Five Processes

figure: Five processes

In many businesses I used to recognize four processes:

  • The official process
    The process the organization prescribes
  • The perceived process
    The process people tell they are using if we ask what they are doing
  • The actual process
    The process people appear to follow if we observe what they are doing
  • The target process
    The process the people should follow for best results

These processes are all different and the challenge is to move them towards each other so that they are more the same.
Recently, however, when I was trying* to coach a CRM (Customer Relations Management) project, I recognized another process that we should be aware of:

  • The imposed process
    The process the (software) system wants to impose upon the people
* I tried to coach this project. In spite of the much more efficient results, management seemed not interested to provide the 'workers' with additional coaching they were begging for, so I abandoned the project. If management is not really interested, they apparently have a different agenda, and any improvement the 'workers' are doing their best for will, in practice, not prevail. The project was cancelled shortly after. That was, in my opinion, the first good management decision.