Some words of caution…

• Best practices are actually only “best” in the context of the organisation, culture, processes, people and skills from which they originated
• They don’t come with a Manual that describes how to implement them or how to achieve superior levels of performance
• It can be extremely difficult to replicate others’ capability to achieve a particular level of performance because that is largely due to their people, not their processes

At the start of my session I asked if any of the audience had done any work on their processes and was surprised that nobody had even got as far as process mapping.  Most also said they don’t have documented procedures for how things should be done.  I guess that’s a reflection of the small size of the organisations present, but it also suggests there are likely to be some significant improvement opportunities.  There were also nods of recognition when I introduced the “7 Wastes”.

My slides are available at Slideshare.net and my colleagues at Sho-Net will be making the full set of workshop slides available on their website.  Sho-Net provides case management and fundraising solutions, implementation and training of Salesforce.com,  training and support in fundraising.  I work with Sho-Net to help their clients understand where they can get value from automating their processes.

The most recent conversation reminded me of a blog post I wrote some while ago…

http://ianjseath.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/stop-reviewing-start-improving/

I have seen so many diagnostic tools come and go over the years and I’m afraid the cynic in me says that while they might give an impression of action, they are in fact a substitute for action. And, in some cases, they are a very expensive substitute.

I’d far rather work with a client on ‘doing improvement’ or helping them develop their capability to improve.

ISC Newsletter May 2013

It’s a round-up of what I’ve been writing on this Blog in the past month and some of my favourite Tweets about articles I’ve read.

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For the “scientists”:

• simple statistical forecast models are better than complex ones as they don’t try to find non-existent patterns in the past to predict the future,
• statistical regularity does not equal predictability

For the “experts”:

• human judgement is no better than simple statistical models at predicting the future,
• experts do not predict more accurately than a moderately well-informed man/woman in the street!

For all:

• People are often extremely surprised by the extent of their forecast mistakes

Her second post “Forecasts lie – get over it!” identifies nine things you can do to make the process of forecasting more valuable.

Both of these reminded me of some material I put together on Project Estimating, where I outlined five methods for estimating costs and timescales when developing project plans.  Here are some slides I use on a workshop on Project Estimating.

The other thought that Miriam’s posts triggered was that there are plenty of simulation tools and techniques available to help managers with their forecasts and to reduce the risks of implementing bad solutions.  You can download my article “Simulation: a world of what if?” which briefly introduces System Dynamics, Discrete Event Simulation and Agent-based Modelling. 

Often, you have to make assumptions that a solution (e.g. a revised process) will be implementable and will indeed improve performance. In these cost-conscious times, it’s even more important to improve your chances of success. That’s why more organisations are turning to simulation, to “road test” their options and improve their chances of successful implementation. 

Clearly, in the real world, things are complex and often lots of factors interact to create an outcome. Simulation is not the same as a forecast, but it helps us to understand complexity and to be more confident in the impact of any proposed changes.

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The two issues that prompted me to ask the question “is anyone measuring what matters to patients?” were:

• Being seen 30 minutes later than my booked appointment time (which was mid-morning and barely late enough for things to be “running late”)
• Not being able to book a follow-up appointment for a date at the beginning of July (because “we’re not set up for that far ahead”)

I am absolutely not criticising the service provided by the Reception staff or the Doctor who I saw.  They were all helpful and delivered the services which their processes enable them to do.

My conversation with the Doctor about seeing him 30 minutes late was enlightening.  His view was that someone “upstairs” was pressurising the booking team to add extra appointments (presumably to achieve some efficiency target or productivity quota).  The hospital must have loads of data on the number and type of patients, appointments and services delivered.  It ought to be relatively simple to produce some Statistical Process Control Charts showing the normal variation in the process and its current level of capability.  You may want to remind yourself of my article on Statistical Thinking.  But, is anyone measuring the number of appointments that happen on time, the actual time required in each appointment, or patient satisfaction with the appointment and booking process?

Caseload SPC Chart

My second issue about not being able to book an appointment in 3 months time was even more puzzling.     Patients will want to book appointments in July, so why can’t they do it at a time that suits them?  This reminded me of the Determinants of Service Quality Model (ServQual) which is a way of measuring what matters to customers.  It uses the RATER framework:

• Reliability: does the supplier do what they promise?
• Assurance: does the supplier inspire confidence?
• Tangibles: does everything the supplier gives you, or shows you, “scream quality”?
• Empathy: does the supplier communicate with you in the way that you want?
• Responsiveness: does the supplier act in a timely way?

I’ve written about ServQual previously; for example, in my article: “Do you want me as a customer?“

I doubt if anyone is measuring the number, or proportion, of patients who get appointments at a time that works for them, or those who are able to make the appointment booking when it suits them.  They’ll be too busy focusing on measuring patient waiting times (which may also be important) and “no shows”.  They almost certainly won’t be reading my article on Process Measurement!

As I’ve said on many occasions: “you can take great people, highly trained and well-motivated, but put them in a lousy process and the process will win every time”.  A final thought; if none of these people know how to “do improvement”, then the likelihood of them improving the performance of their processes and meeting their customers’ needs better is minimal.

Date: 14^th May 2012

Time: 9:30am – 12:30pm

Place: Society Building, 8 All Saints Street, London N1 9RL

This half-day event will be focused on Fundraising and the components needed to ensure organisations Fundraise better, namely through Technology and Processes. Also on the day will be a talk from Salesforce Foundation, who donate 10 user licenses and offer discounted licenses to Not for Profit organisations.

Presenters will include Clyde Williams (Sho-Net), Ian Seath (Improvement Skills Consulting) and Jim Levi (Salesforce Foundation).

You can register on-line here, or to book a free ticket please email faith@shonet.co.uk or call her on 020 8885 8136.

What you can expect to hear on the day

Technology

“For Fundraisers to be successful they need to be supported by the right technology to smooth their administration”. Clyde Williams, ShoNet.

• The Platform – how to utilise Leaders, People, Processes and Technology.
• Sharing some of the lessons we have learnt from assisting our fundraising clients such as; relationship-building; how you would track such relationships and contacts.
• Conducting the right research to decide “winnable bids” and “unwinnable bids”.

Processes

“You can have the most highly skilled and motivated people, but if you put them in a lousy process, the process will win every time”. Ian Seath, Improvement Skills Consulting.

• Show you how you can engage your people to improve your processes.
• Explain why you need to understand today’s processes, before you think about automating them.
• How much change and improvement do you need and can you cope with?  We’ll describe how designing options for tomorrow’s processes can help you determine what’s likely to work best in your organisation and culture.

There will be a presentation from Saleforce Foundation who will showcase how non-profit organisations effectively utilise the Salesforce donated and discounted licenses.

Some of the attendee feedback from previous events:

“Professional, full of interest and relevant information; well-organised” E. Robinson

“Covered on what I needed” G. Johnson

“Very good overall – Thank-you”

Simply, improvement… provides a round-up of my Blog posts and articles I’ve tweeted about over the past few weeks. Given that “improvement” covers such a wide range of topics, I hope there’s something to interest you.

Until next time, good luck with your improvement efforts.

• I need some more inventive storage containers
  
• I might get that gizmo fixed
• I can’t get rid of anything that I might possibly use one day

Gretchen’s blog is mostly about achieving personal happiness, but this de-cluttering article was quite timely because I’m in the process of designing a 5S workshop for a client.  Happiness at home as a result of de-cluttering maps across to improved effectiveness and efficiency at work as a result of 5S.

The workshop I’m currently designing is for some construction sector clients, but I’ve previously published 5S information for implementation in an office and blogged about 5S for your computer.  You can also view my Office 5S slides on Slideshare.net.

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Every activity in a process (or a project) either adds value, or is waste. The aim of any Continuous Improvement initiative (be it Lean, 6 Sigma, TQM, or whatever) is to remove waste and increase value-add. Value should be defined from the customer’s perspective.

The simplest way is to map your processes and classify each step as either Real Value Add, Business Value Add, or No Value Add.

• Real Value Add activities are those which must be done in order to meet the customer’s requirements. Without these activities, the customer wouldn’t get their desired output. A good question to ask is “would the customer happily pay us to do this activity?”

• Business Value Add activities are those which have to be done because of some business or governance requirement. They don’t contribute to delivering the customer’s requirements. A good question to ask is “would we get locked up, fined or put ourselves at major risk if this activity wasn’t done?”. If the answer is “yes”, it’s probably a business value adding activity.

• Non Value Add activities are waste! They don’t contribute to the customer’s requirements and the business doesn’t need them to be done either.

You can quantify Value Add by measuring the time taken to do each of the activities in a process and converting these to costs. It would not be unusual to find Real VA to be 30%, or less, of total costs. Business VA may be 30-40% and Non VA is quite often more than 25%.

If you want to be even more accurate, you’ll need to allocate a proportion of overheads for Senior Managers’ time, premises costs, support functions etc.

Now that you know the amount of Value Add, you can look at improvement opportunities. The aim should be to eliminate the root causes on Non VA activities. Business VA activities should be challenged to see if they really are necessary and then find better ways to do them. Even Real VA activities should be challenged to find better ways. Apply Value Add Analysis across a service area and it soon becomes clear how little resource is actually devoted to meeting customers’ requirements. Applied across an entire organisation, the results can be even more scary!

My 2008 (pdf) article on “What is value-add?” is here.

I’ve also written about how you can use a Business Process Model to identify value and Activity Costing and Best Value. (Both are pdf downloads)

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