Where There’s a Wall, There’s a Way

  Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   ProjectsAtWork  

A process isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if it sits on a shelf while everyone does their own thing. For a process to offer value, it must be developed by the people applying it — and once consensus is reached, it should be posted, loud and proud, where it won’t gather dust.

A mentor once gave me some advice that has served me well: “Some problems just won’t fit on 8.5 x 11.” It turns out this is true; here’s a case study to illustrate it.

I consulted with an organization of 60 contractors charged with responding to more than 50 monthly change requests for a large government database. They had received training on a detailed process developed by corporate headquarters, but the manuals were on shelves and the training was either forgotten or ignored. Each change request was handled individually, in the way that the team leader felt best. Responsibilities for the individual steps in the process happened on an ad hoc basis. As you might expect, chaos reigned. There were always crises and misunderstandings about who should be doing what. Worse than that, there were mistakes, and several change packages had to be re-done each month.

When I asked about the company’s written process the team leaders said nobody followed it exactly. So I asked each of them to draw a high-level picture of their process for handling change …

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