Dear Bob ... About a year ago I was brought in to clean up a mess. It's an IT department with a staff of 150, and their work has been, to be charitable, slipshod. I've been trying to institute a process improvement program, but it's been like pulling teeth. We brought in consultants to teach the staff how to design processes, and went through the exercise of documenting what we do. If I'm personally there watch Dear Bob …About a year ago I was brought in to clean up a mess. It’s an IT department with a staff of 150, and their work has been, to be charitable, slipshod.I’ve been trying to institute a process improvement program, but it’s been like pulling teeth. We brought in consultants to teach the staff how to design processes, and went through the exercise of documenting what we do. If I’m personally there watching, people follow the documentation. Otherwise, so far as I can tell, they make it up as they go along. My direct reports are obviously part of the problem, too – they aren’t willing to enforce the process discipline. I’m about ready to fire them all and start over. Before I do, I wanted to know if you had a better idea – like maybe just shooting them?– UnprocessedDear Unprocessed … Now don’t go shooting anyone. HR gets kind of testy when executives go around doing things like that. Besides, for all you know the next batch you bring in won’t be any better.You might have to terminate one or more of these people, but before you do, I want you to change metaphors. Are you really pulling teeth, or are you, as George Burns (or maybe it was Bob Dole) said in a different context, trying to play pool with a rope?The starting point for most business changes is to redesign the processes, which you’ve done. The starting point for implementing just about every business change is to redesign the culture, and put into place a culture change program. In this case, you need to establish a process culture in IT. It isn’t an easy thing to do, but without it you’ll never get to where you want to go. Advice Line doesn’t provide enough space (or compensation!) for me to detail all the fine points of how to go about implementing culture change. Here’s enough to get you going, though:1. Characterize the culture you want to change as a situation/response statement: “When employees are faced with x, they do y.”2. Characterize the culture you want to see in the same terms. 3. Ask yourself and your direct reports what you might be doing, and what in your systems and incentives, might be encouraging the current culture.4. Ask yourself and your direct reports what different behavior on your parts will lead employees to start acting in accord with the culture change.I knew one CIO who, with all the best of intentions, set things up so his department was supposed to follow strong processes, and if anyone in the business wanted to bypass those processes, they had to work directly with him. Once he recognized that he was the problem he redefined his role so that when anyone in the business wasn’t getting what they needed from IS, he helped them get it by working through the defined processes, instead of helping them around the defined processes.One other thought: Are you pushing process as a panacea – the answer to everything? If so, you’re probably making a mistake. The best way to encourage strong process and a process culture is to focus on those few things people do repeatedly, and show how following and continuously improving a standard process will make it easier to get things done.Like so many business changes, part of the key is remembering that people do what they perceive to be in their own best interests. And that’s a good thing – it gives you a clear place to start your efforts. – Bob ——– Technology Industry