Process for Process Sake

I've just come back from a trip to India to see one of my outsourced teams. I always find these experiences very interesting and this trip was no exception. We ended the week with a dashboard containing over 40 actions that would significantly improve the service if they were all completed. In addition, I got a real appreciation for the off-shore skill sets in my team and also the opportunities for utilising other skill-sets in the off-shore company's capabilities, particularly in the process re-engineering space. I hope they got a sense of being part of my company and making a difference.

Many times I've heard that the Indian outsourcers excel at following process, but if needed to go outside that process service dips quickly. Whilst not seeing this slavish following of process within my outsourced company, although the BPO team were definitely process geeks par excelleance, it was very evident in other places.

A great example was in the security checks at the hotel entrance. The security team were required to check every car for bombs. One security guard was equipped with a mirror-on-a-stick for checking under the car whilst the other was charged with checking the car. The security guard equipped with the mirror checked under the front, but not the sides or rear. The security guard who checked the car, just looked in the boot, didn't open or check anything (at one point we had 45 small white boxes all containing mugs - presents for the off-shore team - all about the right size to carry a grenade) but he didn't open and check a single one.

It was clear that the most important thing for the security guards was to complete the car-checking process, not actually be effective in ensuring the car didn't have a bomb on board. Process successfully completed - check, actual likelihood of finding a bomb: zero. All our bags were x-rayed on the way in to the hotel so perhaps it didn't matter that much. What was interesting though was that whichever hotel we went to the process happened in exactly the same way, quite clearly a fantastic, repeatable and quality process, but with very little benefit.

It takes me back to a presentation I gave a while back on incident processes. To emphasis why the process was required I used an example: Nobody ever buys a drill because they want a drill, they buy a drill because they want to make a hole, probably in a wall. Similar having a process for process sake is pointless, the process must properly beneficial otherwise don't bother.

The other thing that struck me about India was the absolute contrasts: Hot (outside)/Cold (inside), High Tech/Low Tech, Throw-Away/Make-do & Mend, Chaos/Order, Quality/Tat...

Must go back, see more.

Being an avid biker made the roads very interesting because there are thousands of motorbikes. Best I saw was 2-up with the pillion carrying a bicycle!!