[The following article appears on page 3 of the February 1993
edition of _Public_Sector_Quality_Report_.]

                      REENGINEERING DOS AND DON'TS

     If your organization is in the midst of--or is considering--
a process redesign effort on a scale similar to that described
above [that is, in the article contained in MNREENG.ZIP], you
might heed these words of advice and caution from R. Gregory
Tschida, project manager-reengineering for the Minnesota
Department of Revenue.

     ù Set "stretch" goals.

     In other words, shoot for the sky at the start, then find
acceptable "ceilings" as you go.

     Tschida says one of his department's original goals was to
have 90 percent of sales tax customers filing electronically by
1995. Closer study showed that many were not capable of or
interested in electronic filing. The goal was revised to "have
the capability for 90 percent of customers to file
electronically," either by phone, fax, or electronic
transmission.

     ù Develop and manage to firm targets. 

     Otherwise, Tschida says, a massive reengineering effort can
quickly lose focus and wander.

     ù Beware "scope creep." 

     As reengineering fever sweeps an organization, people are
quick to want to apply the same principles to other processes or
systems.

     "It wasn't long before our people wanted to expand the deal
to payroll withholding tax, corporate tax, etc.," says Tschida.
"We had enough to do just trying to keep it narrow."

     ù Prepare for the FUD factor. 

     Tschida says fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) inevitably
crop up when employees aren't sure where they'll be sitting next
week, or even if they'll have a desk at which to sit. By the same
token, many employees are afraid of the new styles of thinking
and working that go with reengineering.

     He says communication, understanding, and encouragement--
particularly from the executive level managers--is essential in
helping people work through unavoidable anxieties.

     ù Add "yeast" to your recipe. 

     As employee teams go about analyzing and redesigning
internal processes, it helps to have outsiders (people from other
work groups in the department, other departments in the
government, even from outside government entirely) involved. "I
call them 'yeast,'" Tschida says. "They're great because they'll
sit there and say, 'Why do you do it that way?'"

     ù Move ahead in parallel. 

     To make meaningful progress, individual planning and
implementation steps within an overall reengineering effort must
occur simultaneously, not sequentially. "Reengineering makes you
do it all at one time," Tschida says. "You can't say, 'First I'm
going to redesign the jobs, then we'll rework the processes.'
They're all interrelated."

     ù Plan-Do-Check-Act...but mostly Act. 

     Because so many changes are being contemplated and
implemented at once, reengineering can feel as though change is
occurring faster than it really is. "You have to be comfortable
with ambiguity and 80 percent solutions at times," Tschida says.
"The key is to fail fast and go on."

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