Execution — the third in a series of thoughts (and a REDUX I believe)

Let's fast forward three months after my MaaP experience. By then that "app promotion" had rolled out into the market and my role had changed where I was now much closer to the impending storm of "a pissed off sales force and disgruntled customers". As I got into the situation it became clear few people were aware of (or even understood) the impending problem.

It was time to develop a process map to illustrate how this promotion worked — Not a bad segue eh?**.

• The circle (oval, or rounded box) represents the start or end of the process
• The square represents a specific activity as part of the process
• The diamond represents a decision making point (yes or no)
• The arrow represents the flow and the connectors from activity to activity through the decision points.

Here is why I like the process map —

        1) it forces you to understand your process and how you do what you do

        2) it is a visual representative so you can literally see what you are working with, and by  extension makes communication easier

        3) it makes it much easier to identify problems and gaps in your process

        4) it helps determine Optimization, Correction and Execution.

Now back to that process map of said promotion — it was so complicated it looked like a circuit board and when I was reviewing it with someone they simply looked at me and said, "You've got to be kidding". In the end, this process map made it easier to communicate the situation and illustrate the impact on the customer, as well as the internal impact. It ultimately led to process improvement, that although was not perfect, alleviated the immediate issues.

As I look back at this situation (and what came out of it), there are a few things resonate with me still - 

• Development of a process map in the beginning, as well as a better understanding of the systems that you have to work with*** would probably have driven better execution.
• Smartphone Apps are not a silver bullet.
• No matter how much someone tries to convince themselves that there is not a problem, there is.

There is a great science to process mapping and I have learned over the years that is it is an excellent tool to help you optimize all things involved with execution.

I hope you are finding this series informative so far, as well as maybe a little entertaining. Next I suppose we should probably talk about people because it's hard to get anything done without them.

Links to the previous posts in the series —

https://www.bebee.com/producer/@iamgpe/execution-the-first-in-a-series-of-thoughts

https://www.bebee.com/producer/@iamgpe/execution-the-second-in-a-series-of-thoughts

iamgpe

* I will be the first to admit that this could just be me because at the end of the day I have the attention span of a small insect.

** Remember I am Canadian.

*** Understanding the systems that you have available is imperative for optimized execution. It makes me nuts when people try to work outside the functionality of the system at their disposal and then blame the system for any shortcoming. I mean, I wish I had a "matter transfer device" to get around, but I don't so until then I will work with the airline industry.