Business Systems Reengineering 

5. How To Do It?

The following are some recommended actions to help bring your efforts to fruition.

A. Initialization

1. Find a Sponsor

Someone high up needs to provide the motive power, vision and leadership to get it going, or it will likely drag on without results and frustrate lower level troops.

To make this happen, top management needs to sponsor the effort, be visibly involved and committed. Employee "empowerment" is wonderful, but it works much better when active leadership and support is demonstrated. Leaders set examples, are seen to provide direction, let their people excel (and take credit), and will put their jobs on the line to support their visions. Leaders will always be needed, even in this oncoming era of "self-directed work teams."

2. Get Educated

This is especially important, because without it, sufficient moti­vation for change may not exist, and appropriate alternatives won't be known to team members. Use education and policies to provide involved players with: a business model, philosophies and rationale behind them, tools for: behavioral modification/change management, analysis, setting objectives, designing the new process, implementation, and measuring performance.

• Read books

• Go to seminars and workshops

• Take courses

• Use consultants

• Visit successful sites, find out what works (or doesn't)

• Conduct group discussions

• Hire people who have done it successfully (not those who have just worked for successful companies and gone along for the ride)

Words of warning: many sources are over-hyped or even incom­petent. Check around before committing your precious resources.

3. Get key players

• Assign overall responsibility

• Identify (or hire) and assign internal/external change agents

Try to assign to and bring into the organization those who have successful experience in and/or who are predisposed to Reengin­eering the process and introducing major changes. They may be brought in as executives, key administrators, team leaders, edu­cators, or consultants. Critical mass will be needed, since one or two lone voices in the wilderness will be ignored, or silenced eventually. The old saying that "a fish rots from the head down" 

is relevant here. The top people are responsible for setting the tone. Bringing change agents in at high levels is important, but so is flowing those changes down to lower levels in a reasonable time—say in no more than one to one and a half years. I have seen talented executives who failed in this be swept away because they didn't influence or change the company mid-level people, who never bought nor practiced the new leaders' philosophies.

Now, some of you, from lower levels in organizations, reading this may be thinking: "what good is this advice to me? I can't do anything about it anyway." That's not really true. You can attempt to influence your peers , employees and higher-ups by introducing new ideas/people, seeking and referring valuable resources to the company, educating yourself to be more effective, improving things under your control, and eventually, getting promoted and running the whole shebang!

Next Week Part VII. 

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