Process Mapping: Is it Worth the Time and Energy?
One of the most powerful tools in any employee’s or organization’s toolbox is the skill of process mapping. Essentially, process mapping is taking ideas in your brain about how something should be done and putting them down on paper for others to see and follow.
If an employee follows those words and expectations as described, along with using their subject matter expertise and critical thinking skills; they would get a minimum of a B for their efforts…. that is, as long as the person who documented how to do it well did their job.
What can process mapping help with?
Think quality.
Quality issues occur when the outcome is not as expected. If your organization is trying to grow, more and more people will need to be doing the work. Meaning, more and more opportunities for the outcome to not be as expected. If what employees are doing requires repeating similar processes to complete the work, document it! Get 100% of your people doing B work. B work leaves 20% room for error. Manage for that, not for the majority.
If your organization is struggling with quality right now, try documenting the steps involved to making your “thing.” Get feedback from those that do the work and those that are impacted by it. Incorporate those changes and train the people doing the work on what the minimum of good looks like.
Think consistency.
Consistency is king to reaching your goals. It helps us form habits. It helps create momentum and action. It keeps us coming back (check out a short video on consistency from Simon Sinek here). If you’re in the business of making things, your customers are going to expect that each time they buy something from you the product or service is the same quality as last time.
Documenting what good looks like and providing examples is great for onboarding new employees but it also helps the seasoned employee stay true to the intention of the process. This reminds me of my first algebra class in middle school. First, we had to write out all the steps to complete an equation. Even if we knew the answer right away, we were required to document how we got there. The teacher wanted to make sure we understood how to break the bigger thing into smaller more manageable chunks. As the equations got harder and we advanced in our studies, we were not required to document every step. If we got an answer wrong, we were required to go back and redo the equation with all the steps documented. More often than not we were able to get to the right answer by following the steps and using our critical thinking skills.
Think accountability.
The number of conversations I’ve had recently about consistency and accountability can’t be counted on my team’s fingers and toes. It’s really hard to hold people accountable when roles and expectations are not clearly defined. It’s extra hard when it’s something you only told them verbally. Next step, show them. Even better, have it documented in clear terms that align to best practice and success metrics.
If you’re a leader, start having your team document how they do their work. What steps do they take to complete the request? Review it. Make changes so it reflects your current expectations. Determine how you’re going to make sure they are meeting your expectations (I love this quote from Mike Ditka, “In life, you get what you tolerate.”). Bring your team together and let them know what changed and why.
If you’re a doer, start documenting your processes. It is a great innovation tool and can help you identify where there are areas for improvement. Recommend those improvements to your manager. I built my early office career on doing just that. I documented what I was doing and then when something else I wanted to be doing crossed my desk, I was able to easily pass other work off to someone else. In project management, we call that transition plans. This is no longer mine; this is yours now. Go forth and do good work.
Where do I start with the process?
Start with the most critical thing you do.
If you’re a doer, what are you getting paid to do? Out of all the things you do every day, what is the most critical thing you do that helps your company reach its goals?
If you’re a leader within an organization, ask yourself:
What are my goals for the year?
What are the top 3 processes that are going to help me get there? Look at those processes first.
Are they documented?
Documented at what level?
Do they align with industry best practices?
Does each process align with a metric you can track?
What is your escalation path for inconsistency in execution?
Levels of process mapping
Commonly, there are 4 different levels of process mapping. The higher the level you move up, the more detail is added. Level 4 process maps are often called business process documents, standard operating procedures, or work instructions. Lots of words on paper that are very explicit about what “good” looks like. Questions like “when do you send that email to the team about the changes you made to the process,” “what checklist should be used for that process step and where to find it,” and “where do you go if you need to escalate a concern” are answered. This level is taking that tacit, tribal knowledge out of folks' brains who’ve been doing this forever and getting it on paper.
Want to learn more about the levels?
Process Modelling & Mapping: The Basics
David Thomason Health Region put together a great document entitled Process Modelling & Mapping: The Basics outlining the four levels of process mapping. Click here to learn more.
Time Investment = Big Rewards
Process mapping reduces the big risks and issues that all organizations face. These are the three most common conversations I have with leaders when they say, “we just don’t have time to document our processes” …
People retire or leave organizations. Don’t let their knowledge that you’ve invested in leave when they do...
New employees are hired. Make it so new employees are able to work through a process by following instructions on day 1. This helps integrate them into the team quicker as well as preventing slowdowns with the remaining teams’ time during the new employee’s early days.
People redo work because it wasn’t done “right” the first time. Reduce the amount of waste in the system by reducing the amount of rework. When requirements and expectations are clearly articulated, people get it right the first time.
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