In my last blog I talked about how we start a journey to better business processes. We all have processes for how things are done yet, mostly, they remain within us as our own expert knowledge. When this is the case it can hinder the ability to grow our business and increase risk of business continuity when team members leave.
If you have procedures in place, where did they come from, and do they represent your vision? You may be asking “why is this important?” So, please indulge me for a moment while I share a story with you.
Let’s picture a company XYZ Services. They are a partnership and have one member of staff, June, in the office. Suddenly they start to find larger and more demanding projects; another consultant joins them, and they need somebody to manage sales or perhaps administration of projects. In steps George. Just at the right time. He is a keen individual and eager to learn. In fact, they decide he will be a great asset to the company and bring him in on a trial basis to start helping June. On his first day June explains what goes on in the office and George writes it down so that he won’t forget. George is so good at writing everything down that they decide to use his notes as their first procedure. And so, the system starts to evolve. Next, they need to make sure that the new consultant takes all the details they need and key points, so they create a checklist. Does this sound familiar? The story could go on, but I think you get the picture.
It’s worth repeating the key point I made in my last blog: “The motivation to improve processes needs to come from the top, and through a shared vision for improvement. Allowing working patterns to evolve organically will lead to gaps, and most importantly a lack of control of how your vision for the business is implemented.”
I am certainly not saying that getting organised and writing everything down is wrong. But there needs to be rules around creating procedures. In these early stages the leadership team has the big picture and strategy for the vision for the business. Allowing the procedures for company XYZ to be written by the most inexperienced person in the company has the potential for gaps to be left and most importantly for the services the business provides to be out of alignment with the objectives set by the senior management.
Chapter 2 of my book “A Business Journey For Tigers” looks at how process improvement will benefit your business and sets you on the journey to change. I share more on the rules I mentioned earlier on who should conduct process improvement later in the book. Reach out to me to learn more about my business mentoring and thought partner programme. You can buy my book here. I’d love to know how it helps you.
