{"id":645,"date":"2011-09-22T21:50:48","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T20:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lornemitchell.com\/blog\/?p=645"},"modified":"2011-09-25T15:55:46","modified_gmt":"2011-09-25T14:55:46","slug":"presence-over-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=645","title":{"rendered":"Presence over Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, the bees went to bed for the winter. Fed down with verroa treatment in the hope that most colonies will survive the winter.<\/p>\n

I have also had three very different conversations this week about the importance of Business Processes. In each conversation, I came to a different set of conclusions. However, there was one over-riding idea that shone through from each conversation. The obsession with the current process-centric religion in management thinking has actually made many of our service-based organisations less, not more effective and less, not more efficient.<\/p>\n

The first conversation came from an experience I had with a US-based hosting company I have used for about ten years. Last year they put SAP into the company. Two months ago the company was sold. The service has been declining for about a year. Coincidence? I don’t think so. The new process involves forcing you to ring a US telephone number which is actually answered by someone in the Phillipines who filters you so they can direct you to the right department. The problem I had involved both Domain Names and Hosting – so I ended up being put through to two departments. In the end I was double-billed and had to ring back a week later to complain – when I went through the same rigmarole – and was sent an email to say I couldn’t reclaim the money because it was against company policy. I rang a third time and finally got through to someone who sorted me there-and-then. Sounds familiar? More like a telephone company? Yes, indeed. I then got hold of the Director for Customer Experience and Process Design on LinkedIn to share my story. He was a Harvard MBA. He saw my profile but ignored me. The company is called Network Solutions.<\/p>\n

The second case was with a former colleague whom I had lunch with. He is an aspiring partner at one of the big five consulting practices. He told me he was writing a paper about the importance of process design in telecoms companies. I cited the above story and said that Presence was more important than Process. He looked quizzical. He could not compute. He was not sure how he could implement Presence and make money out of the idea from a consulting assignment.<\/p>\n

The final conversation was with an enlightened ex COO of a Telecoms company with whom I had lunch with on Tuesday. He said he was process mad – yet when you listened to his stories of how he managed processes, there was a great deal of practicality and experience blended in with the importance of providing the right information to the right person at the right time to turn customer issues and questions around on the first call.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the crusade to banish the obsession with Process centricity, I continue to marvel at the bees that I keep. They don’t have crazy processes to waste time. They have developed an approach that balances Process AND Content (or pollen\/nectar collection) IN THE MOMENT so that they can respond with far more intelligence than just following a book of rules. Interestingly, the model they use shows that outsourcing is extremely wasteful and makes no sense at all. If you have to hand off, do it only once (not three times like ITIL). The models from the bees also demonstrates the sense of investing in small, agile “cells” of capacity and capability tuned to specific types of demand.<\/p>\n

To summarise, I believe it is time to create a new management paradigm based on Presence (modelled much more on the natural world that the bees have developed over 50 million years). It creates a paradigm shift that takes us away from the insanity (or caetextic thinking) of process-obsession and into a new much more organic model based on cells or colonies that can respond to demand of various types a seasonal basis.<\/p>\n

Just like the bees do.<\/p>\n

I am writing a book on the idea – so expect more like this in future postings.<\/p>\n

I have also posted Presence over Process<\/a> on MIX – The Management Information Exchange – please add comments and vote for the idea there or add your comments here as you wish. \u00a0Always valuable!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, the bees went to bed for the winter. Fed down with verroa treatment in the hope that most colonies will survive the winter. I have also had three very different conversations this week about the importance of Business Processes. In each conversation, I came to a different set of conclusions. However, there was … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Presence over Process”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[42,39,41,63,80,5,48,40,37,66,50,24,83,68,34,31,55,79,72,36,44,51,85,84,81,73,25,65,49,22,60,57],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DQGK-ap","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1748,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=1748","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":0},"title":"The Stage Gate Process Kills True Innovation","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"04\/02\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week\u2019s Thursday Thoughts raised many comments from readers: which has certainly made me think a lot more about innovation in the past week! \u00a0Many thanks for those of you that engaged in the conversation! \u00a0 My hypothesis that customers were the best source of innovation was challenged by quite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cycles"","block_context":{"text":"Cycles","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?cat=80"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lornemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Design-Process-Crossed-Out.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1599,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=1599","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":1},"title":"Zen and the Art of Business Conversation","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"06\/08\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It is August and the holidays are here! \u00a0For many, July and August are the months for rest and recuperation and spending time with family on holiday. \u00a0For those that live in the northern parts of the Northern hemisphere, it is a time for getting some sun on our skins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?cat=69"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lornemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_0532-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":911,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=911","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":2},"title":"Lorne at the Lords","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"29\/03\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I gave evidence at the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications on Tuesday - all about the future of UK Internet Access. There is\u00a0 a video of it here:","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?cat=35"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1001,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=1001","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":3},"title":"Inventories, Unread Books and Generation Why","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"14\/06\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week there were no Thursday Thoughts.\u00a0 I was in Edinburgh and thinking far too much to write about it.\u00a0 Today I had to go up to London and got writer's block until a chance Skype conversation with Malcolm about random stuff.\u00a0 It got my right brain going and I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Attention"","block_context":{"text":"Attention","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?cat=78"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lornemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/b01jrldv1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1335,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=1335","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":4},"title":"The End of the Break","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"05\/09\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"As we come to the end of the summer break, for most of us, school, university or work starts afresh. \u00a0I say, for most because, like with all generalisations, there are always those who break the rule. \u00a0An increasing number of friends seem to be moving into \"retirement\" or \"semi-retirement\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Attention"","block_context":{"text":"Attention","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?cat=78"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lornemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/break-glass-in-fire-sign.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":302,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=302","url_meta":{"origin":645,"position":5},"title":"The Power of Systems Thinking","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"26\/11\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent yesterday at Vanguard Consulting's Leaders Summit on Systems Thinking.\u00a0 John Seddon chaired the day brilliantly, with eight case studies on Systems Thinking.\u00a0 It is not really systems thinking the way that Peter Senge created - it is more a method for improving service organisations - with roots in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Ideas"","block_context":{"text":"Big Ideas","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?cat=42"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}