10 Steps For Managing Key Processes That Drive Business Success

When it comes to performance management, managing the performance of your processes can be your best avenue for driving performance gains. Identification of key business processes is critical to organizations as they execute your strategy by aligning the results of these processes with the strategic goals. Key business processes are those processes which have maximum impact on the success of your organization. Key processes are those that move you closer to your goals and have the greatest impact on your organization. In other words, these are the processes which would seriously impact revenues, should they fail. This article examines the steps necessary to manage and maximize the efficiency of your key processes.
A typical organization should only have less than 15 key processes. A few will be the generic processes within your industry, while others will be specific to your unique approaches, goals, service, geographic location, policies, etc. In my experience, organizations are aware of most of the processes that drive their success. Unfortunately, there are often many processes which have an equal or greater impact on the organization which never receive the attention they deserve. Many times, it's these latent processes that keep organizations from performing up to their potential. Identifying key processes using a structured approach, aligning their outcomes to deliver the business goals, designing appropriate measures and allocating sufficient resources for their improvement is the key to the success of an organization.
Many organizations struggle to identify their key processes. Most people within organizations understand their team's function within the organization, but they do not understand how their team's function interacts with other group functions. Business processes are streams of activity that flow across functional boundaries. For this reason, business processes are said to be fragmented, or scattered across functional silos. This is where the performance management team's services are so valuable. Assigning a process engineer as part of the performance management team can enable you to standardize processes and bridge the communication gap that exists between functional support groups. Below is a 10 step process for managing key processes that drive business success.
Baseline Current Environment
Every performance improvement initiation starts with a baseline. You must first know how well your organization currently executes your key processes before you can fully understand what you need to do in order to reach your desired level of process execution. This is the foundation and gives you your starting point for where you need to improve.
Identify Critical Success Factors
Critical success factors are the elements that must be present in order for an initiative to be successful. Some critical success factors in process management include:

• Process alignment - aligning processes to organizational goals and objectives is critical to organizational success
• Technology investment - the more you can automate your processes, the more efficient your organization will and the more you'll be able break down and identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies
• Measuring performance - in order to truly understand your process execution, you must be able to measure your processes from start to finish.

Organize and Centrally Locate Processes
In order to fully understand how processes interact with one another, your processes must be organized. It used to be that each department managed their processes with very little interaction with other divisions. But in today's fast paced business models and the need for instant process execution, it is vital that organization's consolidate, standardize and manage cross-functional processes. This requires centrally locating processes and taking a look at the big picture.
Standardize Processes
Often times organizations have similar processes that are executed by multiple divisions and teams. One division may be extremely efficient at executing that process while another division executes at a much lower efficiency rate. Unfortunately, many organizations don't standardize their processes. By leveraging the processes that strong performing divisions employ and standardizing those processes among weaker performing divisions, the entire organization can benefit from extraordinary performance gains.
Redesign Inefficient or Ineffective Processes
This is where we take action. Once we've baselined and measured our processes, we are now ready to take action. Identify the inefficient processes within your organization and the processes that do not support the organizational goals and objectives. If you have a small organization or limited manpower, you can take one process a time. You'll see that over time you will have redesigned several processes and the impact will be clear.
Eliminate Workarounds and Duplicate Steps
How many times have you worked on a process that was flawed and you found a workaround? It's amazing the things we will do patch up a process error to get the job done. It always amazes my clients when we map out a process and find all of the inefficiencies and duplicate steps. I've seen some processes where two divisions basically passed ownership back and forth until it came to an escalation point and a decision was made by senior management. You'll be surprised at how much time you can cut out of a process when these flaws are mitigated.
Automate Processes Where Possible
This is the name of the game. The more automated your processes, the less chance for human error and the more predictive your performance will be. This sometime requires a significant investment. But in an age where we want things done yesterday, the investment is most times well worth staying ahead of your competition and establishing customer loyalty.
Identify Metrics and KPIs
This is where we quantify how effective our processes are. Establishing performance measurements for your key processes, especially those that span across multiple organizations will significantly improve your performance. How many times have you evaluated a failed process only to get the usual finger pointing across the divisions involved? When you can break down a performance measure and understand how much time it should take for each division (or individual) to execute their part of the process, then you can assign accountability. And accountability often means results.
Cross Train Employees
In order for an organization to be successful, especially large organizations, it's important that employees understand three things:

1. what are the organizational goals and objectives
2. how does their function contribute to the organizational goals and objective, and
3. how does my function impact the larger, cross-functional process

Understanding how each employee's function impacts the function of other division is the first step in gaining synergy among your employee and the processes that drive your organization.
Develop Plan for Process Reevaluation
So, you've baselined and centralized your processes. You have standardized where possible. You have eliminated inefficiencies and workarounds. You have applied metrics, automation and cross trained employees so that they understand their role in the bigger picture. Now it's time to do it all over again. Remember, process improvement is a continuous process. Your competitors are going to keep getting better, faster, more efficient and you must too.

About Victor Holman
Victor Holman is a performance management expert who helps organizations reach performance goals through best practice analysis and implementation and custom enterprise performance management products and services.
Check out his FREE performance management kit, which includes several templates, plans, and guides to help you get started with your next initiative.
Victor's complete Lifecycle Performance Management Kit is a turnkey organizational performance management solution consisting of a web based organizational performance analysis, 7 guides, 39 templates, 600+ metrics, 35 best practices, 48 key processes, a performance roadmap and more.
His Organizational Performance and Best Practice Analysis measures how well organization's utilize the key performance activities that drive organizational success, and identifies cost savings opportunities and the critical path to reaching organizational goals.
Learn all about performance management at The Performance Portal

10 Ways to Keep Executives Focused on Performance Management

Have you ever tried to launch a performance improvement plan, but didn’t have enough support from executive management? Chances are the initiative lacked focus, direction, and ultimately was unsuccessful. This is because executive management plays the biggest role in keeping leaders within the organization focused on what’s important…and that’s improving performance, increasing productivity, and sustaining growth. Truth is, all executives want these things, but often performance improvement is lost among the myriad of organizational objectives. This is why it’s important for performance management teams to learn effective techniques for keeping organizational performance on the forefront. This article focuses on techniques for getting support from senior executives and keeping leaders focused on organizational performance management.

Keeping senior management and executives focused on performance management can prove to be extremely challenging, especially with their busy schedules. This can be accomplished by keeping the topic of performance management in front of executives, keeping them involved with the initiative and informing them of performance management successes.

Keep the Topic of Performance Management In Front of Executives

This may seem simple, but if executives are not constantly reminded of the value that your performance management initiative will bring to the organization, performance management will get lost among all the challenges and obstacles that are put in front of them. Remember, these are the people who have the authority and influence to get things done. You are competing with the other important initiatives that are taking place within your organization.

Keep Executives Involved With the Performance Initiative

Once the leaders within the organization are focused on performance management, you have to keep them involved with the initiative. This is done by getting them to clearly state what their objectives are and what exactly they are trying to accomplish. This is especially important in organizations where executive management changes or where there are changes in the organizational structure. Don’t assume that you know what senior management objectives are. Often times, when there is new management and changes within the organizational structure, there are also changes in what is perceived as most important. Remember, every executive would like to leave a legacy. Find out what that is and identify how you can measure their successes.

Keep Executives Informed of the Performance Improvements and Successes

Senior management and executives love to hear about successful performance results, for these results are direct reflections of their impact to the organization. Find a way to quantify their efforts and they will be on board for other ideas you bring in front of them. Do this by highlighting successes in executive management initiatives, strategies and other influences. By the way, executives are not the only ones who benefit from positive performance information. When employees are made aware of their impact on the successes of the organization, they become more open to the idea of performance managers coming in and providing input as to how they can perform better. Hopefully, they are rewarded for their contributions and strong performance. But it all starts from the top. If executive management is not on board in the first place, neither will the employees who execute their plan.

Now that we’ve discussed the importance of getting executives focused on a performance management initiative, let’s discuss four techniques for successfully maintaining this focus.

Setup Meetings With Executive Managers

This seems like such an obvious step, but you’d be amazed at how many organizations have performance management programs that do not get the exposure and support it needs from senior management. With the busy schedule of executives, it’s easy to get put on the backburner. This is where you have to be persistent. You’ve already shown them the value of performance management and how it can support their objectives. Now you just need to maintain focus. Setup weekly or monthly meetings with executives. By getting on their schedule with regular meetings you’ll keep performance fresh on their minds.

Deliver Presentations to Executives That Highlight Your Organization’s Greatest Performance Challenges

This is where you sell executives on the value of the performance initiative. Create powerful presentations that not only illustrate how well the organization is performing, but also illustrate what the specific obstacles that confront the organization. Remember, anybody can gather performance data. Your responsibility as a performance manager is to present the data in a way that clarifies what the challenges are and how to overcome those challenges. Gathering the data is a science, but displaying that information so that executives can better understand what makes the organization go and what’s holding the organization back is an art.

Communicate Which Divisions / Service Areas Are Not Aligned to Executive Goals and Objectives

Performance alignment is the single, most important aspect to successfully executing a performance strategy. Unless performance is in alignment to organizational goals and objectives, the organization will be limited in executing the overall strategy. Executives know this very well, which is one reason the Balanced Scorecard has amassed so much popularity and become a common word in the business world. If you can communicate to executive management how well the organization is or is not aligned to the organizational goals and objectives, you will definitely get their attention and their time. But be careful as to how to display this information. As I have written in other articles, how you present performance data, especially poor performance, plays a major role in gaining employee acceptance. While executive management wants to know about these shortcomings, it is only fair and good practice to make sure that the groups that you are reporting on have been involved in the process and have access to your findings. Remember, performance management is only successful if everybody is on board. It is our job as performance managers to balance the negative perceptions, and sometimes egos that come with the performance initiative.

Deliver Supplemental Training and or Workshops on Specific Topics

While executive management makes the key decisions, it’s the employees that drive performance. Therefore , it’s critical that they understand, at a minimum, the basics of performance management, such as understanding organizational objectives, baselining performance, setting goals, and applying performance measures. The biggest mistakes many performance management teams make is that they carry the performance challenges on their shoulders, often defining all of the metrics, and developing the performance plans, which minimizes employee and management input. They understand what drives the business. Increase employee input and feedback by facilitating informational performance management workshops. Teach them about key performance indicators and how to develop winning performance metrics, how they will benefit, and how their contribution impacts the organization. Explain the objectives of executive management. Reassure employees that this is not an exercise to judge their performance and tell them how to do their job. The focus should be on improving performance and empowering everybody to grow. Have problem-solving sessions that address the challenges, bottlenecks and obstacles that limit performance. Remember, a high performing organization is a collective state of mind; a culture.

We’ve discussed what you , as a manager, must do to keep executive management and organizational leaders focused on performance management. We’ve discussed how you can get employees on board and in a high performance mindset. Now, let’s take a look at three things that executives can do to support your initiative and ensure organizational performance success.

Have Executives Reiterate Their Support of the Performance Initiative to the Organization

As mentioned earlier, this is the key to getting employees on board for the performance initiative. When executives make performance a priority, employees follow. Have executives send emails, hold town hall meetings, distribute flyers and anything else that sends the message that performance will be on their radar.

Have Leaders Provide Feedback on What Performance Areas They Feel Are Most Important

We should always be measuring how well the organization is reaching organizational goals. This will always be valuable to executive management. But, just as the organization is constantly changing, so is what’s important to executives on any given day. For example, if your organization is implementing an enterprise-wide application or other initiative, the success of that migration will be very important to senior and executive management. During that time, they will want to know how well the migration is going and how customers (employees in this case) perceive it.

Have Executives Re-evaluate Organizational Objectives Regularly

Have you ever implemented a performance strategy, and got great initial results, only to hit a wall and see performance gains come to a halt? This often happens when we measure the same things for an extended period of time, because what we‘re measuring may no longer support the direction the organization is trying to go. It’s important that executive management frequently (at least once a year) readdresses organizational goals and objectives. Remember, your goal as a performance manager is to make sure that your organization reaches its organizational goals. By constantly measuring what’s important to executives, you will no doubt become a key asset for executives.


About Victor Holman

Victor Holman is a performance management expert who provides fast, simple and inexpensive ways to transform organizational performance.

Check out his FREE performance management kit, which includes several templates, plans, and guides to help you get started with your next initiative.

Victor's Complete Lifecycle Performance Management Kit is a turnkey organizational performance management solution consisting of a web based organizational performance analysis, 7 guides, 39 templates, 600+ metrics, 35 best practices, 48 key processes, a performance roadmap and more.

Learn all about performance management at The Performance Portal