MIA: Process Owners

Do you know who the “Process Owners” are in your organization? Do you even have Process Owners? If you do, do you know what they do? Does your organization have a formal definition of the Process Owner role and its associated responsibilities? If you can answer yes to each of these questions, please contact me because you will be first person I have met able to do so.

Processes are an inherent aspect of every enterprise today. Even those organizations who insist, “We’re not a process shop” have processes. They may be ad hoc, informal, and undocumented, but they are still processes. And I am not just talking about work. You can’t brush your teeth without following a process. But despite the omnipresent nature of process, most organizations are bereft of formal process management discipline.

There are three major aspects of process discipline: process design, process implementation, and process management. Proficiency in process design is not nearly as critical as it was in years past. Process taxonomy can be found in a plethora of frameworks, methodologies, best practices, and even vendor-provided tools and systems. Competence in process implementation is much more essential than process design proficiency because processes have little chance of adoption without thoughtful and thorough process implementation. Fortunately, many organizations have learned you can’t just turn-on-the-box and expect everyone to follow a new process, which is why you’ll find folks assigned to ensure transformation and adoption through formal organizational change management. I have encountered few enterprises that excel at implementing new processes (no doubt the subject of a future post) but luckily organizational change management is a cottage industry and there are many third-party services available.

The final aspect of process discipline is managing the designed and implemented process. This is where I see the wheels fall off for most process efforts. Processes must be managed. No matter how mature processes gets, they stay babies forever. Processes require constant care and feeding if they are to have any chance of surviving, let alone thriving. And a process cannot be managed without a Process Owner.

That brings us to the title of my post. I rarely encounter legitimate Process Owners.  When I ask folks who owns a given process they spend a few perplexed moments before indicting a frequently unwitting co-worker. I occasionally come across a person who after some vacillating comes to the conclusion that they are the Process Owner. But these are not “legitimate” Process Owners because though they may be the correct designate, they lack the facility of formal roles and responsibilities and the endorsement of executive leadership to perform them.

So what is a legitimate Process Owner? Here is the one sentence description:

A process owner is the fitting individual who has accountability for a process and the authority, devotion, and passion to ensure the process meets enterprise goals.

Now here is longer explanation of the many key words in that simple description:

• Fitting – Not everyone is cut out to be a Process Owner. This is a person who is capable of leading and influencing everyone in an enterprise. They believe in the essential nature of process discipline and they understand how to reasonably and rationally apply that discipline to their specific circumstances.
• Individual – Process ownership is not done by committee. The buck for every process must stop with one person.
• Accountability – Process owners are responsible for the outcomes of their process and they willingly and confidently accept that culpability.
• Authority – Processes owners have the endorsement, sponsorship, and support of executive leadership and the right and ability to influence everyone associated with the process.
• Devotion – Process owners are dedicated and committed to the success of their enterprise, their customers, and each and every person who participates in the process.
• Passion – Process owners are obsessed with the success of their process. They bring zeal and enthusiasm in their never-ending quest to serve the enterprise, delight the customer, and empower co-workers.

The following is a very simple view of the responsibilities of the Process Owner role:

Owns and provides the process design

• Develops, documents, implements, and improves process design
• Ensures process design is understood and adopted (compliance)
• Determines appropriate levels of standardization
• Manages interfaces and assists with exceptions and surprises

Serves as champion and advocate for the process

• Secures required resources (e.g., personnel and funding)
• Represents process within the organization and ensures alignment to enterprise goals

Monitors process performance and the environment, initiating action as appropriate

• Understands customer needs; sets process performance requirements
• Accountable for process performance (effectiveness and efficiency)
• Watches for changes in business requirements and operating environment (e.g., technology, organization, benchmarks, and regulation)
• Measures and monitors process performance
• Ensures process performance problems are tracked and resolved

Think back to the questions I posed at the onset of this post. Did you answer “yes” to any of them? Is your answer still yes? If so, I meant it when I said I would like you to contact me. I’d love to hear about your experiences so I can learn from you and share your challenges and successes with others. If your answers are “no,” and your Process Owners are missing in action, then there is much work your organization has to do to identify, establish, and empower this crucial enterprise leadership role. Your processes depend on it.

~ Steve ~