A recent project with a major institution created tremendous workflow improvements. Ulysses Leaning helped Harris Bank improve business processes without technical changes.

The website TMCNet features a Q&A with the major players:

At organizations of all sizes, there has been a renewed focus on building a customer-focused culture. However, doing so requires changing the way the company does business at all levels, from the front-line to upper management. And to be effective, there has to be employee buy-in, otherwise, it’s just empty platitudes.

Ulysses helped Harris’ Lending business make the transition from its previous transactional and tactical approach to a more effective market and customer-focused approach. To ensure this initiative was a success, our team worked with Harris to foster a culture where every employee, at every level, had a stake and ownership in the outcome.

Above all, these opening paragraphs provide a single powerful statement: that all stakeholders must be involved and have real ownership for change to be effective. Inclusive language may be more common today but it is no less important. We cannot expect an organization to significantly improve unless the people who are doing the work believe that change is possible and that they have the authority and responsibility to make enhancements.

The end result of this level of thinking is characterized by Hilde Betts, a Senior VP at Harris Bank. The “lessons learned” are as follows:

• You can make significant workflow and process changes without focusing on technology.
• To make change happen, you need to get everyone at the organization, all levels engaged. And it’s especially crucial to engage the front-line employees.
• If you can’t articulate the value – both from an organization-wide perspective as well as an individual perspective – the initiative doesn’t have “teeth.”

These revelations are crucial to any business that wants to make improvements to patterns of work. If you need help identifying ways to transform what you do, check out Slaughter Development’s Business Process Modeling service. We assist organizations in learning how to work smarter from the bottom up. Contact us today!

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