Turning Managers into Business Process Owners

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Supervisory control and a rigid management structure originated in the early industrial era. Believing that workmen were simple, unreliable and of limited educability, managers and supervisors thought them unable to deliver results in line with the goals of the organization, hence strict supervision was essential so that work was done properly. Management was defined at that time as the backbone of traditional industry. This top-down management led to narrowly defined jobs. Tasks were divided and almost isolated from each other, and then pieced back together to arrive at the final product or service. The result? An entire process that was complex, expensive, ineffective, rigid and prone to errors.

Paradigm Shift

When industries shifted from task orientation to process centering, another shift occurred in the role of management. Tasks became secondary to processes, leaving no place for the traditional drones who performed unskilled activities under management's control. Workmen were now expected to perform process-focused jobs that demanded autonomy, responsibility and decision-making skills. Management was no longer considered the mainstay of the organization, and processes were owned and operated by process teams that understood that their part of the process was a portion of a larger whole. They also realized that the goal was the delivery of the product or service to the customer.

Essential to this new structure is the fact that process teams could not function in isolation. Someone had to maintain the overview of all the processes and ensure that each process seamlessly dovetailed with the overall process design. That person was called the process owner or leader or even process martyr.

The Role of the Process Owner

• The process owner "owns" the design of the process.
• Creation and maintenance of the process design is his/her responsibility.
• He/she must find the best methods executing the process and the subprocesses and constantly fine tune those processes for optimal performance.
• He/she shares this design with all the personnel involved in the execution of the process and directs the performance of the team.
• He/she is responsible for documenting the design.
• He/she must train the process performers to execute the design as envisaged.
• He/she must identify any required automated efforts and build the necessary systems.

Skillsets Required for Process Design

• Process design requires that the process owner be grounded in basic principles and techniques for creating sound process structures and recognizing the advantages (or flaws) of alternatives.
• Because process design is customer driven, the process owner must have an "outside-in" perspective.
• The process owner must be able to distinguish between when a process can be incrementally designed and when it requires radical redesign.
• He/she should be able to trace the signs of inadequate performance to root causes and highlight the underlying problem for analysis and redesign.
• Clear, unambiguous process performance measures should be initiated, and they must be explained to each person involved.
• The process owner must be able to put measures in place that meet the company's financial needs (e.g., return on investment and growth potential).
• The established process design must be dynamic and scalable. It also must be flexible enough to suit the changing needs of the organization. Ongoing customer communication must be maintained, as well as constant benchmarking of both the company's and the competition's performance.
• The process owner should know when and how technology could be deployed to better the process.

Process Owners and Process Performers

Process owners share the process design with the process performers and coach them in executing the process design. The process owner is a link, a facilitator and an enabler of the process --- the lubricant that ensures that the entire process machinery performs smoothly and efficiently.

Process performers are experts in the performance of a particular aspect of the process, whereas the process owner has the overview of the entire process. For optimal value delivered to the customer, a good process owner must fit all the pieces together into a whole.

Process design execution requires teamwork, and it is up to the process owner to facilitate performance among team members. He/she is expected to resolve personality differences, frictions among team members and dissipate any tension or stress that could mar the smooth functioning of the process. The team receives the required knowledge and tools for conflict resolution and process execution from the process owner.

The process owner's role is not that of supervisor. Process owners do not check on individual performance but instead monitor the input-output of each subprocess, measuring performance against predefined norms.

Process Owners within the Context of Business

A business is a system of processes, and process owners are part of a process council. They represent the process within the council, setting forth to the council the funding or knowledge that the process needs and ensuring that the process receives what it needs to function properly.

The transition from manager to business process owner is one fraught with difficulties. The process owner has more responsibility than the manager; he or she is not merely the supervisor of tasks on the shop floor. The process owner's ultimate goal is process design and delivering value to the customer. The process owner is the pivot on which the entire process spins. A process owner is expected to view the entire process chain and monitor and measure outcomes. Because process owners are regarded as links, enablers and design owners, they must acquire or develop new skillsets and attitudes and discard the old ways of management, or their organizations will be no better off than the factories of the industrial age, where workers could not be trusted, and managers were little better than overseers.