When you say the word process to people what reaction do you get? Are you being discriminated against? Do people immediately get the wrong idea, jump to conclusions, put you in a ‘box’, and prejudge your intentions and actions? Should we be forming an action group support process professionals unfairly discriminated against?
Watch the video below and think about whether using the word process gets the equivalent reaction in the people you talk to. At Nimbus we have been talking about the different hats people wear when thinking about process to represent the different perspectives. But maybe we haven’t gone far enough in our thinking.
Is the simple use of the word process stopping us achieving what we and our companies need us to, and blighting our careers. Maybe we are getting the same reactions that are in the video but because it is in a business environment the true emotions are suppressed and we never really get to see and feel what is really going on.
What terminology should we use instead which hasn’t got years of ‘history’ associated with it?
An inspirational presentation by Richard Davis, Business Process Manager (BTW a job title which masks his seniority and vast experience) at ThyssenKrupp Steel (TKS) at the Nimbus Inspiring Performance conference in Houston. From what was a swamp in Mobile, Alabama TKS has invested $6bn to build one of the world’s most efficient steel mills - it opens officially in December. At TKS, ‘the foundation is always process’. The Business Management System at TKS Alabama – built on Nimbus Control – incorporates the QMS, the Lean Six Sigma program, links to SAP Solution Manager, and will support compliance to 9001, 14001, 27001 and much else. Note it is called the Business Management System – no hint of the process word. His recommendation when talking to senior business people and end users is to drop the word process from our vocabulary.
With that in mind, watch the video…
Ian,
I’d like to point to my blog post on this subject, which was inspired by an earlier post of yours. (It’s funny how a chain of thought can continue across so many different blogs.)
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/make-bpm-benefits-about-business-not-process-to-grab-execs-attention/?cs=43888
I liked the suggestion offered by my colleague, Loraine Lawson:
“Work flow” seems a bit more business-friendly to me. Or, “the way we do things.”
So, tech speak: “BPM will help us evaluate the business process and automate some functions.”
Tech-to-English translation: “We’re going to look at the way we do things when customers place an order.”
English-to-Biz-Leader translation: “We’re going to look at what happens after a customer places an order so we can figure out how to do it faster and cut costs. There may be some steps that can be handled by the computer.”
Thanks again for the inspiration! Ann
It is interesting the names that client’s give the implementation of our product. We call it Nimbus Control, but they don’t…. They call it something real and emotive for their company
PACE: HSBC
Hitchikers Guide: GSK
How2: Carphone Warehouse/BestBuy (and lots of others)
Unilever360 – Unilever
MAPLE (MAking People’s Lives Easier) : can’t remember who, but GREAT name
The video is very humorous and drives home the point that stereotypes of the real-thing convey ONE CLEAR MESSAGE irrespective of other attributes of the real-thing. However I don’t know if “process” has assumed narrow, detrimental meaning. At one time (90s) it was very fashonable term for corporate image building.