The Electric Utility Process Whisperer

In the movie The Horse Whisperer , a talented trainer has a remarkable gift for understanding horses — nursing them back to health and coaxing them to run at peak performance. The trainer does this not with exotic tools or complex analysis, but with a feel for the situation and a sense of the inner workings of his subject.

The same concept applies to business processes inside electric utilities and cooperatives.

What Is a "Business Process Whisperer"?

Every organization, large or small, has one or more Process Whisperers — people who are intimately familiar with key processes in the business and have a feel for how those processes could be enhanced or nursed back to health to operate at peak performance. Often, these individuals are the process owners themselves, or work in close proximity to a functional area.

Through their on-the-job knowledge, observation, and eye toward customer service or effective output, they have developed theories and opinions that would genuinely optimize performance — if only someone asked.

Policies and procedures are excellent tools that organizations should maintain to establish strong internal controls and promote uniformity. However, policies and procedures can become stagnant documents while the actual processes they govern are fluid — evolving with software modifications, changing inputs from vendors or customers, or the introduction of new tools and background knowledge.

Employees who perform a process daily often have solid, robust ideas on how to streamline it. Sometimes it's framed as making a process "easier" — but if a process is easier and still maintains effective internal controls, press the easy button every time.

Tapping the Whisperer Knowledge Base

Organizations have been effective in surfacing in-house process improvement insights through these methods:

Areas Ideal for a Process Whisperer Improvement Program

Many areas of a utility are well-suited for this approach. The following are a good starting point — the full list is much longer:

#	Functional Area	Why It's a Good Candidate
1	Customer Service	High transaction volume and direct customer impact make even small improvements highly visible
2	Distribution Line Construction & Work Order Accounting	Complex multi-step processes with significant rate recovery implications
3	Materials Management	Inventory accuracy directly affects work order costs and capital project tracking
4	Accounts Payable	Manual entry and approval workflows often have embedded inefficiencies
5	Payroll Preparation	Time-sensitive and compliance-critical — errors are costly and visible
6	Finance Functions	Month-end close, reporting, and reconciliation processes often have significant time savings available
7	Employee Goal Setting & Evaluations	Process consistency and documentation quality vary widely across organizations
8	Enterprise Risk Management	Often underdeveloped in smaller utilities; process whisperers can help build practical frameworks
9	Information Technology Controls	Rapidly evolving environment; current users often have the best read on control gaps
10	Purchasing	Approval thresholds, vendor selection, and documentation requirements benefit from regular review

How Would This Work for Your Utility?

If you don't have a Process Whisperer program in place, the path forward is simple: pick one area from the list above, implement the process, and evaluate the results. If it works to your satisfaction, expand the approach organization-wide. The investment is minimal — the insights are already inside your building, waiting to be asked for.

The material in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal or accounting advice provided by Utility Accounting & Rates Specialists, LLC. You should seek formal advice on this topic from your accounting or legal advisor.