Consistent processes – the key to clarity

Do you have consistent processes, systems or workflows for your team to follow?

Processes are the first step to creating clarity for your team, eliminating unnecessary guess work, frustration, rework and pain points in the business.

When processes don’t work as they should - or as they are documented - this creates wasted time and unnecessary conflict.

Without consistent, documented processes you’ll be unable to create consistent outcomes or accountability in your team. Without everyone ‘on the same page’, you’ll be dealing with different methods to achieve the same result, leaving you unable to leverage performance across the team.

Documenting processes may not be the most exciting part of running a business but if you want efficiency and growth, this is the enabler.

Creating efficient and effective work processes across all areas of your business will increase productivity and consistency and reduce frustration and effort.

Here are my four top tips for creating processes.

1. Analyse.

First you need to analyse and assess everything you do, from start to finish, and identify areas that need a process. You’ll need the whole team on board for this. Make sure you highlight the outcomes they will enjoy – greater productivity and consistency.

2. Document.

Next, make documenting your current processes a priority. Chances are every process is in someone’s head. Therefore, everyone does it slightly differently, achieving different results that aren’t effective or consistent.

3. Identify the pain points and gaps.

Now you have documented the processes, identify the pain points and gaps. This should be easy – team members will know what slows them down. Eliminate the pain points or mitigate their impact and plug the gaps. You need to make your processes work for your business.

4. Testing.

Each process must then be tested for accuracy. It must be well-thought-out and sequenced. Once this is done, the process becomes the one source of truth, so will need to be updated according to changes in your processes, industry, or new technology. Where possible, processes should be automated.

Here is a final check list for you…

• Are your processes documented?

• Do your team know what they must do and how they need to do it?

• Do you have specific steps and actions that need to be completed, in the correct sequence, for each task?

• Do your team know where to find these processes?

• Do you have one source of the truth?

Make your processes work for your business and you will reap the rewards in productivity and consistency.