Process excellence professionals come in a
variety of shapes and sizes, says PEX Advisor Debashis Sarkar. Here how’s to
recognize them and how you can make sure you use their strengths to your
advantage.
Whether they’re experts in improvement
methodologies like Lean, Six Sigma, TOC, or not, what binds PEX (aka Process
Excellence) professionals together is that they use the power of process to
enhance the performance of their organizations. But it’s definitely not “one
size fits all”. It takes all types to make a PEX team and it’s helpful to know
who is best at what.
Here are the 15 types of PEX professionals
you’re likely to encounter on the job.
#1: The Tool-o-phile
The Tool-O-Phile is a person who loves
tools and spends a lot of time gathering knowledge on tools and techniques from
methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, TOC, A3 etc. For this type PEX
professional, brandishing capability on lean tool is more important than the
outcomes of process improvements. One to watch as you can often find him
or her using tools in projects even if not required- just to demonstrate
knowledge of the methodology.
#2: JDI Pusher
JDI stands for Just-do-it. This type of PEX
professional is a person who will provide you the solutions even before
complete analysis to a problem has been done. He will encourage teams to avoid
the rigour of analysis and just go ahead with the deployment of the solutions
(usually recommended by him or her). The JDI Pusher takes it personally if
their solution is not implemented. You can recognize this type of PEX
professional because they have a tendency to narrate stories about past
successes and process knowledge – especially in support of his solution. The
challenge? If he is not able to push his idea, he will withdraw and stop
participating in the process improvements.
The JDI Pusher is driven to push his
solution through. But watch out if his idea isn't selected.
# 3: The “Know-All”
The “Know-All” claims to have knowledge
about all methodologies and tools that exist for process excellence. Be it Six
Sigma, Lean, TOC, TRIZ, process management, CMMI, COPC etc; he will claim his
competencies in all and will have a line or two say on each of them.
Whichever one you name, he will nod his head as if he has successfully
used it for years. You can easily recognize this type because when told
to demonstrate his knowledge by implementation, he will struggle.
#4: The Change Master
The Change Master treats every process
improvement initiative as a change endeavour. He is strong in influencing
skills and is able to engage teams across hierarchies. He is tool deficient as
believes that they are not important so far he is able to manage the trials and
tribulations of change associated with process excellence efforts.
# 5: The Power-Point (PPT) Maestro
The PPT Maestro is a person who gets all
his power from power-point. His passion is not process-improvement and his involvement
at the most is superficial. However, he is in the forefront in leading the
encapsulation of the project outcomes in power-point presentations and sharing
this with the bosses.
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# 6: The Thinker
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He is a thinker and loves conceptualizing
the process-improvement journey. You put him in any organization and he will
quickly tell you what needs to be done to enhance its performance. However, his
forte is not execution and needs others to deploy what he was conceptualized
. He observes and learns from across industry and successfully able
to customize offerings for his organization.
#7: The Communicator
He is an individual who likes communicating
to all the power of process and what it can do to business performance. He
loves evangelizing and sharing concepts of quality. His forte is collecting
relevant information and disseminating it to all relevant organization.
But clearly deployment, change and engagement are not his cup of tea.
#8: Data Whiz
This is someone who loves data and spends a
lot of time playing with it. You give him any information and he would quickly
analyse for your reference. He is adept in statistical tools, software packages
such as Minitab, JMP etc.
#9: The Systems Thinker
The Systems Thinker is able to quickly
connect the impact of process improvement efforts on the big-picture of the
organization. Being a systems thinker he is able to quickly tell you how an
improvement impacts the other parts of the organization. However, he has
dislike for tactical work and would avoid being a part of it
#10: The Deployment Champ
This is someone who is passionate about
deployment and able to execute projects on time because of solid project
management skills. He gets kick from actions and loves putting out
organizational “fires” through process tools. However, if you tell him to
think, you may be a bit disappointed with the outcomes.
#11: The Advisor
This is an individual who loves to advise
teams on how improvements can be carried out but if you tell him to lead
deployment, you could be disappointed. He believes in arm-chair consulting and
likes being a bystander when deployment gets done. He is willing to take
accountability of results so far as someone else would do the actual work for
him.
#12: Trainer
He likes to build capability of teams and
is passionate about created agents of change who can do process improvements.
He loves training people and gets all charged up when he has to teach a set of
people in a classroom. Out of a classroom he’s like a fish out of water.
#13: The Fixer
The Fixer’s approach to process excellence
is by short-cuts and building opportunistic relationships with people . You
will find him less in process related work and more in finding out about
organizational politics. From his friendly demeanour you will never able to
realize that he has some motives to achieve. Since his process related efforts
are superficial the outcomes that his improvements deliver are most of the
times ineffective.
#14: The Chronicler
The Chronicler loves to study process
excellence pursued by organization or individuals and chronicle
them for others. He studies & researches organizations, practices and
teams; and understands why they are doing what they are doing. He puts his
findings in articles or books for others to read and learn.
#15: The Silent Force
He is a quiet individual who talks less and
wants his results of process improvement do the talking. His knowledge and
ability to deliver results is valued by those around him. Typically his silence
is mistaken for incompetence but when he is in working on a project one can see
a craftsman in action.
Most individuals will have a mix of many of
the above traits but they will tend to fall into one category or another.
Which one are you part of??
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