Maybe Your Processes Are the Problem and Not Your People

When I am called by a leader that has "People" problems, it is presumed that the people are the problem.  That is often because the people aren't producing or are acting out in some way so it's appears they have a problem.  Although I haven't tracked any statistics in this regard, I would take a SWAG (Scientific Wild A@#! Guess) that at least 40% of the time the root cause of the problem is the process.  That process may include the process to get work accomplished, the communication process (or lack thereof), the quality control process, the performance review process, the training process, etc.  Processes drive behaviors and unfortunately a lack of a process also drives behaviors.  

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we

 used when we created them. - Albert Einstein

An Easy Example
Here is an easy example.  You have an employee not meeting your quality requirement for making widgets.  At first glance, you determine there is something wrong with the employee so you take them aside and tell them they need to adhere to the quality requirement.  That doesn't help and either you still have a quality issue or you know have a productivity issue.  If you take the time to dig a little deeper you may find any number of potential process issues such as:

• Employee is using the wrong tool as some point in the process.
• Employee down line is harassing them to hurry up so they can exceed the productivity requirement.
• Employee isn't following the process.
• Something else in the process has changed that is causing the problem.  

An Office Example

Let's take an example in an office setting.  

You have an employee wandering around the office socializing too much or spending too much time on the internet.  If you take a look at the processes you might find:

• They don't have enough to do and have been told not to let anyone know or they might lose their job.
• They don't know what to do and aren't sure who to ask.
• They are bored with the current work and there is no performance process in place to determine what else they could be doing for you.  
• They have not been giving any deadlines for the work they do have thereby thinking they have an unlimited amount of time to complete.  

As you encounter issues with your employees, take a step back and ponder the process that is impacting that behavior.  Until you have the process fixed, you can never address the performance.  

Mari