People Before Process
Process is helpful right up until it’s not. Strong project managers will be able to discern that tipping point and boldy use what works and challenge what doesn’t for the good of the team. Your project success is tied to your teams experiences. Create a great experience through good process and positive results will follow.
At it’s best
Process supports the people doing the work, helping the team to deliver in the most efficient and highest quality way possible when it :
Is repeatable, sustainable and relevant
Contributes to improved quality in an impactful way
Supports ease of use for the team member(s) executing
For example, when launching a website, a checklist that layouts out the 27 proven things needed, supports the developer. It has taken into consideration all the things we’ve learned in previous launches, what has worked well, what has failed and laid out a proven path to success. The checklist ensures no matter who is launching the site it will be done in the same effective way every time. Even better than that, it will give the developer, who has worked so hard to get the site to this point, a break, allowing them to simply execute and deliver with confidence. That is process supporting people.
The reverse
When people must support process, regardless of whether there is value in it, their energy and focus shifts away from the the outcome to the wasted time in the extra steps needed to just get through it. When a team member doesn’t see the value in the tasks dictated to them by the process, this discourages, frustrates and depletes energy. Let’s take that same launch list example and add an unnecessary layer, let’s have the developer stop after each step and notify the project manager that the task has been completed. The project manager then needs to review and approve that step and give the developer the go ahead to move onto the next step. This process adds unnecessary time to both the developer and the project manager, it does not create value because the developer has executed these steps hundreds of times over the course of his/her career, the steps are not hard nor are they error pone, they simply need to get done. The site launch which could have taken two hours to execute, takes twice as long. This is people supporting a process and should be avoided!
Level set
When creating process, it is critical to consider risks and implications. The more severe the outcome given an error, the more process and quality checks are needed. Surgical checklists or pilot checklists are great examples of this. Life altering tasks absolutely require additional checks and balances to positively support the team and their stakeholders. Conversely, simple non-life threatening marketing website launches require logical, straight-forward steps to assist the team.