When we talk about Business Process Management (BPM), the conversation too often veers straight into tools, automation, and methodologies. But in People-Centric Process Management, Mark McGregor and Ian Gotts remind us of a simple, powerful truth: processes don’t improve unless people adopt them.

This book is a timely call to reframe how we approach process improvement. It shifts the focus from systems and structures to the people who actually do the work—those with the insights, frustrations, and ideas that can make or break real change.

"Your people who are doing the work know what works, what doesn’t and how it can be improved—so let’s build on that."
— Mark McGregor & Ian Gotts

Think of the movie The Intern. A retired executive (Robert De Niro) joins a fast-growing e-commerce startup led by a visionary founder (Anne Hathaway). The business is scaling fast—but struggling with inconsistent workflows, communication gaps, and siloed decisions. De Niro’s character brings no flashy tools or sweeping change agendas—just wisdom, listening, and an understanding of how people, when supported, can fix what’s broken. He helps bridge generational divides and brings calm clarity to chaotic processes. That quiet transformation? It happens by making people feel seen and involved.

That’s exactly what People-Centric Process Management advocates.

The authors call for real process discovery: going beyond org charts and swimlanes to understand how work actually flows across functions. This includes engaging frontline staff, surfacing hidden activities, and connecting isolated subprocesses into visible, shared journeys. It means identifying non-value-adding work and exposing where local decisions are hurting global performance.

“Identifying the wrong collection of activities as a process is one of the most common and serious problems we encounter... If your process is too 'big'... modeling becomes frustrating. More commonly, processes are defined too 'small', leading to the sin of 'local optimization causing global suboptimization.’”
— Alec Sharp, Workflow Modelling

This is why cross-functional collaboration is essential. Optimizing one department in isolation may look efficient on paper—but may actually harm the customer experience or slow down the broader value stream. A true process culture looks end-to-end, not just task-to-task. And navigating that complexity often requires a seasoned expert to facilitate the discovery process—someone who can connect the dots across silos, ask the right questions, and create a safe space where people at all levels can surface insights, challenge assumptions, and co-design better ways of working.

Smart process improvement isn’t about launching another tool. It’s about asking better questions, aligning people, and shifting the perspective from “what’s broken here?” to “how can we serve better—together?”

If your current approach to change isn’t delivering the results you hoped for, maybe it’s time to shift the conversation—from what needs to change, to who should be part of the change.



👉 At Sistema, we help organizations uncover the real story of how work happens—and design people-centric solutions that stick.
Let’s talk about how we can help.