Transforming Business Processes — A 3-Day Course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Course Synopsis

• Do you want to transform performance in your organisation but don't know where to start?
• Can you identify which of your business processes produce the greatest customer value?
• Do you wish you had a way to determine why some of your processes are underperforming?
• Would you like to be able to demonstrate the pain your customers are feeling and work as a team to set new visions of process performance?
• Do you want to be able to structure a process improvement programme to deliver immediate benefits as well as long term transformation?
• Would you like to be able to establish a culture where process excellence becomes 'the way we do things around here'?
• Are you equipped to lead business improvement in your organisation?
• Do you need to be able to manage and approve the work of external consultants engaged in process improvement initiatives in your organisation?

If the answer is "YES" - this is the course for you!

One of the key challenges for management is to constantly find ways of doing more with less. To eliminate waste, improve customer service and produce consistent and predictable levels of quality whilst reducing operating costs and attaining new levels of performance.

We show you the various process improvement techniques that are available and provide a framework and range of techniques for understanding and defining organisational processes and measuring current levels of performance.

We then go in to examine ways of prioritising and selecting improvement initiatives that produce the greatest positive impact. A detailed case study will provide an opportunity to examine all the stages of a process improvement initiative from recognition of a performance deficiency through process visioning to design and development of practical solutions.

Course Objectives

On completion of this training course, delegates will gain:

• An understanding of how the value chain works within a business process
• A series of analytical tools to diagnose process effectiveness and align processes to desired business outcomes
• A proven framework that will allow you to structure and lead a business transformation programme
• An understanding of how to create process visions
• A way of developing and applying metrics that helps you to prioritise improvement initiatives
• A set of principles to guide the design of new processes
• An understanding of how new processes need new ways of working and being
• Knowledge of what to look for when reviewing the work of external contractors engaged in process improvement work in your organisation

In the Practical Workshops, students will:

• Gain experience in the application of high level business analysis techniques to understand current process performance
• Practice at facilitating a range of strategic thinking and process redesign techniques
• Gain practice building and reviewing high level process models
• Identify customer centric output measures for specific processes within the case study
• Employ the process redesign framework to plan the major steps in a process transformation programme
• Review, select and prioritise process redesign initiatives
• Gain practice giving and receiving feedback (praise and criticism) in a powerful yet positive way

Intended Audience

This course is suitable for:

• Anyone who is leading, sponsoring or steering a process improvement initiative
• Any manager or consultant who wants to gain the tools and the understanding to be able to make a fundamental difference to performance in their organisation
• Programme managers and change managers at all levels

Benefits for your Company

Once you see what can be achieved you will no longer be satisfied with performance that is merely good. Seeing the bigger picture of process improvement will create managers who have the passion and vision to coordinate company wide improvement initiatives that make a real and sustainable difference. Managers will gain a better understanding of how customer value is created and will focus on producing positive outcomes.

Benefits for You

You will learn to recognise the difference between a business process that is structured to support the ways in which it is convenient for us to do work and one that is designed to serve and delight our customers.

You will be able to identify the key value drivers in your processes and help create a vision of process excellence. You will be able to define meaningful, outcome, based metrics and set achievable but stretching goals for improvement.

You will understand the basic principles of process improvement and be confident to apply them to transform the way work is done in your organisation.

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Outline Course Contents

Introduction & Welcome

You will meet like-minded people, discuss the challenges you face and share your reasons for wanting to be on the course.

An experienced, friendly trainer will help you visualise where you want this course to take you.

Processes in Context

In this session we look at the various ways we can organise work and review the range of possible improvement strategies open to us. We grapple with the jargon and show how some improvement methodologies are focused on producing incremental improvements whilst other seek to produce transformational change. We identify what you must do in order to succeed and point to common pitfalls that beset many programmes. We introduce the concept of process visioning and give you a structure for a visioning workshop.

We introduce the case study for the course and you produce an organisational vision and a set of organisational characteristics, including stretch goals.

Identifying Process Improvement Opportunities

In this section of the course we introduce a range of business analysis tools that can be used to check the health of our business processes and prioritise improvement opportunities. The techniques will include:

• expanded SWOT analysis
• portfolio analysis
• identifying key business processes
• competency modelling
• business critical success factors
• benchmarking
• impact analysis

Each method is practiced within the context of the case study and the evidence is used to make a recommendation as to which processes should be selected for improvement.

Process Improvement Framework

This session looks at the various process improvement frameworks and gives you a simple structure and route map that works every time. We use the framework to plan the major elements that must be included in a change programme.

Using data from the case study we create a programme brief and outline plan for a transformation project clearly setting out the key outcomes, structuring a high level business case and identifying the major areas of risk to the programme.

Understanding the 'AS IS'

This session introduces and gives you an opportunity to practice swim lane modelling of business processes and sub-processes, mapping process interdependencies and adding metrics and performance measures. We use critical appraisal to get to the root cause of process problems and to generate options for change.

We use these techniques to do an in-depth review of the case study and produce a comprehensive picture of how the processes currently operate.

Redesign Principles and the 'TO BE'

Now we turn to proven design principles such as process centring, triage, case worker and other concepts. We reprise the process visioning technique to produce a blue print of the desired process characteristics.

We use the case as a basis for a series of facilitated workshops to generate a new understanding of how the process can perform.

Implementation Perspectives

In this final phase of the course we look at how we need to take a people, process and systems view to the definition of the implementation plan. We look at project prioritisation and sequencing of activities to produce early wins. We include both technical and human aspects of programme implementation, look at detailed risk and opportunity management.

We revisit the programme plan for the transformational initiative and produce a management presentation to justify the benefits of the programme.