before it worsens.

If listening and dialogue didn’t lead to a solution, the next step is escalation.  Knowing when – and how – to escalate is extremely important.  Recognizing when input from someone outside the team, such as a manager or supervisor, may be needed to settle disagreements is a great example of teamwork skill.   While it may seem like appealing to a higher authority in cases of disagreement is antithetical to good collaboration, sometimes the best display of teamwork is the ability to step aside and ask for help for the sake of the team.

Teamwork Contributes to Success

Teamwork sometimes seems like a generic skill everyone puts on their
resume, but to have an in-depth understanding of what that skill entails and to
be able to action it can make a real difference to success in the workplace.  The fundamental driver behind a thriving team or
a successful client relationship is strong teamwork. 


The Art and Science of Measuring Productivity

In most organizations, measuring productivity should be a straightforward exercise.  But our experience shows that even in companies where productivity should be extremely easy to evaluate – for example, with assembly line production – there is often insufficient attention paid to proper productivity measurement, and proper discipline around undertaking the measurement process is never established or enforced. And in companies that deal with productivity processes that are less straightforward, where production activities have numerous components that are hard to summarize in a limited number of KPIs, these challenges are exponentially exacerbated. 

Regardless
of whether measuring productivity in a given organization is simple or
complicated, it’s an extremely high value exercise.  The amount of money “left on the table” is
often astounding, and enormous savings are frequently uncovered by Trindent
during our engagements by simply bringing productivity measurement up to an
appropriate level.  And yet poor productivity measurement is commonplace.

The phenomenon can rarely be attributed to intentional negligence.  Rather, Trindent works with seasoned and savvy executives who lead organizations into this pitfall unconsciously, for reasons like a lack of proper measurement tools, or the lack of political will to change the status quo.   Often, an established but inadequate process is left in place for years, its shortcomings becoming less obvious the longer it’s in place.  And just as often, organizations are aware of shortfalls in the measurement process, but lack appropriate tools and resources to identify the root cause of the inefficiency and to address them.

In our engagements, Trindent Consulting uses a rigorous three-prong approach to identify the lack of proper productivity measurement, and to establish best practices to fix them:

  • Observation: It’s easy to underestimate the power of a fresh perspective, especially one backed by proven methodology and coming from trained process inefficiency assassins.  Our consultants dissect and analyze every process, design proper KPIs around them, and identify the proper improvements that need to be implemented to fix them.
  • Toolkit:  Having in-depth knowledge of a process and how to improve it does not fix the process on its own.  The next step in achieving improvement is to build the toolkit to make it happen.  Trindent has extensive experience developing and successfully deploying simple but powerful tools to measure productivity.  All tools are uniquely developed for each engagement and are never re-used for other clients.
  • Experience: Trindent Consulting uses its considerable experience across its three industry verticals to build a base of industry specific process knowledge.   While every client is unique, the art and science of identifying the best formula for productivity measurement becomes honed when the exercise is repeated and perfected.

Click here to read more about Trindent’s approach to process improvement in measuring call centre productivity, insurance operations productivity, and healthcare productivity. 


Telling Your Company's Story With Numbers

When solving problems, management consultants
rely on facts; and their most trusted source for facts is numbers.  Numbers hold great power because they cannot
be disputed.  

In a consulting engagement, numbers are used at every step.  From reviewing a client’s baseline in order to identify business opportunities at the outset, to calculating savings from engagement activities at the end, consultants use numbers to, in essence, tell the story of the engagement.  This use of numbers, tracked through various Key Performance Indicators (“KPIs”) and displayed through data exhibits in dashboards and reports, provides consultants with the proof they need to validate their story.

Understand Your Numbers

Likewise for an organization, numbers don’t
tell a story on their own.  Instead, they
should be viewed as the building blocks for a story that gets told through KPIs
– the operational indicators used to measure a company’s performance and
financial success.   And just like accurate
wording is important to a good story, picking the correct numbers, or metrics,
to be used as KPIs is key to being able to see how an organization is
performing.   When communicating through numbers,
there must be an understanding of the message the numbers send.  

There is essentially no hard and fast set of metrics that must consistently be selected, and therein lies the challenge of picking the most effective ones.   Within any organization, what metrics get selected to be used for KPIs is based on their context and importance within operation, and can frequently change as operational needs evolve.  Each company, and each department within that company, will generally have different KPIs unique to their operations, and they must find what combination of KPIs tell the story of their operational performance accurately, without skewing or hiding it's reality.

Display Numbers Effectively

Once KPIs are chosen, the next challenge becomes
displaying them in a way that allows them to communicate their information
concisely.   Displaying the KPIs cleanly so
that their message can be conveyed at a glance is key to telling the
operational story.  

KPIs should be readable at a glance.  When the correct data exhibit is used, and
the KPIs are displayed effectively, they can be scanned quickly to be
understood.  However, if there’s a need
to review the KPIs at length to figure out what’s being shown, they are being
presented wrong.

Knowing the appropriate data exhibit to convey a KPI’s information is important, because the data exhibit will dictate how the information will be read.  Understanding the KPIs, the information they need to convey, their industry context, the intent of the report they’re being included in, and who the audience is forms the basis for deciding what data exhibit is the best one use.

Seeing the Value in Healthcare

To see the value in being able to effectively tell a company’s story with numbers, let’s look at a healthcare consulting example.

Recently, Trindent was engaged by one of the
world’s leading providers of mobile out-patient telemetry devices to aid in
improving their cost structure and raise service levels, quality standards, and
customer satisfaction.  In this
engagement, the indicator to show the desired productivity improvement was the
Gross Referral rate, shown below.

When reporting on the engagement’s success, this data was displayed in terms of project weeks.  The improvement chart below shows the improvement trend against baseline numbers.   In this case, displaying appropriate information through the correct data exhibit allows for an at-a-glance identification of the baseline and the trajectory of improvement as the project progressed – and the story is told effectively.

Ensuring there is understanding of what
numbers, or KPIs, accurately tell the story of an organization’s current and
future states, and conveying that information with clarity takes time and
planning, but when done correctly, the story that gets told becomes a powerful
tool.   

Click here to read more about Trindent’s approach to maximizing the impact of our engagements through KPIs.


The Challenge Of Identifying Outdated Processes

In any organization,
there is always a natural bias towards performing a task “the way it’s always
been done”.

This line is notorious in
the consulting world and for good reason:  Status quo leads to a lack of awareness of inefficiencies,
causing frustration for staff and a loss of profits for the corporation.  It can be compared to driving a car with
slightly deflated tires; the driver isn’t aware of the problem, but it’s still
reducing the speed, fuel efficiency, and safety of the vehicle.

Why It’s Hard to Identify

Lack of awareness is the primary cause of process inefficiencies and a major obstacle to operational business process improvement.    But if we look at the key stakeholders involved in the lifecycle of a process - suppliers, performers, trainees, supervisors, management, and customers – none of them appear to be the right person to tackle identifying inefficiencies.    

For obvious reasons suppliers and customers can be taken out of the conversation – while they are part of the lifecycle, their ability to affect it is minimal.  Management usually operates with a degree of removal from any process, so they rarely have sufficient awareness to evaluate the way things are done.

This leaves trainees,
performers, and supervisors as the only stakeholders with enough exposure to become
aware of possible flaws.  

Trainees are the entry level participants in a process.  Regardless of whether a company has a sophisticated training program or training is done “on the job”, it follows the same pattern: a newcomer is given information they need to process, internalize, and use to hone the skills necessary for their position.  Training often overwhelms the trainee with information, and as a result, they rarely have the capacity to question the validity of what they are being taught.

With time, trainees
become performers and this stage of becoming efficient at a process is
the best time to identify its flaws.  But
performers often find themselves either under too much pressure from increased
responsibilities, or still too intimidated to speak up.  And more often then not, by the time they’ve perfected
the process they’ve been training on, it becomes very difficult to identify
flaws in something they’ve just succeeded at mastering.

By the time a performer
becomes a supervisor, they’ve reached a stage where they’ve internalized
the status quo of the process and it becomes impossible for them to see it with
a critical eye.  

Sometimes this cycle
continues for decades.

Two Solutions

Identifying outdated and inefficient processes may be challenging, but it’s not impossible.  With a structured approach like lean process improvement principles, or by cultivating a culture of critical thinking, or even by getting more involved in the processes themselves, an organization’s management team can expose and eliminate inefficiencies.

A second approach that will
yield faster and better results is to bring in an outside observer equipped
with robust tools.  Performance
consultants are often the best conduit to implementing improvements, as they
can observe and evaluate processes with the impartial eye of a non-stakeholder.

At Trindent Consulting, our approach combines process analysis and improvements with an analysis of systems and behaviours, and working with our clients to implement change.

In the next article of
the Outdated Processes Series, we look at the power of observations.