To improve a process, we need to understand the process.
There are many processes throughout a business.
Processes that are happening every day.
Some you know about.
Most you don’t.
There are formal processes.
Some processes could even be written down.
There are informal processes.
There are the processes in John or Jackie’s head.
The lack of understanding of these processes is usually revealed when John or Jackie leave the business.
Or when they simply take a well-deserved holiday.
There are “magic happens here” processes.
There are processes around the process.
Because the designed and implemented process didn’t quite work.
There’s the transitioning between two processes, but still doing both.
Or the never do it quite the same way process.
Whatever your process, it starts with understanding.
It’s hard to improve any process if you don’t know what it is.
“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” — W. Edwards Deming.
“If a business is to be considered a continuous process, instead of a series of disjointed stop-and-go events, then the economic universe in which a business operates – and all the major events within it – must have rhyme, rhythm, or reason.” — Peter F. Drucker