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The Depth That Human Interaction Can Bring To Data Gathering
When someone says let’s map out a process I immediately wonder who I can meet with to learn about the process while everyone else runs to organize a process map workshop. Process mapping is a powerful tool to understanding a process and is an effective way of getting that done in a short amount of time, but if we overlook those involved in the process we will miss the opportunity to understand the human aspect of work.
A boss I had often commented about the “little” meetings I had at the beginning of improvement projects. Marcy’s little meetings he would often say. I understood that it wasn’t the fastest way to achieve results, but I understood I was able to gather data that would help me understand the depth of the process and the problems that existed on a level not seen by others.
One thing managers say over and over is that they don’t know what is going on, but they know there are problems. At the end of the day they want to understand what people who work for them do. It’s amazing that organizations hire people to manage processes and offer no way for them to learn about the processes they are managing. How could we possibly know if they are successful at managing if we don’t know what they manage?
