5 Early Warning Signals for a BPI Project

Can you recognize the early warning signals that derail a business process improvement project? Many articles have been written about what makes process improvement projects fail and usually they list critical success factors. But the real question is how do you recognize the leading indicators in a process? And once you identify those signals what action should you take to cure the ill and get the process back on track or put a halt to the project altogether?

Let’s look at the stages of the BPM Methodology and identify early warning signals and then suggest some countermeasures that are helpful to get things righted again.

BPM Process Methodology

This graphic shows the four stages of the BPM Methodology and the detailed phases of stage 2, the Business Process Improvement Project.

The first early warning signal is in Stage 1, Process Selection, or choosing which process to work on. It’s not that there is one right process to work on first but the choice of a poor project creates many challenges that often lead to a bad name for the whole concept of business process management. The wrong process choice is usually from three circumstances:

  1. Starting with an enterprise project with several cross-functional stakeholder groups participating.
  2. Choosing a project where a single Executive Sponsor cannot be designated and it needs two to three Process Owners.
  3. Starting with a project that requires a different culture than the organization currently has. This would be the case if the culture was authoritarian and it tried to use employee process improvement teams.

The answer to these warning signals is don’t start with a large enterprise process projects without the necessary leaders, and a culture to support it. Instead start smaller, with a key sub process, with leadership and a culture in that function or business unit that support employees working together and understanding how to look at a process and use data, diagrams, and the voice of the customer to improve it.

In the Chartering and Staffing phase of the BPI project there are many critical success factors (It is the beginning of the project! Get it right and you are off to a good start, but get it wrong and you’ll create numerous problem areas). Let me discuss two factors:

The Project Charter

Below are four early warning signals that can come up during the charter process.

  1. Having no charter. Maybe this happens because the BPM professional staff or IT knows this process needs working on and just begins trying to improve it. There is no written charter, and minimal involvement of the business executives in defining the improvement goals.
  2. No baseline measures. Without baseline measures, there is no quantitative data to see how critical this problem is, as well as data to see what the current values are and what kind of goal values should be set for the improvement.
  3. Uncommitted leadership. There is no Process Owner who is designated and steps up to guide this effort, setting the goals, vision, measures, scope, and selecting and providing the necessary team resources. Or the Process Owner has limited time for the team and moves onto other initiatives.
  4. Overburdened team members. Several team members says they have too many other projects and will not be able to devote time to this additional BPI project.

What can you do in these situations?

  1. If there is no charter, stop and develop one. Go back and do it. Write it down, put it in the Shared Repository and keep using it and iterating it as the project moves along. If the company has a real anathema to charters, don’t call it a charter, but gather the elements, and name the file something else, or put it in Blueworks Live in the appropriate fields as part of the project overall.
  2. Once you have the improvement goals for the project they will need measures. So name the appropriate measurement categories and then gather the real baseline data. It doesn’t have to be for the past three years; make it simple. But it may take some manual work this first time because process measures are not automated in most companies today.
  3. If you have uncommitted leadership, stop. Get different leadership, but make sure they have the responsibility for the process. Or, pick a different process where there is the appropriate Process Owner with commitment to the BPI project. Uncommitted leadership is a big stumbling block –not worth investing in.
  4. Overburdened team members are usually a sign of a larger problem—the company has too many priorities and keeps adding more assignments without taking some items off the plate. Team members can be ‘conscripted’ to join the team, but if they really do not have time to work on the BPI they will soon start voting with their feet and just not coming to working sessions. So reconsider if this is the right process at this time. Maybe another process where the employees are not so stretched would be better. If just one or two team members are overburdened, it may be possible to find good alternates, but if there are several, don’t start this BPI project.

These are important leading indicators that the process is in trouble. Take the early warning signals as valid information, have a discussion with the appropriate leaders, especially the Process Owner and take action. Otherwise your BPI project could drag on, probably getting weaker, and not moving toward success.


About the Author

Shelley SweetShelley Sweet, the Founder and President of I4 Process, and author of The BPI Blueprint, is a highly respected BPM Practitioner. She provides consultation, workshops and training programs for clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, and government organizations. Her programs are based on a unique 3-PEAT method of modeling processes and analyzing data that accelerates operational improvements, and builds leaders and employees who sustain operational excellence. Want to learn more about BPM metrics? Email Shelley at: [email protected]

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Michelle PattersonVisionary and lauded business accelerator Michelle Patterson is President of the Global Women Foundation and The California Women’s Conference – the largest women’s symposium in North America that has featured esteemed First Ladies, A-List Hollywood celebrities, and high caliber business influencers. Michelle is also the CEO of Women Network LLC, an online digital media platform dedicated to giving women a voice and a platform to share their message. Michelle may be reached at WomenNetwork.com.

Business Performance Assessment Program Best Practice 14 – Separate Fact from Opinion

StrategyDriven Business Performance Assessment Program Best Practice ArticleBusiness performance assessment findings drive organizational actions. Consequently, a great deal of care must be taken when deciding what to include within a self assessment report. Findings based on logically derived conclusions founded on observable, quantifiable facts provide leaders with insightful information on how to improve performance. Findings built on opinion-based conclusions or founded primarily on individual experience frequently lack the vigorous underpinnings necessary to ensure a performance improvement opportunity. Thus, these suggestion-type findings should be excluded from formal self assessment reports.


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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

The NEW TRUTH about closing the sale.

Every salesperson is looking for the fastest way, the best way, and the easiest way to ‘close’ a sale.

More than human nature, for salespeople, closing the sale is both a desire and a need. And the results are totally measurable. Either you win, or you lose. There is no second place in sales.

Many people think that ‘closing the sale’ is the fulcrum point of the process. All of those people are wrong. Closing the sale begins when the sales presentation begins.

A sale is not ‘closed.’ A sale is earned.

In my career I have learned two powerful words that complete the selling process. They allow me to complete the sale without a feeling of discomfort or hesitancy. When it’s time to deliver those words, I know in my heart of hearts the sale is mine.

The two words are: fair enough, and they are delivered to the prospect in the form of a question. “Fair enough?”

‘Fair enough’ are the most powerful words to affirm the prospect’s intention to buy. You may be erroneously referring to the prospect saying ‘yes’ as ‘closing a sale.’ Not good.

‘Fair enough’ asks for a commitment and validates the value and the fairness of your offer. If your offer is valuable, or perceived as valuable by the prospect, then the words ‘fair enough’ will always be followed by the prospect’s affirmative answer. And vice-versa.

The words ‘fair enough’ are also a self-test. Do you perceive that your offer is so valuable, that when you ask the prospect, “Is that fair enough?” you know in your mind and in your heart that in fact it IS fair enough. Always ask yourself the ‘fair enough’ question BEFORE you give a sales presentation. If you can answer ‘yes’ to your own offer, it’s likely the prospect will answer ‘yes’ as well.

The words ‘fair enough’ ask for a ‘yes’ and a confirmation to move forward. They are direct, completely understandable, and are non-manipulative. They don’t contain the phrases, “Can you see any reason not to move forward?” or worse, “Is there any reason you could not do this today?” Those are old-world, BS sales expressions of the worst order.

‘Fair enough’ is pointed, powerful, and positive. And you don’t have to wait until the end of your presentation to ask. You can slip it in once or twice as you’re presenting to make certain you and the prospect are in agreement and moving forward.

‘Fair enough’ gives you a transition from your presentation to earning the business.

THINK ABOUT THIS: If you have a bunch of presentation slides and offer to send some kind of proposal at the end of your presentation, you can never use the words ‘fair enough.’ Your job as a salesperson is to figure out how your presentation can culminate with the words ‘fair enough’ and that there’s enough perceived value in your presentation for the customer to say, “Yes, that’s fair enough.”

If the prospect says, “That sounds fair enough,” or gives you some form of yes, that’s not just a purchase, it’s also a report card that your offer was perceived as valuable enough to move forward.

START HERE: Review your entire sales presentation and see where the words ‘fair enough’ fit into it. If there’s no place for them, then your offer is most likely not fair enough, and will be met with some kind of resistance or stall.

This review process requires work on your part, and may mean you have to revise your sales presentation. This is a good thing! It will most likely mean you have to ask more questions, discover what the buying motive of the prospect is, and make certain you have value offerings that are in harmony with their true needs and motives to buy.

If you are able to give prospects the answers they’re hoping for, you will have created the ultimate buying experience. Asking the question ‘fair enough’ will become a joy. A financially rewarding joy.

I just provided you with a major secret of selling – a secret that, when mastered, has the potential to double your sales and increase your earnings significantly. All you have to do is create a strategy to incorporate it. Fair enough?

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.


About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

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Here are 7 more ways you can get active and build office camaraderie while you’re at it:


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About the Author

Shana Schneider is a fitness expert and founder of FITWEEK™, a fitness company that helps women turn every week into a FITWEEK™. As a “FitStylist” with a busy schedule herself,Shana helps women incorporate individual fitness into their everyday lifestyle by providing unique insights, tips, advice and how-to videos through her FITWEEK™ website.