Authored by George Zack, President Two Harbors Consulting
– As we have set for the question, “can the frameworks you utilize for business process improvement be leveraged for your personal life,” we will now start to explore that in detail. In this series of posts, I will work through each of the elements of a what the Capability Maturity Model (CMMI) considers a managed or defined process. The goal of this series is to provoke thought how the elements of such generic practices are not only applicable to business, but can have bearing on your personal life. By tying these practices to you personally, I believe it will drive a greater understanding in how they are to be applied in the business setting.
The fifth generic practice is “train people.” The model tells us “the purpose of this practice is to ensure that people have the necessary skills and expertise to perform or support the process.”
In the business setting, we are going to have development or service oriented processes defined by which we train people on. That training might come in a variety of forms: classroom, internet based, mentoring, meeting overviews, etc. In that setting we want to be sure that the people performing the work are familiar with the processes, procedures, and work instructions so the work is performed correctly and according to the defined process and in an efficient manner.
So what does that mean in a personal endeavor like getting fit to run a 10k, get a higher professional degree, engage a social outreach group or even eat healthier? Here to, training or knowledge of the process needs to be considered so that it is performed correctly and efficiently. You need knowledge of how to go about training for that 10k so you know how to balance harder training days against easier ones, to know what sort of workouts to do on the different training days, how to recover and how to train in different weather conditions. When pursuing that higher degree you need training and understanding of the educational infrastructure you are engaged with so you know what classes to take, how to access the instructors, what the class expectations are, and what you need to do to get the degree. Eating healthier? You need to understand what the health needs and concerns you have and be educated in that. A diet shift for a middle aged diabetic may be very different than that of a high school aged football player training for strength.
All of these tie back to the previously considered generic practices. Are you trained to what the vision is of your personal endeavor (what is your policy or generic practice 2.1)? What is the plan to achieve that vision (generic practice 2.2)? What resources will you leverage to assure success (generic practice 2.3)? Who is assigned the responsibility to get this done (generic practice 2.4)? As we go through the remainder of the managed generic practices you will also see how these also need to be considered in training.
In a personal endeavor, it may seem that this practice can be treated informally or with little rigor. Consider the consequences of that however. Not being educated on how you are to pursue your goal is likely to result in time wasted, money misspent and not reaching your objective at all. Consider this in business as well. If we don’t provide the knowledge tools for people to appropriately perform work and at expected quality levels, the outcomes of rework, poor quality, waste, long wait times, dissatisfied customers, poor reviews, and similar should be expected. It is applicable for us as individuals as well.
What training have you provided yourself for your personal endeavor? Was it adequate? What would have done differently in that regard?
