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Empower resources

Empower workers for more decision-making authority

Give workers most of the decision-making authority instead of relying on middle management

Reijers, H., & Liman Mansar, S. (2005). Best practices in business process redesign: an overview and qualitative evaluation of successful redesign heuristics. Omega, 33(4)

Description

In conventional processes, significant time is used to approve others' work. Granting employees autonomy can lead to streamlined operations and quicker workflows.

Example

To streamline the insurance claim process, resources are empowered to make decisions in place of middle management, reducing approval bottlenecks.

Implementation

To empower resources, gather information about their capability, productivity, collaboration, and utilisation. Based on this information, identify resources capable of making decisions and provide them with the necessary authority. Communicate the reasons behind the decision to empower resources and the expectations and constraints associated with the decision-making authority.

Performance considerations

However, this approach might yield lower decision quality and miss obvious errors. When mistakes demand rework, costs may surpass the initial setup.

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Foundational free Patterns

Automate activities

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Apply Integral technology

Elevate physical constraints by applying new technology

Establish standardized interfaces

Consider a standardized interface with customers and partners

Resequence activities

Move activities to more appropriate places

Specialist-generalist

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Split responsibilities

Avoid shared responsibilities for tasks by people from different functional units

Expertise-based task assignment

Match tasks to experts' specialized skills for efficiency

Task delegation

Reassign tasks along the organisational hierarchy

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Connected to

First-contact problem resolution

Establish a one-contact resolution for customer issues

Deploy extra resources

If capacity is insufficient, consider increasing the available number of resources

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