Tidying up your business processes
It seems like organization is a constant struggle for most of us, which is why nobody gets to see my closet. A lot of our companies are like cities that just grew organically over the centuries. They've got some amazing history but can be a mess to navigate. I hope your company isn’t like that in its operations, but this week we’re going to talk about one way to help rein in the chaos: process reviews.
Reviewing Your Processes
How often do you do a deep clean of your house? Just in the spring and fall, or are you cleaning all the time? Whatever your routine, you know how necessary it is to clear out the clutter and reorganize things. So why would your business be any different? Once in a while you need to take a look at all the cobwebs that have collected in the form of outdated or inefficient processes, and clean them up.
Why Audit Your Processes
At the most simple level, auditing processes demonstrates that you’re open to change, and a change mindset is absolutely essential to growth. If you find yourself responding to questions with “This is the way we’ve always done things,” that’s a strong signal it’s time for an audit.
You should also review your processes if you have experienced a lot of growth. Adding new people and skill sets will change who is doing what and when, and duplication of efforts can take up valuable resources. An audit is also a good idea if you’re implementing new software, particularly if it’s going to impact business operations. Lastly, of course, you need an audit if you haven’t ever formally documented your processes.
4 Steps to Better Processes
First, you need to put together a crack team. You’ll want input from managers as well as individual employees to get multiple perspectives. You might even benefit from the viewpoint of someone outside the company. We invited trusted clients in to look at how we did things more than once.
Second, you need to document the processes that are already in place. You’ll need participation from everyone in the company so you can get a full picture of where things currently stand. Consider a shared doc where everyone can comment and provide insights on how they do things today. After all, we can’t get to the right destination unless we know where we're starting.
Third, decide what that destination is. You should be able to see which of your processes need to be improved (or implemented), or what efficiency you are hoping to gain. That’s the end state you want to reach, and how long it will take to get there.
Finally, you need to actually do the work of making the improvements. As part of the process, you should create some metrics that will tell you if you’re succeeding in meeting those goals you set. It’s also a good idea to determine a time for another process review later on.
Regularly reviewing processes not only helps the company run more efficiently, it also helps the team gain insight into how other parts of the company work, which can smooth friction and improve understanding.