Introduction
By it’s very nature, a business change programme has to be a long-term commitment in order to be successful. In his seminal book Out Of The Crisis, management and quality guru W. Edward Deming said: “Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the fainthearted, and the people that expect quick results, are doomed to disappointment.”
This is true of any improvement programme that incorporates elements of quality assurance, continuous process improvement, Six Sigma, Lean, TQM, BPM, etc. Operational excellence is a journey, and any journey is made easier if there is a roadmap and a way of finding out exactly where you are on that map. Each individual improvement programme will have their own unique roadmap: the framework or strategy they are following, be it Six Sigma, Lean, TQM, Kaizen or elements of each and more besides. In order to find out where they are in relation to others and therefore truly judge the success, stability and growth of the programme, the organisation should look to measure the “maturity” of its programme. As James Harrington in The Improvement Process put it: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”
But what exactly is “maturity”? How can you measure it? How can it be correlated between different organisations? What are the benefits of going through this process? And how can they be applied within the business in order to further the business goals?
Defining maturity
Maturity relates to development and growth, from an initial state to an advanced state, with various implicit stages in-between that need to be travelled through in order to reach the advanced state. In the context of business change/improvement, the initial state would be the implementation of the programme, and the advanced state one where the strategies of the programme have been fully adopted and integrated into the organisation on an ongoing and robust way.
Mapping the cycle of maturity provides a framework enabling an organisation to gauge the health of its programme by providing a point of reference for its current state, and then consequently guide the future direction of the programme by setting and prioritising goals, aligning functions and projects, and setting a method for future appraisal. This is the Maturity Model. It gives the leadership a method of measuring and reviewing the progress of an improvement programme.
A Maturity Model is usually created based on benchmarking research carried out with various companies. It seeks to answer two vital questions: Why do some improvement initiatives succeed, while others fail? What is it that successful programmes do differently? Consequently, the correct utilisation of a maturity model can help greatly in ensuring that an improvement programme is on the right path to success.
The basis of a maturity model
There have been many different maturity models for business change management, operational excellence and process improvement. Although they differ in various ways, they all set out to define the stages, process areas, constituents and levels of maturity with descriptions of the characteristics and behaviour that typify these stages. In doing so, they offer the opportunity to identify best practice and guard against bad practice.
Typically, the model will comprise of:
- A definition of the number of levels that make up the maturity journey.
- A name for each level.
- A summary of the characteristics for each level.
- An indication of what the programme should focus on during each level.
- A method for ascertaining placement within the model.
An example of a maturity model
One of the best known Maturity Models, and the basis for a large proportion of the models that have come since, is the Quality Management Maturity Grid (QMMG) devised by Philip B. Crosby in his book Quality is Free, published in 1979. Crosby was a quality engineer and author who advocated and implemented quality programmes based on “zero defects” within the production process. He later broadened his ideas into quality management theory.
Crosby’s original QMMG suggested that the journey to quality management excellence involved five phases: Uncertainty, Awakening, Enlightenment, Wisdom, and Certainty:
| Stage |
Typical Attitude
|
| Ignorance |
“We don’t have problems with usability” |
| Uncertainty |
“We don’t know why we have problems with usability” |
| Awakening |
“Do we always have to have these problems with usability?” |
| Enlightenment |
“Through management commitment and improvement of human-centred processes we are identifying and resolving our problems” |
| Wisdom |
“Usability defect prevention is a routine part of our operation”
|
Below is a typical example of Crosby’s QMMG (click to enlarge):
Other well-known Maturity Models
The benefits of using a Maturity Model
An effective Maturity Model helps to:
- Map current capabilities
- Create a baseline for measuring improvement
- Document the need for change
- Provide a common language
- Foster a culture of excellence
- Set the stage for organisational change
- Give top leadership insight into day- to-day practices
- Help make informed decisions on workforce development&training
- Focus attention on specific capabilities to be retained
- Decide what new initiatives need to be developed or launched
- Communicate to suppliers and customers the development of the organisation
Moving to the next stage of maturity
There are of course differences between the various models. Some models focus on specific changes which the organisation can look at introducing in order to ensure a continual increase in performance. Other models seek to improve the business process realisation (for example, the introduction of information technology), but not necessarily the way the processes are managed. However, one commonality between the models is that a large proportion of them show the journey for business improvement beginning with the initial stages of the management of business processes as focusing on the processes themselves and/or costs. The more mature a programme becomes, the more it tends to involves aligning with the business strategy and goals.
Thus, the focus of the programme during each stage of maturity will necessarily need to be different. This is in itself a part of becoming mature: the programme becomes self-sufficient, driven top-down AND bottom-up, it grows throughout the organisation, and becomes an integral part of the overall strategy of the business.
At the last Community Network Meeting hosted by i&i Members, the improvementandinnovation.com private network of practice, the theory was put forward that the maturity journey does not follow a smooth upward curve. Instead, it is in fact a series of inter-connecting “S” curves, where towards the end of each stage of maturity, there is a tail-off in the business benefits delivered by the programme (see diagram below).
It is at this point that the programme needs to shift its focus to that of the next stage of maturity in order to maintain its momentum, continue delivering business benefits, and of course move the programme along the maturity cycle. Knowing when to change the focus is, however, a difficult proposition for most change leaders.
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More information:
Understanding common issues relating to the maturity of your programme, and using that knowledge to increase capability, gain greater efficiencies and reduce costs, will be the subject of the next i&i Members Community Network Meeting. Taking place on the 20th May at the Charing Cross Hotel in London, the meeting will bring together professionals representing programmes from all stages of maturity for collaboration, benchmarking, knowledge sharing and learning. There are limited number of guest passes available for executives and programme leaders. To request an invite, please phone David Hopkins on +44 (0) 20 3355 3654 or email him at david.hopkins@imandin.com. Alternatively, for more information, click here.
References:
Fraser, P., Moultrie, J. and Gregory, M. The use of maturity models / grids as a tool in assessing product development capability, IEEE International Engineering Management Conference, Cambridge, 19-20 August 2002
Rosemann M., de Bruin T., “Application of a Holistic Model for Determining BPM Maturity“, A BPTrends Column, February, 2005
Harmon P., “Governance and Maturity”, Business Process Trends, Vol. 1, No. 7, Jul, 2008
http://www.philipcrosby.com/
