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In the midst of the current uncertain conditions caused by the global pandemic, it has never been more important for companies to be innovative and agile. It can be the difference between leadership and irrelevance, writes Chris Ellis, tech evangelist at Nintex.

To achieve successful agility, companies must have efficient and effective processes. These processes guide every aspect of daily activity and ensure that operations are efficient and that customer needs are met. It is also important that these processes are regularly reviewed and improved. What worked in yesterday’s market conditions may not be the best approach today.

In order to achieve continuous process improvement, there are a number of factors that can act as obstacles. While many employees recognize the importance of a good process, far fewer believe that process management is well understood or accepted in their company.

A bad process culture prevents continuous improvement by reducing the visibility of both the documented procedures and the measures actually carried out. Executives find that they have a limited understanding of the tools available to them and may have difficulty embracing the idea of ​​continuous improvement.

Obstacles to improvement

Obstacles to understanding and overcoming include:

1) Static procedures
When many companies try to collect process information, they use static methods. The documented process becomes the status quo and cannot change as business requirements change. While business as usual is pleasant, it is the enemy of positive change.

If continuous process improvement is not recognized and actively pursued, new procedures are simply created that only reflect a specific point in time and become less and less accurate over time. To overcome this situation, you need to take into account that processes are never set in stone and must be constantly revised and adjusted to take account of current conditions.

2) Non-Compliant Practices
When people become comfortable with everyday processes, they can find it tempting to compromise and find faster, more convenient ways to get each task done. However, it is unlikely that these changes will be linked to the documented process as the teams have no impetus to do so.

Problems can arise here in the form of repeated process failures, which can often lead to much larger problems in the future. When business processes are a regulatory compliance issue, shortcuts become dangerous deviations from an organization’s legal obligations. Make sure employees understand the importance of documenting changes to processes and the risks that can arise if they fail to do so.

3) Missed Opportunities
A culture of undocumented processes can lead to them evolving without optimal control. In addition to the risks of unauthorized changes to processes, helpful innovations are also lost. When teams are excluded from process management, improvements to the ground can be wasted.

As processes evolve, a failure to track organic improvements can prevent similar tasks in other business areas from benefiting from those improvements. For this reason, it is important to put in place tools and procedures that support the systematic documentation of feedback and innovations across the company. This ensures that all innovations are recorded and can be implemented in as many ways as possible.

4) Apathetic guidance
An agile and innovative process culture can only exist within an organization if it is supported by the management. Unconvinced or disengaged leadership will prevent continuous improvement by not evaluating process management, giving it low strategic priority, and postponing or de-emphasizing projects.

It can also happen that not enough resources are allocated for the industry to understand and improve its processes. This can result in an inability to respond effectively to changing market conditions. Make sure management supports projects from the start and communicates this commitment to all employees.

5) Underutilized tools
Most organizations have some level of process management in place, but without a supportive mindset and culture, the platforms and tools are not fully effective. While automation initiatives can provide quantifiable improvements without being based on effective process management, their full value remains untapped.

Take the time to ensure that all employees understand the motivation for continuous process improvement and their individual roles in implementation.

By removing these five obstacles, an organization can best take advantage of the significant benefits that come from effective business processes. The result will be improved agility and the ability to seize new opportunities as they arise.