Hi there,

Optimizing a process that only involves technology is pretty straightforward. Find the bottlenecks, design the improvements, and release the change. You will instantly see improvements.

But when that process involves people, it gets much more complex. Optimizing a process that involves people requires them to:

1. Unlearn old behaviors
2. Understand the new behaviors
3. Apply the new behaviors at the right time and in the right context

That requires knowledge transfer, retention, and change. And none of that is easy.

Let me tell you two stories that illustrate why consistency and independence are so important to an organization. 

Call Center #1

We worked with one contact center where the agents were extremely independent. They had many agents who had been with the contact center for a very long time. They were responsible for troubleshooting medical devices remotely and were each an expert at their job.

But, the way they approached their job was completely inconsistent. While they each knew the systems they supported very well, they each had different techniques for troubleshooting various problems.

With each employee using a different approach to troubleshoot the issues, it was extremely difficult to train new agents and impossible to optimize the troubleshooting process. New hires trying to learn how to troubleshoot a problem might be told 20 different things depending on which senior agent they asked.

How can you optimize something that everyone does differently?

Call Center #2

A second contact center we worked with had high levels of consistency, but almost no independence.

Most agents weren't sure how to handle more complex situations so they would bring supervisors in to help on calls. The outcomes of the calls were very consistent since the supervisor was always helping, but the agents were not capable of working independently.

Both organizations were stuck.

Until you have both consistency and independence you can't improve the efficiency of the organization.

What were their results?

The first contact center lacked consistency. When they approached the problem from a knowledge operations perspective, they saw big improvements. They created digital troubleshooting guides that every agent was required to follow. For the first time, agents were consistent in how they solved problems.

Once they had achieved that consistency they could then start optimizing the process. They adjusted the order of their questions, added steps to rule out problems they hadn't caught previously, and continually iterated until the process improved.

At the same time, they were able to consistently apply best practices for their shipping process.

The result? They saved $2.3 million by reducing the number of units returned and improving compliance with shipping processes that generated the lowest cost. The agents were already working independently, but until they achieved consistency they couldn't optimize.

The second contact center had consistency but lacked independence. The supervisors were overwhelmed and burned out. They designed digital guides that allowed all agents to match that same level of consistency, but to be able to do it without the assistance of the supervisor. They were able to work independently.

They were in a rapid scaling mode. With this newly achieved independence and consistency, they were able to grow their contact center by 50% without crushing the existing supervisors. 

Give Your Employees the Tools to Be Consistent and Independent

You probably have areas of your business that you need to make more efficient. But remember the improvements don't happen on a Visio diagram. That is where planning happens. Improvements happen when employees take actions that match a more efficient process. That change can only happen once employees can perform both consistently and independently.

As you are trying to optimize or scale up your operations, ask yourself:

• Can my employees work independently?
• Do they perform consistently?

If the answer to either of those questions is not a resounding yes, then apply the principles of knowledge operations to help achieve that independence and consistency. 

Once your employees can work consistently and independently, you will be in the position to:

1. Rapidly iterate to improve the efficiency or a process, or
2. Rapidly scale up your team as you expand

Tip: Start Applying the Principle of Knowledge Operations

1. Do a detailed analysis of the activities your employees need to perform (tasks to complete, questions to answer, problems to solve)
   
   
2. Create digital guides for those activities that they can find and follow
   
   
3. Train them to use those guides until they can work independently and consistently

Talk soon,

Greg