Innovation and processes

What happens when you believe in processes, but you don't want to stifle innovation? When you're in search of excellence and thriving on chaos, where do processes fit in?
I often work with people who fear that establishing and measuring processes will quash their ability to invent, discover and grow. We usually think that we'll establish our processes and then execute them like robots until the end of time.

But in favor of processes, I ask you: how much time do you have to innovate when your business is running amok?

Do you have 15 fires to put out today? Are your subordinates, co-workers, and managers experiencing the same problem? How much time did you spend today on real innovation, exploiting new markets, developing new products and services, finding better ways of doing things? If you had better processes, you'd likely find that the fires don't happen as much. A smooth running organization is like money in the bank—or at least an investment in the future—because you can devote more energy to developing the next great idea or improving the old ones.

In actuality, good process allows innovation, by including components that actually increase the probability of innovation. How can that be?

Processes provide a way to do the mundane things without having to think so much about them. Processes provide a consistent activity and a consistent result. They also give you the opportunity to see how you're doing, by measuring their results. When you perform the activity the same each time, you get consistently good, bad or indifferent results. In looking at the results of a process-driven chain of events, you will compare apples-to-apples when looking at one result to the next. This means that problem analysis will almost always point to the same weak spots over-and-over. You can then fix those weak spots and greatly enhance the chance that you will improve results. That approach in itself spurs creativity and innovation—to fix the problems and make things better.

Establishing processes also saves an incredible amount of time. When the mundane day-to-day production of your business is "handled" and everyone knows how to do it, it frees up massive mindshare to work on growth and not just maintenance.

We are at a difficult time in our planet's development. We're having to do more with less. Those who will survive and thrive will find the time innovate and do the work better, faster and cheaper. Computing can help us with some of that productivity, but we often forget the businesses and people who use the computers. A business process is a business process, whether you involve a computer or not. The processes matter, and if we don't pay attention to that fact, our businesses will never fully reap the rewards—more revenue, lower costs, and the time and energy to innovate yet again.

© 2003 M. A. “Ryan” Yuhas
InterDimension Strategies Inc.