Workarounds: A source of process innovation

Recently I was asked to baseline an accounts payable process for a mid-sized manufacturing company in the South East United States. When I went to interview a key player in the process he wasn't there. In fact he wasn't on site. He was down the street at a local coffee shop "holding court" with other members of the Acounts Payable office.

I joined them with my standard macchiato and asked them to describe their work to me. They started by saying they were exceeding their stated process metrics but were doing it in one fifth the time they were alotted. Basically, they had determined a way to reduced the cycle time in their process while maintaining the quality standard set for them so they were using the extra time for themselves.

I was perplexed by my position; on the one hand this was a Six Sigma triumph, on the other hand there was an ethical issue lurking here.

I decided to suggest that this was the kind of effort needed by the company (looking to reduce costs and refocus resources on organic growth) and if the Accounts Payable team would like to form a "Workaround Innovation Team", looking for other opportunities to reduce costs and cycle time in other processes around the company. They were hesitant, but realized they were "found out" and had to regroup. They took on the role and now the company has embedded a "Workaround Innovation" aspect to their innovation process and have developed rewards for such efforts.

There is gold in workarounds. The key is finding a way to surface them. A few key points:
1. Reward workarounds surfaced
2. Set standards and criteria for workaround results
2. Make the work of Workaround integral to business management
3. Keep the Workaround work fun
4. Support the effort with a focused team

Once you start rewarding, the workarounds will surface; in fact, folks will begin to develop new workarounds which will lead to further process improvement.

Workarounds exist. Use them to your advantage.