I’d like to share a recent LABP success story with you!
In the Haslam College of Business, nearly every financial and HR process begins and ends in the Financial Information Office (FIO). Brittany Permaul, Director of Finance and Administration, knows that her team’s efficiency sets the tone for the whole organization—and that inefficient processes can easily amplify as they pass from department to department.
“We provide the framework that our stakeholders use to accomplish their goals,” Permaul says. “Once a process goes outside our college, we lose control over it. While it’s still in our purview, our goal is to keep things as streamlined as possible and set the stage for a good outcome—otherwise the train can get off the track really fast.”
That’s why she brought a team of 14 staff members to my Lean Applied to Business Processes course, after she heard that it was a great team-building experience—and an effective way to ensure everyone was speaking the same language.
“I like to read about efficiency strategies, and I’d put quite a number of tools into practice in our department already,” Permaul says. “But this was a way to put a formal name on them, to give them definition and structure, and to get people thinking about these concepts together, as a team.”
Streamlining Top to Bottom
A single contract can generate a significant amount of entropy. One of the tools FIO implemented before the team participated in LABP was a contracts electronic workflow. Previously, contract details had been ironed out by email before they were submitted for processing.
“My team would receive contracts that were missing forms or had questions that needed answers,” Permaul says, “and there might be a dozen emails back and forth to get that information, so two or three days would go by. We decided to implement a workflow that functions as a contract request system, which asks for everything we need from the requester at the outset. If someone uses the form effectively, contract submission is nearly instantaneous, and the contract enters campus processing within one business day.”
Permaul and her team used their week in LABP to spot similar opportunities to shore up and simplify processes—to improve the portion of each that was under their control.
During that week, I helped them develop a strategic alignment framework using a SIPOC table (Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, Outputs, Customers) and a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), which helped them outline a cascading set of duties for each level of the department. Using root-cause analysis, they also examined their processes for signs of unnecessary work or because-we’ve-always-done-it-this-way habits.
From there, they chose new tools to help them carry out their mission of focus and efficiency:
- Internal customer surveys to generate feedback that would shape improvements
- Weekly team huddles
- Visual management via work-in-process (WIP) boards and single-text negotiation
- Checklists for routine tasks to reduce variation
Discovering the Magic of the WIP Board
“I had not heard of WIP boards before I came to LABP,” Permaul says. “We did the class in January, when I’d just bought a brand-new planner for the year for my to-do lists and resolutions. But since I started using the WIP board, I haven’t even used that planner.”
WIP boards—designed to show which items are on deck, which are in process, and which have been completed—help Permaul manage complex projects by providing instant feedback on whether something is in her control or waiting on someone else. “It helps me prioritize and focus,” she says. “Every member of FIO uses WIP boards now, and they not only drive our day-to-day accomplishments, but they determine the priorities discussed in our weekly huddles.”
Weekly 20-minute check-ins have made communication far more effective and efficient. “I do one weekly huddle with each of my team areas—HR, contracts, Graduate and Executive Education, and so on,” Permaul says. “I get more dedicated face-to-face time with all team members, not just my direct reports, which has reduced emails and the need for separate meetings. It’s been very beneficial, and I enjoy it.”
Carrying Out the Action Plan
The team set a goal of having each member achieve a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt. Yellow Belt certification equips each staffer to contribute meaningfully to process improvement—and serves as a foundation for departmental culture. “Everyone has a knowledge of the concepts and tools,” Permaul says, “but they also have a shared sense of buy-in. A shared perspective.”
That goal became a reality by the end of the fiscal year—within six months of the team completing LABP. Now, Yellow Belts in hand, the department is evaluating proposals to level up to a project-based Green Belt, which they plan to earn across each team area.
Their learnings have helped them take on recent challenges, such as fiscal policy changes that introduced new steps into campus event planning. By studying the policies and implementation and creating an internal workflow, they were able to keep their own processes lean and clearly communicate requirements to the Controller’s Office and Central Contracts Office, which are the next two links in the chain. This allowed the Haslam College of Business to resume scheduling events and collecting registration fees without missing a beat.
“Process improvement has become how we operate and who we are,” Permaul says. “I’m constantly challenging the team to ask why we do something the way we do, and how we might think about it differently. My team has stepped up in numerous ways—it’s been great to watch them embrace the tools that personally work best for them and use them in service of a shared goal.”