Reining In -- Approaches for Getting Started with Process Adoption

In my last series of entries, we looked hard at improving accountability, standards and tolerance levels for non-compliance. But, how does one achieve process excellence when the current corporate culture isn't the least bit process-oriented? This is a common lament I hear from PMO managers, especially as they are just starting up. The PMO has been tasked to bring some sense of consistency and civility into daily business, but it's the wild, wild west out there. There are shoot-outs in the project corral, portfolios are selected via the faro table in the saloon, budgets are stampeding and it's general mayhem in the streets. What's a new sheriff to do?

Funny thing about processes - you can flowchart the epitome of process excellence, a veritable bulletproof workflow that exactly meets your needs, only to have it be completely ignored or fail miserably. Developing strong processes is relatively easy – getting the organization to assimilate them isn't. Why? Because learning to follow processes is no different than developing any other skill – the organization has to be taught good fundamentals, practice them, try them out, tweak them a bit, practice a whole lot more, and eventually develop more sophistication and capability on the way towards mastery.

Since I started off this off on a bizarre western theme, we might as well use riding a horse as an example. If someone had never ridden a horse, and was perhaps even a little scared of them, the last thing you would do would be to saddle them on a high-strung thoroughbred and enter them in a race; that's obviously a recipe for disaster.

Instead, you might first talk a bit about riding in general, and then put them on some old nag – on a lead. You would go for a walk and let them get comfortable in the saddle while figuring out the fundamentals of whoa and giddy-up. Slowly, you work you way up to leisurely rides in the south 40 as confidence grows, being careful to avoid loss of control. Admittedly, this isn't going to win any races, even though that may be your ultimate objective. It's a chance to first experience the benefits of riding versus walking as part of a low risk exercise - and to get used to that smell too. The next thing you know, they're sitting tall on a palomino, trotting along and waving to onlookers like the grand marshal of some Texas homecoming parade.

So it goes as well with an organization that is just transitioning from the cowboy way to learning processes. A process is simply a vehicle to guide the use of tools; just because you have the fastest horse and best saddle doesn't mean you are ready to rodeo. Better to start out with a gentle pony of a process and let everyone get used to following simple steps and being held accountable to them. Then you can begin to raise sophistication levels as well as standards and expectations (remember those?).

Maturing towards business process excellence follows along the lines of the basic CMMi ladder, and trying to skip any rungs along the climb is asking for a fall. I would rather see an organization strictly following basic processes than fail at deploying perfect ones. Learning adherence is the hardest part — once that is done, it simply becomes a matter of adjusting what they are adhering to.

So, the next time you find everyone bucking process adoption, consider whether they possibly exceed the abilities and skills of the rider. If you need to temporarily tame processes down a bit in the interest of winning hearts and minds, so be it. After all, if the organization gets thrown enough times, it's going to be awfully hard to convince them to get back in that saddle.

Next Port of Call: Notes on the Atlanta Regional PMO Leadership Forum