analysis paralysis

People get the flu. Processes get analysis paralysis (I don’t know who coined the term, but Chris Bennetts-Cash used it yesterday in one of his tweets). Serious cases could lead to a comatose state of a process, or worse (or better?) analysis paralysis could cause process death… Scared? You should be. I don’t know anything about Chris’ work, or what he meant with it, but it certainly gave me goose bumps… A process management consultant’s worst nightmare!

So what is the best medicine against AP? Honestly, prevention is the best medicine in this case. Imagine being a handsomely paid process management consultant asked to model a core process for a major corporation. You have set up a workshop with the major stakeholders in the process. Everybody is present and available for the whole day! It’s smooth sailing till 2pm. You’ve modeled a fairly complete process and the end seems in sight. You are already thinking about being able to go home before traffic… But then it happens! A discussion starts in the room about what documents are involved in a hand-off point. Then someone starts saying the order of certain steps isn’t right. More discussion. Heated discussion. More disagreement. When you get the discussion under control a whole list of “issues” has surfaced. Because you don’t know the details about this process yourself, you suggest to assign these issues to small groups of people for further research. It seems like a good idea and everyone involved agrees. You are happy with yourself, because you still can beat the traffic going home…

Back to reality. Was that really a smart move? On one hand doing further analysis on issues under discussion seems fair and logical. However, when you think about it: How long do you think it takes before all required information has been located? One week? I doubt it. Probably at least two weeks. So after two weeks you could organise another meeting with the process stakeholders. When do you think you could get all those people back in one room again? Another two weeks? A month? I hope you are starting to see my point: What should have been accomplished in one day now gets dragged out over weeks, possibly months. Even worse, there is no guarantee that agreement on the process map will be reached in the next meeting. That means yet another meeting. Another couple of weeks or months… Diagnosis: analysis paralysis: Some half-finished process that will probably never see the light of day…

So what should you do to prevent AP? As mentioned above, prevention is the best medicine. When you organise the meeting to map the process, clearly state in the invitation that all doors and windows will be locked till agreement has been reached by all present. “Oh come on”, I hear you thinking, “that shouldn’t be necessary!” Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a little. You can leave the windows open. My reasoning? You need the stakeholders to be committed and to be prepared. Focus on the issues that add value and don’t strive for perfection. Perfection is a killer when it comes to process mapping. Forgot about (minor) details, like who is responsible for some document that nobody ever reads. Focus on the activities that make or break the whole process. Experience tells me about 20% of activities make up 80% of the value. The remaining 80% is little stuff. Agree on the important stuff and the consultant can decide on the issues related to the other 80%. After all, that is why they hired a consultant… And remember, if there is no agreement, nobody will be leaving the room. You’ll be amazed how quickly everyone will agree…

Unethical? Impossible? I don’t think so. Make clear beforehand what is expected of the participants and make sure they come prepared. The rest will be a breeze. You might not need a lock after all…

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