Process Improvement FAQs

Typically, design teams consist of 6-8 people who have significant experience and expertise in the process being improved. The team’s collective perspective will empower the group to envision a radically improved process to achieve identified performance targets. Additional members may be invited to join the team  during change implementation.

Opportunities for stakeholder feedback exist throughout the change process. The PIT Crew will work with the project lead and/or sponsor to determine how and when they would like to gather stakeholder feedback to inform and guide the project team’s decisions and the change process.

A process improvement project typically takes 6-18 months from start to finish. This timeline will vary depending on the scale of change occurring, whether changes to existing policy are needed and the availability of the project team to prioritize this work alongside other commitments.

Congratulations! You have been identified as having an important perspective on the existing process and a valuable contributor to making improvements. In the Design Conference, you will be asked to help create a flowchart of the existing process, identify opportunities for improvement and to redesign the process to make it more effective and/or efficient. During Implementation Planning, you will be asked to create a detailed plan to implement the new process design. During change implementation, you will be asked to complete tasks to execute the implementation plan.

The full Process Advantage® approach is typically applied to improving existing organizational processes. These are established processes that have been in existence for many years and require collaboration and agreement from multiple departments and/or stakeholders to be changed. 

When a new organizational need arises that cannot be met through an existing process or the changes needing to be made to an existing process are so significant that it is more efficient to design an entirely new process as compared to modifying an existing process, the PIT Crew will apply an expedited approach to help your team develop a new organizational process. Typically, new process creation projects are completed on a faster timeline and implementation accountability support is not needed.

Participation in a process improvement team is voluntary. If your availability is limited, please talk with your project lead about how your time and support would be most strategically applied. Ideally, project team members would participate in both design and change implementation, as it is best for the individuals who create the “new world vision” to lead the efforts to bring it into fruition. Members with limited availability may choose to participate in portions of the project.

If you see opportunities for improvement of processes you do not directly support or manage, please provide that feedback directly to the process manager. Projects must be led by faculty, staff or administrators who have capacity to champion improvement ideas to reality.