Englishman in New York - why do you need a stranger to improve your processes?

As Process Analysts we are critical thinkers, but we are often called “troublemakers”, because we ask difficult questions like “why”, “what for” sometimes we even dare to say, “why don’t you do it this way?”. Pro tip for new PAs – the last one usually makes people mad. But we don’t care. We get our jobs done this way. Just like Data Analysts, we are usually moving quickly between processes and switching from one to another trying to figure out what is wrong. The usual path is for us NOT to know the process we are about to work on, and it does make sense!

The way I think about it: even while writing this article, I know, I will need to read it a few times to correct all the spelling and grammar mistakes and rethink the words I am using and check if my train of thought is understandable. And I know that at some point in time, my brain will learn what is SUPPOSED TO BE there, instead of seeing what really IS there. This is why they hire proofreaders; the author is not able to see his mistakes. Our brains get used to what we wanted to create. It is the same with the processes. Often, people who have been following the process for years, just do it automatically. They are not asking WHY, because they got used to the way things are, and it became an automatism for them.

Two great examples of how that works.

The first one is a known story about bread.

It involves a Grandma, a Mom and a Daughter. The Mom and Daughter are about to bake bread in an old type of oven at their place. They prepare the dough and let it rest. The Mother opens the oven, puts some wood into it and lights it up, then takes a metal bucket, fills it with water and puts in the oven. The Daughter asks the question: “why are you putting this bucket with water into the oven?”. The Mother doesn’t think twice – “this is how your Grandma did it, so this is how I do it”. The Daughter is not satisfied though and begins to ask more questions. Eventually Mother is fed up and tells her to ask the Grandma on their next visit. They proceed to bake the bread, which comes out very tasty, as always. After all, this is an old family recipe.

The next time they visit the Grandma, the Daughter asks her to bake the bread. The Grandma works the dough and sets it aside to rest. And then lights the fire and puts a metal bucket with water into the oven, just like the Mother did. The Daughter asks her, why is the bucket needed. The Grandma opens the oven door and says – “you see the tray we put the bread on? One of the supports broke off long time ago. Grandpa never got to fixing it, so I had to make it work somehow. I put a bucket to support it. The empty buckets were breaking from the heat after a few times. If you put in a full bucket, it does not heat up as quickly and lasts longer.”

Hint: the support in the Mother’s house was not broken.

This is a great story about 3 people: A process SME - the Grandma, who was the expert for the whole family, but who created a workaround when the main path of the process was no longer available.

A process follower – the Mother, who was taught (or taught herself by observing) a certain way of following the process and copied it, no questions asked.

And a Process improvement Analyst – the Daughter, who asked a difficult question, and for next time, probably saved a few liters of water and a few minutes of time filling the bucket up.

The next story will be a personal of mine, much into what we are talking about here – IT.

One of the first tasks in a new team: I am to observe and learn how to pull a certain report and how to prepare the system for the next month.

While pulling the report was simple, the preparation took some time and was full of manual steps, that involved copying task after task after task and adjusting only the due date. What you need to know about me is, that I am not afraid to ask a very stupid question, even if I think it is a stupid question.

The tasks that were being copied, were grouped into monthly batches, and the system had 2 buttons – “copy”, which was being used by my college during the presentation, and… “copy batch” – which caught my attention.

I did a quick analysis in my head: they have been using this system for years, they must have checked all the buttons (this is what I would have done, I like clicking and observing the outcome), so they MUST know that the “copy batch” button will mess something up. I wanted to believe it, but then my inner “problem maker” woke up and my lips said it before I could do anything – “what does the ‘copy batch’ button do?” – I asked after observing the poor guy using “copy” 20 times already. 

He looked at me and then at the button and then at me again – “I don’t know” he said…

We tried the button. It did not mess anything up. It shortened the preparation time significantly. :)

Why did I bring up those stories? – in my opinion this is the answer to the initial question: “why do we need STRANGERS to fix processes?”. We need them because their brains don’t go the path most traveled, because they do NOT know which path this is. This is the same reason we need testers to be different people than developers. They do not know what the code is intended to do, so they are more likely to break it. And yes, you want your testers to break stuff you just coded, then you can fix it before you put it on production and mess up live data.

What do process analysts really do?

Well, most of our day we spend asking questions. We are a different kind of coach. We just ask and let it sink in and let you figure out the answers. Most often we start the questions with WHY, WHAT or even WHAT IF. It comes to the point when we can start sounding like a broken record repeating the same thing over and over again. In the end – if you cannot explain WHY, then there is no real reason behind things being done a certain way, so maybe we can change them.

Besides asking “stupid” questions, we often listen. We listen to your problems and the pains in the processes, we talk to you about frustrations caused by bottlenecks and how the other team is slowing the process down. Then we talk to that team. We map the process in a process flow, all available paths on one big canvas, so we can see the whole potential and the magnitude of issues. We add responsibilities on this graph and then, after drawing and annoying you with questions we fall silent for a while. It can be 5 minutes or even a few days. We analyze, we look, we count, we calculate we go through fishbone diagrams and 5 whys to the point when we can't look at those anymore and then usually, we come back with more questions. “Why don’t we do it this way?”  

This is when we start talking again. There will be a few back and forth, because our first solution might not be doable for example because of the tool constraints. Then we will ask the same question again “why don’t we do it that way then?”. The cycle will repeat itself until you say the magic “this might actually work!”. And you get excited and start planning the implementation and you run to tell your team how great it will be to work with the new improved process that will remove a few bottlenecks. We help you out if needed, but our job is pretty much done. Until the next PDCA cycle.

You’re welcome, by the way :)

What are the needed skills / traits of Process Analysts:

• You need to be courageous – often, you will join a meeting with 10-20 people, all thinking the same way – you can’t be afraid to question status quo on such a meeting. Even if you are the only one going against the tide in the beginning.
• You need to be tough – “what do you know, you just came here”, “stop lecturing us, we know what we are doing” – I guarantee you will hear at least something similar to this in your career as a Process Analyst. You can’t let it get to you. The trick is to make them think it was their idea (told ya we are coaches, right?). The less you say, the better. Just ask questions that will make them realize they need to change and what they need to change.
• You need to know how to speak to “old tough guys” – people who were doing one thing for 20 years the same way are usually reluctant to change. You have to find a way to make it work with them. Good old trial and error comes in handy. If you can get them to try it for a few days and it actually is better, they might be willing to change their minds.
• You need to be immune to impatience and annoyance in people – they will get frustrated by the number of questions you ask, they will get impatient “where are the results, we have been using the new process for 5 minutes and I see no impact”. Just do your job and patiently explain what needs to be explained.
• If you easily make friends, it’s a bonus. You have to remember that you are an outsider, they are a team. Find ONE friend in the group. One who is open to new ideas or one who is fed up with the processes pain points and wants to change. That one person is an insider on your side, makes it easier to communicate and get everyone to cooperate.
• Obviously, you have to have analytical skills and be able to see processes beyond what they are. You need to have that special thing that lets you see beyond the road most traveled into the world of endless possibilities. Sometimes a small adjustment can save the day.

Tip of the day – People don’t like change. Don’t try to make the process perfect. You will fail. Don't try to make the biggest, most complicated change in the beginning. Even if it will have the biggest impact. Instead, find one thing that is EASY to change but has the noticeable impact, persuade them to try this one thing out. If it does not work out, the effort will not be that much so it will not cause much damage, but it is better to pick the one which will not fail. Because if this one works, and they see the results, you will have their trust, and it will be easier for to persuade them to do more changes.

Do you feel like you could be the new Process Analyst? Do you think it is fun or hard to be one? How would you approach a team that needs to change their process (cause manager said so and the process is far from perfect) but they are stubborn and set in their ways?