Plumbing provides an apt metaphor for the processes of government: Behind the walls and under the floors of government agencies are a complex system of pipes that customers must navigate. These pipes are rarely short and straight. Rather, over time they have become kinked up, twisted, gummed up messes. Resource shortages and growing demand puts extraordinary pressure on the pipes; pressure felt by workers, executives, elected officials, and taxpayers. And in the extreme cases, pipes burst with catastrophic consequences.

So how do we get more capacity? Go faster. At least 80% faster, which is typically what our clients achieve. How can you do the vital work of your organization 80% faster? Straighten the pipes. A short, straight pipe moves water faster than a long, kinked up pipe. If the water moves faster, more water gets through. The most precious resource in government is your people’s capacity to do good. When the people in system, working together with those affected by the system, come together to create a better system, magic happens.

C!A’s team of experienced consultants will work with your people to radically redesign the way you do business – helping you increase your capacity to do more good. We are a recognized leader in Business Process Redesign (BPR), and typical client results includes serving 40% more customers 70% faster, 80% faster processes, 50% improvement in quality, and significant cost savings.

The C!A approach is first to change staff beliefs, and then to help them apply the tools that can radically improve business processes (the steps and procedures that govern how resources are used to accomplish the work). To do this, it is important to:

• Understand which systems are to be improved, allowing us to effectively measure, manage, and improve those systems.
• Focus on the process first, not the people. We cannot make workers go faster, but we can find ways to reduce or combine steps in a process to speed up overall workflow.
• Understand that lasting change is created when the people who work in the process play a major role in the development of improvement opportunities. Only through the people who do the work can we fully capture the complexity of an entire process and use their talents to redesign the system. Such an approach helps ensure recommendations are feasible and fit within an organization’s culture.
• Encourage staff to focus on making customers’ goals their own. This is done by determining what a customer defines as a successful interaction and helping staff understand how that outcome is feasible with a redesigned system and how it can be objectively measured.