We’ve known for some time why executives sponsor our team triaging workshop, succinctly listed by EOS® Implementer Jonathan Smith.
The Core ‘Driveshaft’ Process is Unclear
This process is too complex
The process works inconsistently
The process’s lack of clarity is creating chaos
They need stakeholder buy-in and ownership to change it
They are in a lot of pain
They are frustrated and want help
We also know that the highest performing teams are hyper-accountable to each other. This accountability comes from extremely high situational awareness — they know their process and who’s doing and needing what to meet their responsibilities and expectations.
These participants are the sponsor’s own Go-To Experts, who live and breathe and sweat and laugh and scream and yell and do the actual work of the process they’ve triaged. They typically identify about 35 recurring process-related behaviors or events (not people issues) they want stopped. They triage — sort, not solve these pain points into about 15 to 25 proposed improvements. If they follow through and implement these proposals, the process improves toward its capability goal.
We close each ProcessTriage® Workshop with an anonymous Participant’s Survey. We ask them to score their satisfactions from 1-to-10, with 10 being the most satisfied. We want an average of 8 points or better. We summarize these findings with the triagers’ remarks in a sponsor’s report.
Here are three of the questions and their satisfaction scores from the last 50 workshops. The sample size is 455 participants (triagers).
So — if you want to improve your core process team’s situational awareness and member empathy and accountability, we welcome your call. Rosey @ 913-269-3410.
https://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.png00Joseph Rosenbergerhttps://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.pngJoseph Rosenberger2017-05-23 11:20:242017-12-03 16:10:38The Latest Data on Our Triaging Workshop Satisfactions.
One of Process Triage’s core values is Elevate Someone, Somehow. Meaning, leave each person we interact with no worse for the moment, while seeking something to add to them and elevate their life. One does not condescendingly assume everyone lacks something only we can remedy. It simply means we actively, respectfully listen to them — deliberately think about them. What do they want and need? Have we seen someone like them before, where they are at? Have we helped someone like them? Can we help now — right now?
A couple of years ago I blogged about Jessi Ross at the Kansas Department of Motor Vehicles. PT had the privilege of triaging in the Department of Revenue with several process management teams, including the motor vehicles department’s Drivers’ License management office. Since Kansas, statewide, as very little mass transit, surviving and thriving in Kansas requires access to a vehicle — something city dwellers may not appreciate. One has to have a vehicle in Kansas, generally speaking. So it’s especially important work.
I received this amazing email from Jessi (shared with permission):
Good Morning friend,
I hope this email finds you well. [Snip] I have accepted and began a new adventure. I am working for American Association of Motor Vehicles Administrators! As I am sure you know, is the hub of all things DMV! I am blessed and thankful for this new opportunity. It is truly a dream come true. [Snip]
My official job title is Program Director for Driver License Compacts and Reciprocity. My primary focus will be the management of the compacts and agreements that each state uses for uniformity with citations, suspensions, etc. I will also manage the reciprocity agreements, both foreign and domestic.
I want to thank you Rosey. You believed in me from the beginning. I will never forget the conversation we had one day about my future. That conversation has helped me in so many ways.
If there is anything you need, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
Jessica Ross Driver License Compacts & Reciprocity Program Director Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
What I was reminded by Jessi (and her DMV team) is wonderful, self-managed, hyper-accountable teams thrive in the public sector also. Stereotypes that paint public sector employees as less motivated or less caring about well designed and run business processes are unfair and, well — just ignorant. The more accurate assumption is these teams are busting their butts with out-of-date technology supported with IT infrastructure with significant technical debt.
There are many Jessi Ross’s in these thankless public sector offices.
A little encouragement can spark greatness.
https://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.png00Joseph Rosenbergerhttps://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.pngJoseph Rosenberger2017-04-05 15:01:522017-04-05 15:09:05The Ultimate Thank You Note...
One of Process Triage’s core values with our customers and clients is to Make Touches that Make a Difference. We listen and look for a moment in each triaging engagement to add something of delightful value, above our expected scope of work.
Tory’s an EOS Operator, meaning he’s adopted the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS), introduced by Gino Wickman’s book, Traction. Tory, a visionary, sponsored a triage and tasked his integrator, Jeff King to host it. I blogged about their bi-lingual triage team here. (Visionaries and Integrators, the two C-Suite must-have roles are explained in Gino’s and Mark Winter’s book, Rocket Fuel)
To the point, Jeff was responsible for the 90+Day Post-Triage Implementation Plan. This plan is the signature-ready deliverable the triage host presents the sponsor to request resources for any Big Now project-size efforts and Small Now task-size actions the organization cannot complete. Jeff’s plan was, frankly, one of the best I’ve ever seen.
Process Triage Host Jeff King with his triaged process map (Courtesy Schwope Bros. Farms).
On a parallel narrative, I’m a Vistage International speaker. Vistage members benefit from guest speakers on about any topic related to running and growing an enterprise. It’s a privilege and honor to be on the circuit, noting speakers are not allowed to solicit — it’s a pay it forward opportunity with a very modest honorarium. It’s my practice to chat with the Vistage group’s chairperson to understand where the group is and how I may best tailor my talk on triaging. I’m looking for an opportunity to make a touch that matters. One such chair was Will Hindrickson, in the New London, Connecticut area. Will mentioned his entire chief executive group were EOS operators. So I read up on EOS, read Traction, and suspected there were synergies between Process Triaging and EOS immediately.
Seeking more info on EOS, I asked two Vistage Chair friends in Kansas City, Tony Lewis and Jeff Hutsell what they knew about EOS. Turns out Tony’s an EOS Operator himself, and said about half a dozen or so of his members were on EOS, namely Tory Schwope.
If you’re interested in EOS, Tory’s a case study success. Consider using an EOS Implementer (Tony Lewis asserts using an implementer/coach is the best practice, and their 90 minute overview is without obligation). I’m a believer because of the quality of Tory and Jeff’s post-Triage follow through.
If you’ve adopted EOS or are an EOS implementor (coach), and want to add a Moment that Matters touch in the EOS issues solving track, consider hosting our Process Triage Immersion Workshop. I’m best reached by text or email initially. (I’m focused to only answer cell phone calls from those in my contacts list).
Hat Tip, Tory.
UPDATE / P.S. 1/30/2016
The Process Triage immersion workshop is usually only one-day long and focused on an enterprise’s core driveshaft process. It generates a prioritized list of solutions to process points-of-pain. These pain points are recurring events or behaviors, as observed by the hand-picked process expert team who live in the trenches of the process– NOT the C-Suite’ers (who sponsor the triage). It’s the bottoms-up, bought-in list, not a top-down list you have to sell or direct. These solutions are, in EOS terms, pre-validated, pre-qualified issues with proposed solutions already nominated — in a “Bring me solutions, not problems” approach. Process triaging therefore drives the Issue Tracking dimension and value of EOS deeper into the organization, towards front line leaders. The EOS issue tracking method is, itself, a process that welcomes high quality inputs — high quality issues. That’s why Tory suggested a triage schedule a few weeks ahead of the quarterly pulse.
Not mentioned in Tory’s kind remarks was the process documentation produced by the triage team (as illustrated in Jeff King’s photo above). You can leverage the triage map into your process documentation.
Rosey
Disclaimer: The EOS Operating System is a copyright of EOS Worldwide. ProcessTriage LLC has no commercial relationships with EOS Worldwide.
https://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.png00Joseph Rosenbergerhttps://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.pngJoseph Rosenberger2016-01-29 10:18:342019-06-19 18:07:40Catapult your EOS Issues Solving Track with Process Triage
I’m not much on New Year’s Resolutions any more. Mostly because the passing of a year doesn’t excite me much, as I’m on my 63rd lap around the sun. I’m grateful and humbled to still be running laps, to be sure.
What I’m left with, then, is a bit banal and boring — and perhaps the essence of creating opportunities that are not boring, but inspiring and enriching.
So here are what I’m reminding myself about my habits this new year:
Habit #4: Show up where you’re supposed to.
Woody Allen is credited with saying “80% of success is just showing up.” Somewhere else he said it was just 70%.
James Caan said “Showing up every day isn’t enough. There are a lot of guys who show up every day who shouldn’t have showed up at all.” I get his qualifying point — show up where you’re supposed to.
Habit #3: Get back up. Just one more time than you fall.
That’s trite as well — trite and true. I’m not saying we keep doing what doesn’t work — that’s stupid, but I am saying, “Never. Give. Up.”
Habit #2: Habits create events. so get your habits right, and expect good, meaningful, joyful events.
This is similar to #1, in that our habits create opportunities and exacerbate failures. Wealth comes from frugality, industry, and integrity, not lotteries. Habits are the cement in our foundation’s concrete — what hardens us to handle our trials. And ‘NO’, playing the lottery a lot — a habit, does not increase the odds of ever winning it.
Habit #1: Part of getting your habits right is avoiding a focus on your failures and the associated anxieties and deliberately remembering your successes and the sense of fulfillment and contentment they continue to give. The former motivates you from fear; the latter motivates you from joy.
Like the joy waking up knowing my blog post needs polishing, to sharpen it.
I was 8 years old in the 2nd grade, when my teacher, Ann Fallis lead our classmates in single file to our New Mexico village school’s music room. It was in October, during the lunch hour. It was a month after Marilyn Monroe was found dead. It was a week or so before the Cuban Missile Crisis, when we would learn to crawl under our desks if there was an atomic bomb. It was classmate Beth Wilson getting me sent to the principal’s office for daring me to say a cuss word out loud.
The entire elementary school was seated before a rabbit-eared black and white television.
It was time for baseball class. It was the World Series. Yankees vs. the Giants. Game 5. (The Yankee’s would go on to win in seven.)
We watched the whole game (Yankee’s winning 5-3), delaying the busses that hauled us home. On the field were Hall of Famers Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle. Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Willie Mays, and Willie McCovey. Let’s not forget, of course, Roger Maris, Don Larson, Brooks Robinson, Chuck Hiller (hit the first grand slam is series history), and Tony Kubek.
My dad, Duane Rosenberger, of blessed memory, loved baseball and coached our Little League team. He was in a full leg cast from a broken leg, kicked in by a thoroughbred yearling he was saddle breaking. My older brother, John (pictured below), threw a terrorizing fastball. Of the many things dad said I remember most, ‘Live your life like the Yankee’s play baseball!’ set a solid, sure compass heading for me.
I’m now on my 62nd lap around the sun. And I still love baseball. And this year, my Kansas City Royals won it all, in the most resilient, relentless manner in the history of baseball — read Rany Jazarely’s tribute here.
But nothing captured my attention like being in the crowd at the Royals Rally at Union Station, Kansas CIty, Missouri. The attendance was astonishing — somewhere between 500 and 850 thousand — an amazing number when the Kansas City Metro MSA is a mere 3.2 million in size. One out of three people (for marketing purposes) showed up. Daughter Tammy and her husband, Kevin (with granddaughter #2, baby Bridget) drove overnight from Denver to stand for 4 hours waiting on Grand Avenue. Traffic was so stalled that people parked on Interstate 70 (downtown Kansas City) and walked a mile to the parade route.
What happened — what really happened, was Kansas City’s silent, hardest working, suburban populations full of families and baseball lovers returned for a moment. All of them. Hundreds of thousands of them, with their kids — to give them something good and wonderful and inspiring to tell their grandchildren about someday.
This is the real United States. We are a people that will turn out in numbers to express appreciation for well prepared, single-minded, never give up, I-got-your-back teamwork. For coming from behind 8 of 11 post-season games. It was the evidence of 3/4’s of a million souls affirming they will support decent, leave-it-all-on-the-field sportsmanship. We will show up and bring our kids for something tragically absent in our public institutions and most notably our national political leadership: transcendent integrity. We are, in fact, starving for uncompromising moral leadership — the kind of leadership our Royals captured our hearts with.
There were only 3 arrests for disorderly conduct. Only 1 intoxication arrest. While there were racial differences everywhere, there was no racism anywhere.
It was the real, genuine, America that loves everything baseball-played-right embodies.
And now hundreds of thousands of kids — no doubt a lot of second graders, will perhaps learn to love the game.
And perhaps live their lives the way the Royals play baseball.
(An earlier version of this post incorrectly suggested the game we watched was game 7, which was played in Candlestick Park, and could not have started at noon, New Mexico time.)
https://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.png00Joseph Rosenbergerhttps://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.pngJoseph Rosenberger2015-11-05 17:45:572015-11-06 10:38:20Greatness, Earned With Integrity, Remains Transcendent
Practically every incremental improvement to the Process Triaging experience has come from client observations.
A week or so ago we triaged a construction trades company, adding to the our portfolio of case studies. We’ve triaged a roofing, flat work, electrical (residential dispatch and commercial), post-construction water treatments, and insulation (retrofit and new commercial) companies, as well as a variety of construction contractors who subcontract to them.
While each of these construction trade-based companies provides different services, they follow a similar business model. Their driveshaft process follows the same pattern:
Win the first impression and reinforce it at every customer touch.
Estimate the job and win the bid with enough margin.
Plan and prepare the crew-day for a have-what-you-need truck roll – skills, tools and supplies.
Complete the work safely, professionally, and on schedule, with the quality promised, constantly training the less experienced due to high semi-skilled labor turn-over.
Complete the job accounting paperwork in a timely manner.
Do all the above at a repeatable top-of-the-Angie’s List® level satisfaction.
What’s remarkable about these six common behaviors in this kind of driveshaft is that every one of these six behavioral indicators can be delegated to someone to get right. Depending on the size (# of crews) of the company, different team members can keep an eye on each one:
The front desk phone staff and on-site crew chiefs can master the first impression.
The job estimators can master the bidding.
The dispatch manager or crew chief can master the day’s job sheets and crew staging.
The on-site supervisor can master the day’s project work.
The crew chief and the accountants can master the job paperwork.
The customer service and follow-up staff, likely the front desk, can keep an eye on customer satisfaction.
In other words, every driveshaft process has a punch list of Get My Thing Right’s
So we’re adding this punch list to our 90+Day Process Capability Improvement Plan template. At least one ‘Get My Thing Right’ for each segment on our triage maps.
What are the ‘Get My Thing Rights’ on your driveshaft?
Now back to listening.
https://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.png00Joseph Rosenbergerhttps://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.pngJoseph Rosenberger2015-09-28 10:12:142015-10-08 10:02:49What are your 'Get My Thing Rights?' (Lessons from our construction trades triages)
On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most positive score, “Was the workshop worth your and your sponsor’s investment compared to other work in your queue?”
That is the first question we ask in the Participant Experience Survey thatconcludes each ProcessTriage® workshop. Answers are anonymous and the questions pull no punches.
We ask this question after the team has worked shoulder to shoulder all day, mapping their process, then examining it for what’s preventing it from delivering a Process Capability Goal that, if achieved, will deliver their team’s share of an overall enterprise objective. And after they nominated, ranked, and offered to help with typically two dozen improvement proposals.
The focused, full day workshop is hard work that precedes 90+ days of even more work to improve the process.
Reviewing over the last dozen or so workshops, 106 triagers scored ‘Worth our time‘ an average 8.63 out of 10, with a minimum value of 6 and a maximum of 10. The median was 9.o! (the middle number of the sample).
Here are the results of two other questions, again a score of 10 is the most positive:
“Did or will the ProcessTriage® Workshop improve team member collaboration?Average score: 8.0, Min=6, Max=10, Median= 8.2
“Were you satisfied with your ProcessTriage® facilitator’s performance??Average score: 9.0, Min=7, Max=10, Median=9.1
https://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.png00Joseph Rosenbergerhttps://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.pngJoseph Rosenberger2015-05-29 12:32:142015-10-08 10:03:45Is Process Triaging Worth Your Time? Participants Score it 8.6 out of 10 -- Absolutely!
For those of you unfamiliar with process triaging (primer here), we spend a full day with a team of experts who do the work of an enterprise’s critical business process and nominate improvements. At HINT, a creative services and video production company in Kansas City, their drive shaft process is the Creative Services process. While every production is uniquely creative, the repeatable process of doing it is an ideal triage candidate.
One of the primary deliverables of the triage is the deck of process capability improvement proposals, typically two dozen. Each one of these proposals, if completed, will improve the process toward a capability goal that, in turn, enables the process to deliver its share of the firm’s strategic goals. These proposals are sorted by their level of effort, estimated by the team into Small Now action item-size tasks — simple enough for one or two people to accomplish without a lot of complexity, or a Big Now project-size effort, one that requires a plan, a budget, some sponsorship perhaps.
The typical triage proposal deck has a mix of Small Now’s and Big Now’s. The more Big Now’s, the larger the effort to achieve the capability goal — and we set the capability goals high. Sponsors and hosts expect a few project-size proposals and set aside some funds before they triage.
HINT’s five-person triage team, sponsored by CEO Teri Rogers and hosted by Tony Welch, generated 17 Small Now’s that could all be worked within 90 days, taking nothing off their plates. What that says is Teri and Tony are running a very tight ship that’s core process has no serious issues. It means HINT is entirely scalable, in terms of its drive shaft process. Their team’s first triage results looks like an extremely seasoned kaizen team. In fact, most of the proposals focused on enforcing best practices, not figuring things out. Simply outstanding.
You just don’t see this kind of excellence very often, first triage.
I’m impressed. Hat Tip, HINT!
https://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.png00Joseph Rosenbergerhttps://processtriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/logopng2-300x110.pngJoseph Rosenberger2015-05-27 09:49:442015-10-08 10:04:26It's Not Bragging If You Can Do It: HINT's 1st Triage Had All Small Now's!
