Process management beyond the textbook

FROM PETER SCHWALBACHBut what, one might rightly ask, does this have to do with trade publishers, who generally have fewer employees than the examples mentioned in their process management departments alone? More than you might think, because process management is not only an issue for corporate groups, it is also becoming increasingly important for trade publishers, except that not all the methods that help one can be transferred to the other without further ado. However, some general rules can be formulated. In particular, everyone who wants to manage their processes in a targeted manner must answer a few fundamental questions for themselves. Namely, the first question is what is to be achieved with process management. The goals should be formulated as concretely as possible. In other words, they should not be clichéd, such as "the process should be cost-efficient", but should be clearly defined as "the variable costs of an expense must not exceed x% of the average revenue generated". The same applies to quality or time targets.Furthermore, it must be clarified what understanding of process management the house wants to develop. It is important to realize that the most effective process managers do not sit in a staff unit or departmental management set up for this purpose, but that in the vast majority of cases these are the people directly involved in the process.The principle of subsidiarity applies: management sets the goals and creates the framework, while the management of the processes is the responsibility of those directly involved.It is equally important to clearly define which processes are to be considered. In very few cases is this the case for all of them. In this case, it makes sense to create a process map that divides the entire process in the company or in individual areas into clear sub-processes, i.e. business processes. When classifying and structuring processes, it is often helpful to distinguish between core and secondary processes, standard and special processes, or day-to-day and project business. Among other things, this has an impact on the methods that can be used for optimization, e.g., the possible degree of automation or the use of key figures.The design of the structural and management organization also supports or complicates process management. The following principles apply: The higher the hierarchical level at which the company's core processes are mapped, the less process-oriented it is. And the fewer departmental boundaries and hierarchical levels the processes have to cross, the less they have to be actively managed. Everyone knows this from their own experience: communication and coordination within one's own department is usually much faster and more effective than when it crosses departmental and company boundaries. So often - despite all modern means of communication - a local summary is an effective process accelerator and optimizer.Incidentally, process management itself can also be understood as a process. A helpful model is the PDCA cycle borrowed from quality management. The letters of the acronym stand for Plan, Do, Check and Act. Decisive for the success of process management is above all the "check", i.e. the measurement and comparison of processes on the one hand and the evaluation and derivation of control measures on the other. As in general management theory, the words of economist Peter Drucker apply here in particular: "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it".One question often asked is how to visualize and document processes. And the answers are many and varied. In practice, methods that depict the sequence of process steps in the form of a flow chart with direct reference to the points or systems through which they pass have proven successful. A well-known example is the Swimlane diagram, a form oriented on it can be found in the figure. In general, the principle of "less is more" applies. Above all, it is important that the representations and documentation provide the most immediate benefit possible to those involved and that they are understood. And so anything that does not meet this requirement is dispensable.Anyone who wants to use process management as a method should be clear: process management is initially more work for all those involved, requires discipline and consistency, and creates transparency where this is not desired by all - implementation is thus primarily a change management task. Process management also does not work right away and never as in the textbook; in other words, it needs to be tested and practiced - and pilot tests are particularly suitable for this purpose, where the company's own path can be found and followed step by step within a manageable framework and with reversible results. And finally, process management is not absolute, it is one building block among many others in shaping change; there is no "either or". Even little process management is better than no process management.