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Are Your "Core Systems" and "Key Processes" a Joke?

 
 
We had to laugh out loud at the June 3rd “Dilbert” comic strip. As usual, Scott Adams put his finger on how often strategic management processes like “core systems”– that sound so good in the board room–can misfire and become punchlines around the water cooler.
 
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Are you actually encouraging your employees and colleagues to act randomly because no one in your organization knows the answer to Wally’s question either. Are the terms Core Systems and Key Processes just more examples of baffling management-speak that fail to connect to what people actually DO at work?
 
If that’s the case—as we see so regularly in all types of organizations—then your company’s most sincere efforts at improving organizational performance and standardizing operations may be just plain confusing and counter-productive.
 
It doesn’t matter what words you use to describe your systems. The real key to successfully standardizing operations is making sure everyone in your organization understands what is important and why, who does what, and how to correctly complete their daily tasks.
 
That’s why the COMPROSE Operations Mapping approach is so different from other approaches. Operations Mapping integrates all levels of operations including detailed tasks. It starts with envisioning the goal and then breaks high-level processes into detailed tasks that roll back up to the top. Business goals are LINKED to the processes, policies, people, and detailed tasks needed to achieve them. Piecemeal approaches only address part of the puzzle.
 
So if you don’t want your organization to end up looking like a Dilbert comic strip, take a closer look at a more effective approach.