BPM: Toolbox for a Bionic Enterprise

Towards a Bionic World
Whatever at individual or social level, our biologic functions are more and more supported, if not replaced, by technology. Sometimes to mitigate physical or sensory deficiencies through mobility aids or improvement of auditive, visual capacities. In other occasions, electronics offer opportunities that our biological configuration cannot assume, at least for the time being all this evolution is transferring human processes from the biologic or physical world to another electronic or virtual one.

Which Enterprise is not Bionic?
The Business world is also involved in this bionic mutation of the society, if not the instrument of it. Each time technology has offered improvements in effectiveness or efficiency, the enterprise has tried to integrated it. After all, its ultimate motivation is to survive, like any other live organism. Evolution rules also apply to business: adapt or die. Building a business, we are in fact creating a bionic organism.

How to Manage a Bionic Enterprise?
All this evolution pushes us, the human beings, to perform activities with more added value, based on knowledge sharing, creative skills, learning capabilities or emotional intelligence. Traditional authoritarian management is reaching its limits and has to be completed, if not replaced, by new business management skills based on leadership, coaching and communications abilities.

The BPM Toolbox
Assuming the bionic nature of the Enterprise, how to balanced both Bio-logic and Electro-nic components (People & Technology) to get benefits from this explosive combination?
More than hardware & software, it's also a question of wetware management that needs Psychology skills. Increase of interest for Business Process Management is not just a coincidence. BPM offer tools to manage interaction between People & Technology, for the benefit of the enterprise and its stakeholders. Too many Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives fail, when introduced through the traditional technological channels and keeping aside the psychological dimension.

Not only BPM has to take into account these three dimensions (People, Information Systems and Business Needs), but also has to be their integrator, if you want the expected change to be effective.

Thank you Mr Maslow!
I discovered you when I was gathering my experience and ideas about Information Technology, Business Processes and Organization Psychology. Your "hierarchy of needs" was the key piece I have been looking for to complete my puzzle.

I consider it a use-full model not only to understand psychology at work, but also to build a coherent enterprise architecture to structure my virtual pyramid of Management by Process.

The Secret is in the Pyramid
Relation between Information Systems, Business Processes and Human Psychology remains abstract concepts. So, since the beginning, I have tried to use visual representations and analogy techniques to communicate on it.

The Psychology Pyramid, as designed by Abraham Maslow, was the first stone of my virtual representation of the Enterprise. Then, why not use also this model of "hierarchy of needs" to analyse the other Technology, Processes and Business dimensions and to propose a framework for new Business Management Skills oriented to Management by Process?

Enterprise Checkup
The success of your (Bionic) Enterprise depends on the satisfaction of Psychological, Technological, Business, Processes & Projects needs. Test this checkup form to measure its health, or get a free template of this form.

More information about the bionic enterprise concept, at: Click here »

L.Hamard is a Senior Engineer with 30 years dedicated to PM, BPM & IS functions and management positions in start-up companies, multinational groups & non governmental organizations. Offering templates & best practices on process centric management, like the bionic enterprise concept and the project balanced scorecard.

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