Mapping is upstream from automation
Disclaimer: This post is targeted at those who are responsible for building and managing automation within a group or organization. If you’re a “process nerd” like I am, then I don’t expect you will find much here that will push you out of your comfort zone or challenge any presuppositions you may have. That said, the content of this post may be helpful to you in winning over others in your organization who don’t see the importance of process management quite like you do.
To the automation specialists out there
You understand pressure.
Business users, manager, executives – all of them are clamoring for more automation – more efficiency – more speed. And many of these hopes and dreams end up in your email inbox or ticketing system in the form of automation requests and projects.
But as you well know, successful automation is not just about speed. It is about effectiveness. After all, it is quite possible to automate extremely fast, and cause numerous problems along the way. Many organizations struggle to add consistent value with automation and, oftentimes, find themselves taking one step forward and two steps back.
Despite these challenges, I think we can all agree that the goal in automation is to solve problems, not create them. The goal with automation is to optimize business processes, not break them.
To do this well, you must first understand the core processes that underpin your business. You must then map them visually so they can be reviewed and critiqued. Finally, you must develop a thoughtful and strategic future state design for those processes.
Then and only then are you ready to maximize your automation labors and resources. If you’re going to automate effectively, and not just quickly, you must learn to balance the incoming demands for rapid automation with the need for careful process mapping.
What is automation?
Let’s begin by defining what process automation is.
Process automation is a process optimization tactic that uses technology to replace or streamline manual actions in business processes.
I’m not going to review the various types of automation that are available - you are an automation expert and are quite aware of the technologies that exist on the market and the problems they are built to solve for. Instead, I want to emphasize two different points around this definition of automation.
First – automation is not an end in and of itself. The purpose of automation is to optimize business processes – to enhance the performance of business processes.
If we are automating but failing to truly optimize our business processes along the way, then I think we can all agree that those automation efforts have been in vain. If automation is not making our processes better, then why are we doing it?
Second – automation is simply one of many process optimization tactics. Automation is not the only (or primary) way that business processes can be improved and optimized. It is simply one tactic – one tool in our process optimization toolbox.
You have heard the adage before, but if all you have in your toolbox is a hammer, then everything tends to look like a nail. The same is true if we fail to recognize that process automation is only one of many process improvement tactics. We can end up automating the wrong things or automating at the wrong time.
What is a process?
Since automation is to be applied to a process, what is a process?
A process is a series of activities designed to contribute to the production of a good or service.
Our businesses are full of processes – they are everywhere. Anything done in our organizations that contributes to the creation of the goods and services our customers pay us for, all that work is process work.
Remember, process automation is not the end goal. Automation is simply one means to the end. The end is the efficient and effective creation of goods and services for our customers. So, your concern as an automation specialist should be deploying automation in the most effective way, so as to bring about the most efficient and effective creation of customer value – the most effective creation of those goods and services your customers pay you for.
Ok, I think you get the point – automation is not the end goal, automation is simply one process optimization tactic that can help achieve the end goal.
Logical argument – mapping is upstream from automation
Can you automate a process you don’t understand?
I think most of us can answer right away – “No, of course you can’t automate something if you don’t understand what that something is.”
So far so good…
Now, our next question: Can you automate a process you can’t see visually?
Now, this one is a bit trickier – and I’ll concede that you don’t have to visually see a process to automate it. But remember, our goal in automation is not to simply deploy automation. Our goal in automation is to optimize our business processes – to make them more effective in delivering customer value.
So, to truly optimize a process, my contention is that you must see it visually. And why is that?
Well, if a process exists only in your head or in the head of someone in the business who has made the automation request, then no one else can examine it. No one else can critique it. No one else can challenge the assumptions made about the process and how it should function. Visualizing a process by mapping it removes the process from the confines of the mind and makes it explicit. Mapping the process makes it tangible.
Imagine trying to explain a beautiful sunset to someone only using words – you would fall woefully short of capturing the essence of the experience. The same is true with business processes. When processes are mapped visually, the appropriate subject matter experts can then gather around the process and examine it, analyze it, and determine the best ways to truly optimize it.
So, if you are following my logic here, it is impossible to automate a process you don’t understand. But furthermore, it’s impossible to truly optimize a process that you can’t see visually.
Business trip example
Imagine you are going on a business trip. The trip itself is the process. Getting there on time and in one piece is the optimized outcome. The car you drive is your automation.
Now you wouldn’t just hop in the car and start driving. No, you would take the time to understand all the components of the trip: Where are you going? When are you leaving? What must be in place before you are able leave? What route are you going to take to get there? How long will it take you to get there?
All these details about the trip – these process details – they need to be understood and documented before you jump in the car and start driving or else you won’t achieve that optimized outcome – you won’t get to your destination on time and in one piece.
The same is true with processes within our businesses. We need to understand all the components of the process before we can apply automation successfully and get to our desired end of process optimization.
Mapping is upstream from automation.
Three dangers of automating without documenting
What are some of the dangers associated with jumping right into automation without mapping the process first – without gaining a true, visual understanding of the process you are automating?
Among other dangers, if you automate without mapping, you risk amplifying inefficiencies, wasting resources, and magnifying change fatigue.
1. Amplifying inefficiencies
Imagine you have an old worn-down car. If you’re like me, this doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination…
Your old worn-down car, it makes weird noises. It has multiple warning lights flashing on the dashboard. There’s always a big cloud of black smoke that billows out of the exhaust when you accelerate. Despite all these problems, the car somehow manages to get you from point A to point B.
Let’s say one day you get the bright idea of putting a supercharger on your car. So, you spend the money to purchase a supercharger and have it installed. What do you think is going to happen to your car when you pull out of the mechanic’s shop and hit the accelerator? Your car is going to blow up! It’s going to explode. The engine will be destroyed, and you’ll probably be hurt in the process.
By putting the supercharger on your car, all you did was amplify the inefficiencies that already existed! You made existing problems worse. You pushed them over the edge by installing a part which, under the right conditions, would vastly improve the performance of your car. But as it were, in its broken-down state, the car could not handle the energy produced by the supercharger. The car wasn’t prepared for that type of change.
This is what happens when we apply automation (a process supercharger) to a business process that is broken. We amplify the inefficiencies of that process! Instead of having a great automation success story, we end up creating more problems. We end up creating more defects that must be addressed and fixed.
When a process is mapped visually, the broken parts can be seen – the areas that need to be improved and enhanced can be addressed. To automate better, we need to make needed tweaks to the process design by applying a few other optimization tactics first. In other words, we should improve the process design before automation is built and applied.
Placing mapping and reengineering upstream from automation amplifies efficient processes, as opposed to amplifying the inefficiencies of a broken process…
2. Wasting resources
The next danger associated with jumping right into automation without mapping the process first is wasting resources.
Imagine a city where traffic congestion is a daily issue. Again, if you’re like me, you don’t have to imagine very hard…
The city council decides to construct a state-of-the-art bridge to help solve the problem. The bridge is going to be equipped with all the latest technology and promises to be a marvel of modern engineering and a symbol of the city’s progress. However, in their haste to solve traffic problems, the council begins construction without conducting a thorough study of the city’s traffic patterns. They don’t consider the flow of vehicles, the peak hours, or the most congested routes.
When construction is complete, the result is a beautiful bridge, standing tall and proud. But it’s in a location where few cars make use of it. The bridge, while impressive, does little to ease the city’s traffic congestion problems. Looking back on the project, they realize the resources (time, money, materials, manpower, technology, etc.) would have been better utilized somewhere else.
You have various constraints that influence your automation projects. Automation technology is not free, your organization must pay for it – and you probably don’t have an unlimited budget. So, it is important to apply those limited resources in a way that will yield the most return to the business.
Remembering what we looked at earlier, we need to apply automation so as to maximize the value our organization is creating for our customers. To do that, we must understand the landscape of processes and know which processes will benefit the most from automation. Otherwise, we risk using those limited resources on processes that are not central to value creation.
If you are not currently mapping your processes before you automate them, you are probably getting some value from that work. But you are not maximizing that value.
In some cases, you may be investing precious and limited resources building a bridge that will never yield a return that justifies the initial investment.
Placing process mapping upstream from automation maximizes limited automation resources, as opposed to wasting those resources on processes that will not yield a proper return.
3. Magnifying change fatigue
The final danger I’ll address in this post associated with jumping right into automation without mapping the process first is magnifying change fatigue.
Let’s face it, employees are generally sick of change – especially as it relates to technology. It seems they’re always having to learn something new, and as soon as they learn it, it goes away and is replaced with something else, and the learning process starts all over again. This sort of rapid change can create mistrust. It can make workers tired and fuel a general sense of apathy, or even resistance, towards organizational changes.
Automation is not immune to this sort of change fatigue, especially if automation is not thoughtful and intentionally designed to improve the employee work experience. “Automating blind” – automating without a wholistic understanding of a process and the dependencies that exist within that process can lead to breakdowns that cost money to fix, drain employee goodwill, and magnify the change fatigue experienced by many in the workplace.
If automation is continually implemented poorly and without clear communication or consideration for its impact on employees, organizations need not be surprised when mistrust begins to grow – when employees begin to see automation as the enemy, either as a threat to their job security or as an unnecessary source of complication.
Clear and proactive process mapping can help mitigate this risk by communicating to the workforce the exact impact that new automation will have on their work and by showing visually how automation will fit in and support their day-to-day processes.
Placing process mapping upstream from automation eliminates change fatigue, as opposed to burdening an already overburdened workforce.
End state – What does “good” look like?
Our businesses are full of processes – they are everywhere. These processes have an express purpose – to create value that customers are willing to pay for. Remember that process automation is not an end in and of itself.
Your goal as an automation specialist should be to deploy automation in the most effective way, so as to bring about the most efficient and effective creation of customer value – the most effective creation of those goods and services our customers pay you for.
If automation is to be applied effectively, you need to understand and visualize your processes. Remember that you can’t automate a process that you don’t understand and can’t see.
Consistent process mapping helps us do both these things. It helps us better understand and better visualize our process designs. This increased understanding and visualization then flows into better automation which results in more optimized processes – processes that are creating better value for our customers.
Jumping into automation without mapping your processes first puts you at risk of amplifying inefficiencies, wasting resources, and magnifying change fatigue.
Conversely, taking the time to understand and map your processes before automation will help you amplify efficiencies, maximize resources, and eliminate change fatigue.
At the end of the day, mapping and automation together makes for happier customers, happier workers, and a more profitable business.
