So, half you will recoil at my spelling of “behaviours” – but I am in the US this week. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

And anyway, why do we have different spellings in the same language?

I digress . . . With my colleagues Harvey & Steve, I spent a couple of days at the Shared Services & Outsourcing Week conference in Orlando, which was a great experience. Kudos to Naomi and the SSON organizers as well as to the prizewinners, especially Sumit and the Tesco team who won the award for “The World’s Best GBS Organization”.

Now, THAT is something to live up to!

We were privileged to run a very interactive workshop on the topic of “end to end processes” and the value creation opportunity. This theme resonated throughout the conference.

SSON Research & Analytics data indicates that 87% of Shared Services and GBS organisations see end to end process integration as a top priority for 2023.

I share some of the thought-provoking topics that we discussed.

• “WHY?” is the best place to start
• The “Dunning Kruger” effect and how we tend to misjudge complex things of which we have little direct experience.
• The levers of business value      
• The sometimes competing challenges that can impede our ability to integrate end-to-end processes effectively;
  • The “control vs influence“ challenge 
  • Building the cross functional coalition to drive change
  • Driving “AS-IS” performance improvement while designing the “TO-BE” (design vs operate)
  • The natural tension between process-driven and technology-driven change
  • The impact of human behaviour on process change
  • The critical role of “designed in” Customer Experience & simplicity  
  • Sustaining Value 
• Semantics & Common Language – we all assume we know what we mean by “process” and “transformation”, but it takes work to drive consensus on the meaning of these terms, which can have massive impact on progress and success
• What do we mean by “end to end” and how to break down the “silos”
• What does “GOOD” look like and “What’s in it for ME?” (WIIFM)
• The critical role of journeys, or necessary variant paths through a process, depending on various factors.
• “Shift Left” Thinking and understanding the process and outcomes from a stakeholder, participant and customer perspective
• The need to earn TRUST with strong EQ as well as IQ
• KPIs, Defectivity & Data Driven Decision Making
• The Digital Agenda and occasional “Digital Delusion”      
• The Pareto Principle, a focus on delivering 80% or more of desired value for 20% or less of cost, effort and cycle time 

It was an intense workshop!

There were also 6 fascinating,  interactive discussions;

1. What are the Top 3 expectations on “end to end processes” and the GPO role?
2. What are the Primary Barriers to Success?
3. What does GOOD look like for a target global process? 
4. “Experience” – What Does it Mean? And What are the Best “Voice of Customer” mechanisms?
5. Building the coalition – How do you define and engage stakeholders?
6. What are the desirable personal traits of the GPO as an individual?

Thank you to all the participants. We had great feedback and we appreciate your contributions.

If this is a topic that resonates with you, click here to request the materials . . . .

Thanks for reading . . .