People and Process: Combination of Individualism and Leadership

It’s important to keep in mind that processes have a shelf life, which is why we emphasize a culture of continuous process improvement with each of the implementations we support. Changing existing system structures can be a daunting challenge, especially to the people who utilize those systems. That challenge is exactly why Greencastle adheres to a few process improvement principles.

Be unique: Your organization is not just any organization, it’s not a competitor’s organization… it’s your organization. Meaningful process improvement should be customized, and it needs a specific approach that will work for you. That is why we take a look at the history of each company’s processes, the organizational culture, and at how prepared the company is to undertake new changes with enthusiasm and success. Coming with an outside perspective, our team can accurately assess your team, free of internal politics and biases.

Establish the leader and hierarchy: Process improvement is personal. Human beings are at the core of every successful new process implementation, which is why we focus on developing leadership and fostering involvement from the top down. If there’s one thing that we’ve learned from numerous process improvements and implementations it’s that structure is a key indicator of a project’s likelihood for success. It’s a lot easier to set, visualize, and accomplish objectives when a clearly defined leader is at the helm and when each team member knows in which direction they should be funneling feedback and asking for guidance.

Involvement, involvement, involvement: Change can be intimidating to staff who feel that they’re already doing a good job. You don’t want to run into unnecessary friction from those who might be stepping on the brakes. That’s why we identify strong internal advocates or “champions” early in the planning stage. Advocacy is contagious and you will soon see their feet lifted from the brakes and pressed onto the accelerator.

The more process improvement becomes an aspect of the daily workplace, the less it seems like a burden and less resistance is encountered from team members the next time around.