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The Art and Science of Problem Solving in Business Process Management
Have you ever watched a seemingly simple business process crumble under its own complexity? Perhaps it was an approval workflow that should take hours but stretches into weeks, or a customer onboarding journey that leaves new clients frustrated rather than delighted. In the past decade (2013) of working with organizations to optimize their operations, I’ve found that effective problem-solving in Business Process Management (BPM) requires both Analytical rigor and Creative thinking. The challenge isn’t usually identifying that something is wrong~ the symptoms are typically obvious to everyone involved. The real difficulty lies in diagnosing the true causes and implementing sustainable solutions. Let me share eight powerful approaches that have consistently helped my teams transform broken processes into models of efficiency. Choosing the Right Problem-Solving Approach Each of these methodologies offers unique strengths for different process challenges. In practice, I often find that combining approaches yields the best results: 1) Root Cause Analysis helps understand the fundamental problem before jumping to solutions. 2) Value Stream Mapping provides the big-picture view needed to avoid sub-optimization. 3) Lean Six Sigma offers the statistical rigor to verify improvements in critical processes. 4) Business Process Reengineering creates breakthrough opportunities when incremental change isn’t enough. 5) Theory of Constraints focuses efforts where they’ll have the greatest impact. 6) Agile principles ensure processes remain responsive to changing needs. 7) PDCA builds continuous improvement into the organizational culture. 8) RPA and AI deliver transformative potential for suitable processes. The most successful organizations I’ve worked with don’t become dogmatic about methodology. Instead, they develop proficiency across multiple approaches and select the right tool — or combination of tools — for each specific challenge. What works for you?
Have you ever watched a seemingly simple business process crumble under its own complexity? Perhaps it was an approval workflow that should take hours but stretches into weeks, or a customer onboarding journey that leaves new clients frustrated rather than delighted. In the past decade (2013) of working with organizations to optimize their operations, I’ve found that effective problem-solving in Business Process Management (BPM) requires both Analytical rigor and Creative thinking.
The challenge isn’t usually identifying that something is wrong~ the symptoms are typically obvious to everyone involved. The real difficulty lies in diagnosing the true causes and implementing sustainable solutions. Let me share eight powerful approaches that have consistently helped my teams transform broken processes into models of efficiency.
Choosing the Right Problem-Solving Approach
Each of these methodologies offers unique strengths for different process challenges. In practice, I often find that combining approaches yields the best results:
1) Root Cause Analysis helps understand the fundamental problem before jumping to solutions.
2) Value Stream Mapping provides the big-picture view needed to avoid sub-optimization.
3) Lean Six Sigma offers the statistical rigor to verify improvements in critical processes.
4) Business Process Reengineering creates breakthrough opportunities when incremental change isn’t enough.
5) Theory of Constraints focuses efforts where they’ll have the greatest impact.
6) Agile principles ensure processes remain responsive to changing needs.
7) PDCA builds continuous improvement into the organizational culture.
8) RPA and AI deliver transformative potential for suitable processes.
The most successful organizations I’ve worked with don’t become dogmatic about methodology. Instead, they develop proficiency across multiple approaches and select the right tool — or combination of tools — for each specific challenge.
What works for you?
