I've been reading Trails of Historic New Mexico this week... I love traveling and I love history, so what's not to love about the history of travel?
Throughout history, travel has primarily been a byproduct of trade. If you wanted something that wasn't available locally, you had to travel some place to get it.
This pattern was repeated time and time again - with Northern New Mexico being no exception...
When traveling by foot between Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Las Vegas (New Mexico), people would tend to meander a bit, using landmarks to guide their progress, but varying their paths based on any number of factors (mountains, rivers, weather, wildlife, fellow travelers, etc.):
Despite these seemingly random variations in the routes the travelers would take, over time 'trails' (little more than ruts in the dirt) would develop, making it much easier for those who'd never made the journey to find their way:
As traffic between the three cities increased, the early trails became wider and smoother. Deep ruts were filled with gravel, bridges were built to cross gullies and rivers. The myriad braids of footpaths merged into a few rather nice roads.
Travel between the three cities became much more standardized and much more predictable. Life was getting better for the traders:
As the cities grew, the need to transport goods between the cities increased dramatically. To meet these needs a Railroad was built. Trains were much more efficient at hauling freight from one local to another, but trains have trouble on steep grades and rails were much more expensive to lay than dirt roads were to construct.
Consequently, the rails were only laid between Las Vegas and Albuquerque - bypassing Santa Fe. For those still needing to visit Santa Fe, a spur line was built off the main line at the newly founded town of Lamy:
The rail lines, although efficient for transporting heavy loads, were not flexible in terms of delivering goods to those who were not on the rail line. This lack of flexibility led to a resurgence of trucking once the old roads were improved and expanded:
We're not quite back to the routes of those original footpaths, but we're close. The modern roads provide the flexibility of routes and destinations that the old footpaths did coupled with the reliability and speed of delivery afforded by modern trucks.
So what's the lesson that we can learn by using the evolution of trails to rails to roads as an analogy for Business Process Management? (You knew I couldn't resist)...
Your company's processes evolve in much the same way as roads do. The goals are known - You have to get from Point A to Point C, and you have to visit Point B on the way. The precise set of steps that you have to take on your journey may vary quite a bit until you figure out the best way to accomplish your goal.
Once you've figured out the best way to get from A to B to C it's time to automate what you can. Use a BPM System to build those 'Rails' that guide your steps along the tried and true path... Life is now glorious.
But...
There's always a but...
Things always change.
If you build the equivalent of a Rail Line from A to B to C, then you're stuck. You can't adapt when something changes. What you really needed were Roads and a Truck instead of Rails and a Train.
I think this is why we're seeing rising interest in Adaptive Case Management systems. Folk have used BPM Systems to manage their processes, but they're finding that those processes aren't as structured as they thought they were. Way too often, they're finding that the process paths enforced by their BPM System are too rigid, and they're having to 'go outside the system' to get their work done.
This is a serious problem for many folks, and not one that I will trivially dismiss. BPM Systems 'work well' when processes are highly structured. When processes aren't highly structured a BPM System can be more trouble than it's worth.
That said... Process does exist. You need to get from Point A to Point C. You aren't just taking random steps, hoping to end up 'somewhere' - You have a definite objective that you have to reach.
The mistake that we often make is in thinking that there are a fixed number of steps in the Process and the order in which we take the steps is as rigid as those Rail Lines from Las Vegas to Albuquerque.
For every Set of Activities in a Process there's probably an Alternate Set of Activities that could be performed in special circumstances. For every Path Through The Process there's probably an Alternate Path that's appropriate at some time. At any point in your Process, you may need to Expedite the Process or you may need to Cancel the Process.
It's generally a fool's mission to try to define every possible Activity and every possible Path in your Process. Even if you did, things change.
So what we really need to define is a 'Typical Process'... a really good definition of the objectives and of what really needs to be accomplished.
When we define the Activities within our Typical Process, we have to be really sensitive to the fact that given enough pressure all Activities are Optional. Somebody somewhere can say "Skip That and Do This instead".
I've seen a lot of blogs and articles lauding the Knowledge Worker's inherent ability to "Do the Right Thing"... but in a complex work environment there are often many factors that workers aren't aware of. Workers are often scared to skip a step because they aren't sure that they know all of the ramifications of skipping the step.
To truly empower our Knowledge Workers, we need to (figuratively speaking) provide them with a Map in addition to Directions - transforming them from the Engineers who drive a Train down the Rails to the Truck Drivers who use their experience to pick the best Route.
Without a good Map, a Truck Driver can only follow the signs and hope he doesn't miss one. With a good Map the Knowledgeable Driver can always figure out how to get where they need to go.
Throughout history, travel has primarily been a byproduct of trade. If you wanted something that wasn't available locally, you had to travel some place to get it.
- Trade routes begin with some greedy explorer or scout who through trial and error managed to travel from Point A to Point B. Often they had no idea where they were headed, but if there was something worth trading for wherever they ended up the result would be a trade route.
- Once the explorers proved that you could in fact get from A to B, trail blazers set out to determine the best route for getting from from A to B on foot or horseback.
- As the need to carry more goods between points A and B increased, the traders evolved the footpaths into dirt roads that their wagons could easily traverse.
- As technology improved, rail lines were laid between A and B to carry goods more efficiently by train.
- Trains were very efficient at hauling big loads from A to B, but the rigidity of the rails made it very difficult to deliver goods to any other destination, so the earlier roads were improved and expanded to meet the new needs with trucks.
This pattern was repeated time and time again - with Northern New Mexico being no exception...
When traveling by foot between Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Las Vegas (New Mexico), people would tend to meander a bit, using landmarks to guide their progress, but varying their paths based on any number of factors (mountains, rivers, weather, wildlife, fellow travelers, etc.):
Despite these seemingly random variations in the routes the travelers would take, over time 'trails' (little more than ruts in the dirt) would develop, making it much easier for those who'd never made the journey to find their way:
As traffic between the three cities increased, the early trails became wider and smoother. Deep ruts were filled with gravel, bridges were built to cross gullies and rivers. The myriad braids of footpaths merged into a few rather nice roads.
Travel between the three cities became much more standardized and much more predictable. Life was getting better for the traders:
As the cities grew, the need to transport goods between the cities increased dramatically. To meet these needs a Railroad was built. Trains were much more efficient at hauling freight from one local to another, but trains have trouble on steep grades and rails were much more expensive to lay than dirt roads were to construct.
Consequently, the rails were only laid between Las Vegas and Albuquerque - bypassing Santa Fe. For those still needing to visit Santa Fe, a spur line was built off the main line at the newly founded town of Lamy:
The rail lines, although efficient for transporting heavy loads, were not flexible in terms of delivering goods to those who were not on the rail line. This lack of flexibility led to a resurgence of trucking once the old roads were improved and expanded:
We're not quite back to the routes of those original footpaths, but we're close. The modern roads provide the flexibility of routes and destinations that the old footpaths did coupled with the reliability and speed of delivery afforded by modern trucks.
So what's the lesson that we can learn by using the evolution of trails to rails to roads as an analogy for Business Process Management? (You knew I couldn't resist)...
Your company's processes evolve in much the same way as roads do. The goals are known - You have to get from Point A to Point C, and you have to visit Point B on the way. The precise set of steps that you have to take on your journey may vary quite a bit until you figure out the best way to accomplish your goal.
Once you've figured out the best way to get from A to B to C it's time to automate what you can. Use a BPM System to build those 'Rails' that guide your steps along the tried and true path... Life is now glorious.
But...
There's always a but...
Things always change.
If you build the equivalent of a Rail Line from A to B to C, then you're stuck. You can't adapt when something changes. What you really needed were Roads and a Truck instead of Rails and a Train.
I think this is why we're seeing rising interest in Adaptive Case Management systems. Folk have used BPM Systems to manage their processes, but they're finding that those processes aren't as structured as they thought they were. Way too often, they're finding that the process paths enforced by their BPM System are too rigid, and they're having to 'go outside the system' to get their work done.
This is a serious problem for many folks, and not one that I will trivially dismiss. BPM Systems 'work well' when processes are highly structured. When processes aren't highly structured a BPM System can be more trouble than it's worth.
That said... Process does exist. You need to get from Point A to Point C. You aren't just taking random steps, hoping to end up 'somewhere' - You have a definite objective that you have to reach.
The mistake that we often make is in thinking that there are a fixed number of steps in the Process and the order in which we take the steps is as rigid as those Rail Lines from Las Vegas to Albuquerque.
For every Set of Activities in a Process there's probably an Alternate Set of Activities that could be performed in special circumstances. For every Path Through The Process there's probably an Alternate Path that's appropriate at some time. At any point in your Process, you may need to Expedite the Process or you may need to Cancel the Process.
It's generally a fool's mission to try to define every possible Activity and every possible Path in your Process. Even if you did, things change.
So what we really need to define is a 'Typical Process'... a really good definition of the objectives and of what really needs to be accomplished.
When we define the Activities within our Typical Process, we have to be really sensitive to the fact that given enough pressure all Activities are Optional. Somebody somewhere can say "Skip That and Do This instead".
I've seen a lot of blogs and articles lauding the Knowledge Worker's inherent ability to "Do the Right Thing"... but in a complex work environment there are often many factors that workers aren't aware of. Workers are often scared to skip a step because they aren't sure that they know all of the ramifications of skipping the step.
To truly empower our Knowledge Workers, we need to (figuratively speaking) provide them with a Map in addition to Directions - transforming them from the Engineers who drive a Train down the Rails to the Truck Drivers who use their experience to pick the best Route.
Without a good Map, a Truck Driver can only follow the signs and hope he doesn't miss one. With a good Map the Knowledgeable Driver can always figure out how to get where they need to go.
