How to achieve operational excellence by giving innovation a process workout

If you have ever been anywhere near a gym, you have probably seen bodybuilders hoisting ever-increasing stacks of weights in pursuit of more and more massive physiques. If you tried to suggest they could grow those kinds of muscles without the hefty loads they lift, you would be laughed back to the changing rooms. Hypertrophy is the scientific term for growing muscle through the application of resistance, and it requires those clanking plates to achieve its goals.

The same is true mentally. According to the Baylor College of Medicine, jigsaw puzzles are beneficial for building creativity and problem solving skills. It might seem counter-intuitive that something so fixed as a jigsaw, with its set image and pieces that only go together in certain combinations, could benefit creativity but the science supports it. Stanford University agrees that it is those various boundaries of the jigsaw puzzle that support creative thinking and problem solving. They are the weights that your mental muscles flex against in order to grow.

In short, growth thrives on resistance. Creativity flourishes under constraint. Together the two work in harmony to create an environment of ever increasing returns.

Innovation and processes management are interdependent

In my work supporting process excellence, I often hear people protest the idea of process management. They want to pursue innovation and do not want to stifle it with stale procedures and fixed practices. While it sounds noble on the surface, it is like suggesting you can grow those bulging biceps without ever lifting a weight.

Innovation is vital for great processes. There is no denying that inventive solutions and creative approaches to the way we work are at the heart of continuous improvement. It is the very essence of what business process management aims for - looking for new ways to solve old problems and identifying opportunities for greater efficiency and effectiveness as they emerge.

Like our muscles, all that energy needs resistance to optimally channel it. Innovation is best done when it has something solid to work with: good processes.

Process management provides a foundation for transformation

Business processes form the framework for innovation. They create those boundaries that constrain and fuel creative solutions. While blue-sky thinking is a great start to creative problem solving, there are often considerations that need to be held in tension.

Compliance requirements, production schedules, resourcing, or available plant and machinery all play a part in setting the boundaries of the solution. Some boundaries may be flexible, but their presence determines the rules that any innovation needs to adhere to. Defining the problem is the start of innovating and capturing business processes in clear, easy-to-read and -understand documentation provides exactly that launch pad.

Limits also provide a safety net. One of the mantras of many tech startups is ‘fail fast’. It is a call to try new things, to embrace risk in creativity and quickly discover if new ideas or approaches have merit. But failure is a scary prospect, especially when there are customers looking for outcomes and shareholders watching their investment keenly.

Innovation and good process management builds operational excellence

By capturing business processes in their as-is state, an organization establishes a baseline for operations. Some changes might be simple no-brainers that immediately improve performance, but aside from obvious issues like compliance requirements, further changes could increase the risk of something going wrong.

Process documentation provides a fallback position. As innovative solutions are raised, they can be explored with the confidence that, should they not provide the kinds of returns anticipated, there is a well-established and working model to revert to relatively easily.

Innovation and good process management are not opposite approaches. They are complementary and support one another in the pursuit of continuous improvement. Innovation without good processes can quickly become abstract and ungrounded, while processes without innovation easily stagnate and hinder progress. Together though they build operational excellence, like strong muscles and focused problem solving, the result of enthusiasm and energy thoughtfully exercised.

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