White Space Revisited

When Improving Performance: Managing the White Space on the Organization Chart was published in 1990, it was lauded as the book that launched the Process Improvement revolution. This was the book that first detailed an approach that bridged the gaps between organization strategy, work processes and individual performance. Two decades later, White Space Revisited goes beyond a mere revision of that groundbreaking book and refocuses on the ultimate purpose of organizations, which is to create and sustain value.This book picks up where Improving Performance left off and shares what we have learned about process in the past 15 years since it was published and how the reader (primarily practitioners) can capitalize on these notions in their own pursuit of process excellence. White Space Revisited is a comprehensive resource that offers process and performance professionals a conceptual foundation, a thorough and proven methodology, a set of remarkable working tools for doing process work in a more significant way, and a series of candid observations about the practice of Business Process Management (BPM). The book’s time-tested methods, models, tools, and guidelines serve to align people, process, and technology White Space Revisited includes information on a wealth of vital topics and Describes the difference in impact of focusing on single processes vs. large scale improvements Provides an integrated step-by-step blueprint for designing, implementing, and sustaining process management Offers a detailed methodology for strategic and tactical process definition and improvement Spells out how to leverage the power of IT to optimize organizational performance Shows how to integrate the energy and value of Six Sigma, Process Improvement and Process Management into an effective Process Excellence Group

List of Figures and Tables ix Foreword by Paul Harmon xiii Preface by Geary A. Rummler xvii Acknowledgments xix About the Authors xxi Introduction 1 PART ONE White Space Revisited 5 1 The Silver Anniversary of Process 7 2 Process in a Value Perspective 23 3 The Value Creation Hierarchy 39 4 Developing the Value Creation Architecture of a Business 77 5 Process Management in the Value Creation Context 97 PART TWO Designing or Improving the Value Machine 117 6 A Framework and Methodology for VCS Design 119 7 RPM Project Walk-Through: Align, Analysis, Design 141 8 RPM Project Walk-Through: Commit, Build, Enable, Adopt 177 9 Other RPM Applications 187 10 Designing Improvement Capability 199 PART THREE Implications 209 11 Process and the IT Department 211 12 Summary 229 Afterword 235 List of Acronyms 237 Notes 239 Index 245 About Performance Design Lab 251