I had a dose of enlightenment reading one of Pedro Berrocoso’s recent articles . . .

It sometimes happens 😉

His argument is that too much management time is spent on policing compliance to business policies and controls. 

Agreed . . .

Pedro is a procurement leader by trade, but his observations on this matter are widely applicable and worth considering in any process change, transformation or digital/automation initiative.

He shares a feeling that I am sure that many of us have experienced in climbing the “management ladder”  . . .

“𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲!”

He asserts that we should design and implement processes, with supporting technologies, embedding a user experience which does the policing for you . . .

Who could argue with that?

He proposes 7 principles to consider when designing and testing the process and it’s “experience”. I summarise them here but it is worth reading Pedro’s article below:

1. 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲: Simplicity is Key. As Steve Jobs famously said ““It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions”.
2. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀 & 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹𝘀 in an intuitive, decluttered user interface that provides transparency on compliance relevant data points.
3. 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲: embed visual cues and a logical sequence of process steps to help process participants provide all necessary information, once.
4. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲: enable data driven solutions (including AI) to route and validate potential non-compliant activities
5. 𝗘𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲: provide a simple upfront checklist for casual users, with FAQ’s (chatbot or otherwise) and access to preferred, simple routes to meet their needs (“What’s In It For Me” (WIIFM)).
6. 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 & 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻: integrate the WHY, WHAT and HOW of policy and control in all educational media, training and Q&A sessions.
7. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 & 𝗔𝗰𝘁: apply “defectivity” thinking and continuous improvement (CI) principles to identify and address root causes of any process or control issues and areas of “experience” dissatisfaction.

The key here is both a “customer experience” focus AND the need to consider process risks, policies and controls up-front, when initially reviewing the AS-IS process and in defining the new shiny “TO-BE” process . . . .

You can read Pedro’s source article here . . .

Thanks for reading . . .