What Next?
Now you have it in your hands, you have a bunch of excited people, a handful of quick wins to bash out and clear direction on which processes will give you the biggest bang for your buck, the things that really do need to be tackled.
So what do you do now?
Well, this isn’t a course on project management; there are plenty of people who are far better at that than I am. But there is a sin you should know about. It is a sin to wait
Delay always breeds danger ~ Miguel De Cervantes
Be quick on the uptake, start to run now
For your quick wins start the next day. Agree a project lead and work through each problem statement to define it, be very clear on actions and responsibilities and set up 60 and 90 day reviews with the sponsor so you can be sure that momentum is maintained.
The larger projects are more difficult, but you have a clear issue to go and work with. There is really only one question to be answered at this stage:
Does your sponsor believe that there is a problem to be fixed?
It would be a foolish person who backed away from the feedback that was given in the session, so if your sponsor doesn’t agree that the issue needs fixing, then I am afraid there is little more that can be done to persuade them.
If on the other (more positive) hand he does, then you should run a process improvement session. This is outside of the scope of this programme, but here are a couple of links that will help talk you through how to do it:
How to run a service improvement workshop
How to conduct business process management (bpm) workshops
Example of business process improvement
Let’s create a value stream map
Further Reading
To find out more about engaging your staff to improve their own business problems I recommend reading “The GE Work-Out” by David Ulrich. The book shows you how Jack Welch developed and used “Work Out” to create better customer experiences, energise his work force and drive efficiency into General Electric. It also takes you through how to set up a programme in your own organisation. You can find out more from the Amazon link below:
Good Luck
One final request, if you have any feedback how this could be made better please let me know by e-mailing me