ɯoʇʇoq oʇ doʇ puɐ ʇɥƃıɹ oʇ ʇɟǝl ʇou sı plɹoʍ ǝɥʇ

There is a saying that the map is not the territory. And yet so many treat their representation of the world as fact and reality. When you draw a process and agree with others that is how it looks just because you may all agree doesn’t make it real. It is just a collective hallucination. It is an abstract of reality. Does your world always flow top to bottom and left to right, or is it more real than that?

Getting the attention you deserve (it is a process about process)

Looking Outside-In

The BP Group is 20 years old in September. Over the last two decades people who have participated in our training and consultancy and have captured some of my comments. There are over 200, many clearly inspired by my heroes ‘giants’ in business and life. The list here are the ones most often referred back to me 🙂

How much do you need to know, to know you know, you know enough?

The Customer Experience is the process (Steve Jobs)

If things are changing faster outside than in, you will fail.

You don’t have a choice about where to start. You can only start where you are now!

Are you aligned to Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO’s)? Or are you just moving the chairs on the deck of the Titanic?

If you do not know who your customer is you do not know what you are doing.

Stop managing and measuring outputs. Start managing Customer Expectations and measuring the SCO.

Can your people clearly articulate their contribution to the SCO?

This is a once in a 600 year thing. The invention of the printing press (1436) and now Outside-In (1997).

Does your technology help with the SCO? If it doesn’t scrap it!

Technology is the emans to the end, not the end in itself. It is just the same with pen and paper.

To link process with performance we need to rethink what we mean by performance.

We shouldn’t keep looking back at the past to define the possibilities for the future.

Does your process start and end with the customer? If it doesn’t you are fixing the wrong thing.

Someone said the Chinese are coming. They are wrong. The Chinese have been and gone. This is what you are left with as a consequence!

Moving Outside-In isn’t a choice. It is a pre-requisite for success in the 21st century.

Are you measuring Activities and Tasks (Inside-Out), or Outputs and SCO’s (Outside-In)?

The only reason a process exists to is to help achieve a Successful Customer Outcome.

Can you connect every single task with the Successful Customer Outcome?

Who pays your salary? Yes it is the Customer.

Check your companys reports. How often is the customer mentioned? If they are not it shouldn’t surprise you that the business is failing.

If you aren’t managing Customer Outcomes you aren’t managing the most aspect of your business.

Look beyond the Output. How does it contribute to the Customer Outcome? If it doesn’t stop producing it.

The customer is not my job? Get Real. The customer is everyones job!

Evolving Outside-In is not a destination. It is a journey.

The process map is not real. It is a collective hallucination.

New www.bpgroup. org features FIVE Outside-In Blogs

The BPGroups new website now features five blogs from leading thinkers and CPP Masters in the field of Enterprise BPM & Outside-In.

To visit the blogs: click http://www.bpgroup.org/blogs.html and review the drop down menu -enjoy!

Successful Customer Outcomes
Steve Towers – 160 articles on the theme of Outside-In

BP Community
the original BPM community – Events, Resources, community & Links

Outside-In from Janne Ohtonen
Words from the wise from the author of OIDash

The Process Ninja
Craig Reid Scottish through and through however now from down-under

OutsideIn Service Management
Ian Clayton shows us the way with Service Management

If you recognise a good Outside-In location let us know: rachel.smith@bpgroup.org

Recommended Upcoming Conferences for the 2012 diary

BPGROUP CONFERENCE IN ASSOCIATION WITH IQPC – PEX 2012 USA
Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA – January 16-19, 2012: http://bit.ly/PEX2012
PROCESS EXCELLENCE WEEK – PEX 2012 SOUTH AFRICA
Achieving the ‘Triple Crown’ – increasing revenue, improving the customer experience and reducing costs
Cape Town, South Africa – February 20-24, 2012: http://bit.ly/SouthAfricaProcessExcellence

CUSTOMER CENTRICITY AND PROCESS ORIENTATION with Marcus Evans
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – March 19-21, 2012 : http://bit.ly/BPMandCustomerCentricity

BPM SUMMIT 2012 – IT WEB ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Johannesburg, South Africa – April 17-18 : http://bit.ly/SouthAfricaBPM

BPGROUP CONFERENCE IN ASSOCIATION WITH IQPC – PEX 2012 Europe

London, England – April 23-27, 2012 : http://bit.ly/PEX2012_London 

Time Management with less than 365 days to go to Armageddon

…or that is what the Mayan’s say. The big day is 21 December 2012. Whether we experience the apocalypse, or it is just another dull day before Christmas? remains to be seen. Meanwhile we had better make use of the time in hand 😉

With that in mind I have turned my attention to a genius of time management, managing conflicting interests and on the whole being hugely successful at such a young age…. James Dodkins. Here are his tips for pre Armageddon (and tuning in to deliver that project success).

Thanks James….

Sort your life with this formula, agree with yourself at bedtime and Kazam…


A-E formula
A – High Priority
B – Mid Priority
C – Low priority
D – Delegate
E – Eliminate
Happy 2012 😉

Work is changing… are you?

Consider the changes and their impact on how we do what we do.
Is your organisation segregated into functional specialisms (ala the Scottish pin factory) or has it embraced the challenges of the 21st century and realigned Outside-In and put the customer at the centre of everything you do?
If you are still wandering WHY have a look at this excellent presentation… 
The Future Of Work