2018 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Online > Web How-to Article > Northeast

Awarded to

Elizabeth Doty, Author

Entry details

Liberate Your Team with Clearer Processes

Issue date (if applicable): 
Publication name: strategy+business
Publishing company: PwC
Website home page: www.strategy-business.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

The mission of strategy+business (s+b) is to provide business executives and thought leaders in government, academia and the private sector with commentary, research, and practical ideas that bridge the gap between management theory and practice. Alone among major business publications, s+b draws on a combination of journalists, academics, consultants, and corporate strategists to contribute articles that set the agenda for global industry and commerce.

strategy+business has a global audience of more than 1,300,000 readers, including print and digital subscribers as well as website registrants. More than 165,000 people receive s+b’s twice-weekly e-newsletters, over 500,000 subscribe to s+b’s digital edition and apps, and more than 300,000 interact with s+b on social media channels. According to a recent study analyzing s+b’s circulation, 34 percent of s+b print readers are C-suite executives ranked vice president or higher. Our audience includes decision makers at small firms, managers rising within large companies, prominent academics, and others with an interest in understanding the business and management systems, practices, and ideas that define our world.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

The primary challenge in writing this piece was the need to address misconceptions, rather than offering a new method. Increasingly, executives believe they know what process improvement is about and are not interested in exploring it. Yet, these executives are applying narrow definitions, assuming process improvement is all about control and standardization which stifle individual creativity. These misconceptions are compounded by the prevailing managerial mental model that emphasizes individual selection and motivation as the most critical drivers of performance, downplaying the role of infrastructure and support. Unfortunately, this lack of attention to processes means many teams are drowning in the complexity and stress of unnecessary variation and rework. How could we engage this misconception and highlight the opportunity for real improvement, without trivializing the richness of process improvement as a discipline?

Author Elizabeth Doty used three strategies. First, she framed the misconception as a dilemma, juxtaposing the real risk leaders are seeking to avoid (overly-controlling bureaucracy) with the immediate, concrete experience of chaotic processes that waste effort and demotivate employees. Second, she focused on one central reframing image – the idea of processes as “flow.” The image of flow is intuitive and also a central notion in the most rigorous process improvement methods. Even better, it allowed her to extend the notion of individual “flow,” which might be more familiar to readers. Finally, she substantiated this reframing with a handful of thought-provoking strategies that required digging deeper into the work of experts and the bodies of knowledge around them.

Links to entry URLs

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Liberate-Your-Team-with-Clearer-Processes?gko=b4eb7

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