“So, I am the one to fix this problem with my silos,” Regina slowly realized. “And I can’t just leave my managers in the room to figure it out. Where do I start?”
“Putting your managers in the room is not a bad idea, but they will not be able to figure it out without you. Your role is the integrator,” I said.
“So, I get them in the room, then what?”
“Your managers are competent at work flow charting. Get them to step back and draw, not a system flow chart, but a functional flow chart.”
“Not sure I understand,” Regina quizzed.
“Your managers can flow chart the steps in a system. This exercise would be to flow chart all the systems in your business model sequence. Take this list, put a box around each element and flow them sideways on the white board.
- Marketing
- Business Development
- Sales
- Contracting
- Engineering
- Project Management
- Operations
- QA/QC
- Warranty
In this exercise, we are not looking for the problems inside each function, we are looking for the problems that exist as one function hands off work to the next. We are looking for transition issues, capacity issues, clarity, timing, dead space, delay, undiscovered defects, inspection points.”
“How will we find those?” Regina asked.
“This is a hot spot exercise, just look for the pain. Your managers may not be able to fix the issues, but they know exactly where they are.”