I am pleased to share our, "Need-to-Know Tactics for Overcoming Business Process Management & Six Sigma Objections" within our "5 Core Competencies of a Systems Thinker" series.
Let's get started!
In this scenario, Rebecca manages Chocolate Cupcake production and services. She is charged with improving efficiency and effectiveness of the processes she manages while ensuring that any changes she makes positively impact the customer and other related company functions.
After significant research, she decides that a customized Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology, implemented inside a larger Business Process Management (BPM) strategy is the best option.
Confident in her findings, Rebecca thinks about firing off an email to her team members, making her case for the BPM & LSS solution.
Now, how do you think Rebecca's team members will respond?
"What a great idea Rebecca! That sounds like the perfect way to: streamline production, keep the customers happy AND keep the business's larger functions, like strategic planning, nimble!"
Maybe, but that would not be realistic. Instead of firing off an email, Rebecca does a Google search and finds:
"Rapid Results Action Plan: Overcoming Objections"
A. List Specific Objections: Think about how each team member sifts through an idea. Based on what you know about everyone's personality, write down the most likely objection from each person. If there is only one that comes to mind, that is fine. Try to come up with at least one objection from each person.
B. Answer The Objections: It may seem simple, but the helpful things often are. Know how you will respond to each objection before it is asked. Frequently, objections come from a lack of understanding. So be ready to address the concern by filling in the gaps with information you've researched.
C. Agree with others when it is appropriate: No one is ever 100% right so be flexible. One way buy-in happens is by incorporating other people's ideas.
D. Ask questions to understand where others are coming from. If you find that this does not resolve the issue, ask yourself if the objection is actually revealing something you missed.
After reading the Rapid Results Objections Action Plan, Rebecca crafts 6 possible objections:
1. "Why don't we just work on controlling our processes and not worry about how they tie into the larger functions? We don't need the bureaucracy or the headache."
2. "There is already so much low-hanging fruit, we know what to do. We don't need to complicate things by over-engineering our business by creating Business Process Models. "
3. "How are we going to convince everyone?"
4. It will take too long."
5. "I heard Six-Sigma took down Motorola, making them too cumbersome to be competitive."
6. "It's too expensive to implement."
Place yourself in Rebecca's shoes for just one moment and think about how you might address the above objections...
After thinking through the objections, Rebecca came up with the following Need-to-Know Tactics for Overcoming BPM & LSS objections
1. "Why don't we just work on controlling our processes and not worry about how they tie into the larger functions. We don't need the bureaucracy or the headache."
How will we know what our processes are verses their processes, if we don't discuss the activities we do both together and separately? Our customers see only one company and therefore only one process. If we don't map out interdepartmental processes, experts say often times the change one department was hoping for can quickly become undone by another department.
2. "There is already so much low-hanging fruit, we know what to do. We don't need to complicate things by over-engineering our business by creating Business Process Models."
You are right - we should address low-hanging fruit. BPM models such as Opportunity and Business Interaction Models show larger organizational strategic views than conventional LSS process modeling. We can have a near perfect, Chocolate Cupcake production process, and the entire company could go down if we don't collectively, as a company, understand market and competitor impacts. BPM combined with LSS expertise can help prioritize any apparent low hanging fruits with statistical fortitude.
3. "How are we going to convince everyone?"
That is true - most times, it takes an objective third party Human Integration Facilitator and/or Change and Integration Management tools to bring a common vision among various departments.
4. It will take too long."
Robust BPM tools with the appropriate team of subject matter experts (SMEs) and BPM Professionals can create holistic business process models, on average, in less than a day.
5. "I heard six-sigma took down Motorola, making them too cumbersome to be competitive."
Motorola's Six Sigma methodology has now reached what internally is called Second Generation Motorola Six Sigma, with a process for governance, moving the tool from counting defects in manufacturing processes to an overall business improvement methodology. In 2006, Motorola started Lean transformation and Software Design for Six Sigma; thereby integrating Six Sigma tools with Business Process Management mindset.
6. "It's too expensive to implement."
How do we know that it is too costly? We are very unaware of the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) in our organization. We need LSS to obtain a baseline of what all of our non-value added activities are costing us. A well-documented fact is that average companies perform at a 3 to 3.5 sigma level, with a COPQ ranging between 24% - 40% of their sales. Companies performing at a 5 sigma level lower their COPQ between 5% - 10% of their sales.