Process Leadership and Integration

RANA’s Process Leadership

Some years ago when our founder, Paul H. J. Cormier, underwent his professional training facilitators were called “Process Leaders”. This very apt name pointed clearly to the role being played by the person helping a group perform. That person “led” the process of the session while relying on the group members to provide the necessary content.

Since those days, we have developed the Process Leader’s body of knowledge by:

Categorizing processes as:

Universal (those used by most cultures),
Derived (variations of the Universals) and
Aggregate (groups of process elements that cluster and sequence into much larger compound processes);

And:

Identifying and aligning the linkages in Process Leadership between the use of:

Processes (the steps in doing things),
Techniques (the behaviours modeled by the Process Leader in front of the group) and
Logistics (the physical environment that helps a group to be productive).

Building a comprehensive process toolbox to enable the Process Leader to tackle any task.

RANA has found that clients who develop these skills do very well professionally, delivering major productivity benefits to themselves and their employers. Through our Research and Development work in all aspects of process, we have identified key elements of this success as follows:

Exemplary teamwork: team members increase their chances of success as they work together within a collaborative framework;
Continuous process improvement: the people of the organization learn that they have all of the tools necessary to bring about change in how things were getting done;
Increased energy, enthusiasm and motivation: people at all levels of the organization take meaningful control of their work lives.

We found that we could structure our service offerings to help our clients personally and professionally obtain these benefits more quickly. Our Process Leadership Immersion Program is the result.

RANA’s Process Integration

As organizations develop, its managers install practices aimed at planning, communications, operations, administration and other such functions. These are generally set up as processes, i.e., series of steps leading to the desired organizational result. Over time, these processes multiply, morph into functions and contribute to the creation of silos inside the organization complete with specialized people speaking specialized languages. This results in:

Processes not informing each other, e.g., Strategic Planning not informing Financial Management;
Duplication of processes;
Lowered productivity, as decisions take place in isolation and without accurate information;
Decreased strategic direction from top-down because of intersecting management accountabilities.

RANA believes that integration is best done through an organization's processes by:

Identifying the processes of the organization, layer by layer;
Changing, simplifying, deleting, replacing and linking processes one to another;
Developing a visible process working framework;
Supporting the processes with the best systems available.

Process Integration can only take place through people: teams of people with the necessary knowledge and skills redesign their own processes and link them to those of other teams in the organization. This is done with the help of a Process Leader.

Setting the expectation that people will ensure the quality of the processes they own ensures that processes are integrated successfully. This supports continuous renewal and effective management.

For more on how RANA builds and supports Process Integration frameworks, click HERE.

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