Failing Fast / Forward in Operations Process Design

How your organization solves problems should be a fluid concept and ever evolving. As new ideas / processes and technology emerge, they should be enabling you to solve problems for your customers faster. Do not be afraid of this pace of change, and more importantly: do not be afraid to fail when trying new methods or approaches.

Never stop learning about how others are solving their problems. Implement changes often as you see fit to help your support organization be more efficient. If they do not work, rollback and try something else without fear of failure.

Culture of Change

While it can feel safe and easier to keep processes the way they are, you must continue to innovate to provide the same levels of support as your competition. Continually evolving the process of how you solve problems will let people know how things work are not static. This might encourage new ideas as people understand that change is possible, and they can contribute their ideas.

Continuing Education

People are innovating daily in how they solve problems for their organizations and sharing this knowledge. Keep abreast of what others are doing in your industry. Encourage peers to be learning what they can about the process and suggesting improvements as they learn about them. Not only does this help your ability to solve problems more efficiently and quickly but is helpful in the long term for everyones careers.

Do not be Afraid of Failure and Risk

Not all changes and improvements work as intended once rolled out, accepting a failure can be difficult for the ego. In a culture of constant change, trying new ideas, processes, and tools out which do not end up working is not considered a negative outcome. Look at what you learned about what does not work? Use that knowledge to approve upon your approach for the next improvement you want to make.

Account for Risks

You should consider the level of risk with each change and have a rollback plan if there is significant impact to operations if you do have a failure. Not everything will go according to plan. To gain confidence from your peers in this constant change philosophy, make sure they know when the change will happen, what to expect and what will happen in a rollback scenario.