Process Library Return on Investment (ROI)

Learn the mission critical elements of a successful Process Library, and how a successful Process Library can generate compounding return on investment (ROI) over many years.

Mission Critical elements of a Successful Process Library

There are 3 absolutely core, bedrock foundational elements to a successful Process Library. These are:

1. Scope Clarity and Completeness
2. Accuracy
3. Comprehensibility

Each of these is described below in more detail with reference made to the Tube Map analogy described in this article.

Scope Clarity and Completeness

I want to get from station A to station B. I look at the Tube Map and station B is not on it.

Station B may not be on the map for one of 2 reasons:

1. It is not within the scope (for example we would not expect to see stations on the Paris underground when looking at the London map)
2. The map is not complete. It is, to me at least, useless.

Accuracy

I want to get from station A to station B. I look at the Tube Map and station B is shown in the wrong place.

The map is inaccurate and is worse than useless. It will waste my time and my money.

Comprehensible to the Intended Audience

I want to get from station A to station B. I look at the Tube Map and stations A and B are shown and they are in the correct place.

I cannot, however, figure out from the map how to get from station A to station B because the map is too complex or unclear or is trying to present too much information.

This inability to comprehend the map is the curse of so many attempts within organisations to produce documentation that is intended to be helpful, but by trying to please everyone ends up pleasing no one.

Investment Returns from the Process Library rely on achieving the Foundational Elements

Before setting out to produce a Process Library, which is a commonly found resource in organisations that adopt the Process Approach, leadership must understand that it is a commitment to produce complete. Accurate and comprehensible content, and to then maintain that content thereafter.

The compounding returns from an investment in the Process Library rely entirely on the organisation’s commitment to continually strive to achieve these foundational elements. Commitment means:

• Active leadership
• Adequate resourcing
• Dedication to continual improvement

How is the Return on Investment in the Process Approach Realised?

The ROI from the Process Approach is realised when your organisation changes into an organisation in which staff are able to perform their duties as efficiently and as effectively as possible. Some of the most notable changes that will happen to your organisation are:

1. It becomes more consistent, both in how it functions and in what it produces.
2. It continually improves.
3. It automates heavily.
4. It aligns organisational structure and incentives to the needs of the customer.
5. It reduces waste, both in terms of inefficient working practices, but also in terms of honing corporate focus onto value-adding processes.
6. It improves staff morale.

All of these improvements are virtually inevitable consequences of deploying the Process Approach with leadership conviction, energy and a willingness to adapt and learn.

And how does this change come about? What is the actual mechanism via which ROI is generated?

It is generated every time one of your employees behaves in a way that is more efficient and/or more effective than they would otherwise have done so. And how will they do that? By accessing and using content in the Process Library that helps them behave in a more efficient and/or more effective way than they otherwise would do. Just as a journey across London is more efficient with a Tube Map, so is an employee made more efficient with a Process Library.

ROI is delivered through Process Library consumption, and every time an employee makes use of the content in the Process Library, more ROI is generated.

If you hire the best chef in the country to cook a meal for you. It is *the* most wonderful meal you could imagine, beautifully prepared and presented and with all the finest and freshest ingredients.

It is a masterpiece.

The chef serves it up in front of you. It is the most incredible meal you have ever seen. You pick up your knife and fork and are just about to eat it when the fire alarm goes off. You have to leave immediately.

The most exquisite meal you have ever encountered goes uneaten. It cost you a small fortune to have it cooked. What ROI have you received?

Absolutely none. The meal in and of itself delivers no ROI.

It is only when the meal is consumed that an ROI can be realised.

A beautiful painting or photograph delivers ROI when a person looks at it. A piece of music when it is listened to and so on and so on.

A Process Library delivers value every time an employee uses it. If this happens tens, hundreds, even thousands of times a day, value mounts up, compounds and just keeps on growing.

How many times a day is the London Tube Map looked at? And how many times a day are plans altered and journey times optimised as a result? And it happens every single day with zero staff support.

This is the second in a series of articles which explore specific examples of how investment in the Process Approach can yield compounding returns over many years and the mission critical steps your organisation needs to take to generate these returns.To receive an email notification as each of the articles in the series are released, sign up here.

Related Articles:

An Introduction to the Process Approach, Process Library and Process Map

This is How to Get the Best ROI From Process Mapping Software

BMS: Business Management Systems – the Benefits of a Process Approach

Related White Papers:

The 3 ‘U’s of Great Process Libraries