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      KEYZINE: An e-zine for LEADERS:
     ABOUT THE PEOPLE PART OF BUSINESS
                 Volume 50, May 2005
    Publisher: © Key Associates, 2005
              ISSN # 1545-8873
           http://www.mkkey.com

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This Issue: "Pictures of Processes"

This is a monthly electronic magazine for anyone 
who wants to be a better leader, coach, facilitator, 
or simply, to tune up their people skills.  It is a 
complimentary publication, devoted to the next
evolution of Quality Thinking.

View Earlier Issues --See our new Website (http://www.mkkey.com) 

Contents:

• What's Hot in Leadership
• Maintaining Yourself as a Leader
• Frequently Asked Questions from Leaders
• Educational Opportunities
• Useful Websites
• Articles/Publications

"If you do not know how to describe what you are 
doing as a process, you do not know what you are doing. "
           -- W. Edwards Deming

"There are as many different versions of a process, 
as there are authors of the flowchart."
           -- M. K. Key

"We should work on our processes, not the outcome of our processes..“
           -- W. Edwards Deming

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WHAT'S HOT IN LEADERSHIP
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VIEWING WORK AS PROCESS.

LOOKING FOR PROCESS FLAWS, BEFORE
BLAMING PEOPLE.

MODELING CUSTOMER-MINDEDNESS 
AND WISE STEWARDSHIP OF RESOURCES.

SEEKING TO REMOVE WASTE AND NON-
VALUE-ADDING ACTIVITY, IN ORDER TO 
STREAMLINE AND MAKE EFFICIENCY.

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MAINTAINING YOURSELF AS A LEADER
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As leaders, we are great inspectors.  People bring us 
numbers, problems, and outcomes to analyze and affix 
causation (sometimes "fault"), therefore remedy.  
We inspect, with the aim of finding the bad causes 
and eliminating them.  This is too late, ineffective, 
and costly.  You cannot inspect quality into a process.  
As Dr. Deming said, "Quality comes not from inspection 
but from improvement of the process."

We must view our work as process, designed to delight 
customers.  And the best way to examine a process 
is to draw a picture of it--i.e., flowchart.  (Many people 
have incorporated flowcharts as job descriptions and 
as depictions of policies and procedures.)

Begin by examining your own processes and customers,
with mind to making your work serve those who 
depend on you for their work.  You are not the judge;
you are an integral part of a system, composed of 
multitudes of processes.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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"How do you begin finding processes to work on?"

Ask the customers.  Employees know.  Lift the ban 
on discussing "sacred cows," and ask which processes 
are cumbersome, known displeasers, full of 
Complexity, Redundancy, Unnecessary Steps, 
and Delays (CRUD™). 

"If the customer is the judge of quality of processes, 
how do we access what the customers observe?"

Don Berwick of IHI has described this as "The Walk 
of Shame."  The Picker Institute has also done a film 
called "Through the Patient's Eyes."  Be a customer 
of your business (mystery shopper).  Or accompany a 
customer, as they march through the process, counting 
the number of people they meet, the number of hand-offs, 
the times information is repeated,  the delays and 
waiting intervals, the hassles and inconveniences--
called a "process walk-through."