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Is It Time to Document Your Workflow?

Posted on 27. Mar, 2009 by bradsemp in Brad's B.S.

Do you know how you do things?

That’s a deceptively simple question. Most business owners will immediately respond in the affirmative. They know how things are done.

Or do they?

In many cases, they have a sense of how things happen. They don’t accurately understand their company’s workflow as well as they think they do.

That might not be a real problem if someone else in the company had a clear picture of workflow. The owner doesn’t necessarily need to know about every tree in the forest, after all.

Unfortunately, there probably isn’t any one person along the line who really does understand the business’ workflow and all of its details.

And that’s a problem.

If you don’t have a clear picture of your workflow, you’re running a few risks.

First, you probably aren’t getting the most out of your systems and personnel. There’s a strong chance that the organically developed “systems” that have emerged over time are less than optimal in terms of efficiency and productivity.

Second, you are at risk of a personnel change creating substantial difficulties. Unless everyone is aware of both who is doing what and how it needs to be done, even a small change in responsibilities or employees can create a minor disaster.

Third, you may very well be stunting your growth. It’s hard to know what or how much your company can do if you don’t have a complete grasp of the processes governing its workflow.

So, how do you solve the problem?  You document workflow. That’s the starting point for improvement. Before you can even think about improving your systems, you need to know what they are.

There are many ways to document workflow, but most people refer to use a visual representation of how different tasks are completed.   Systems flowcharts are the preferred tools of experts who document workflow.

Your eventual goal is to map out optimal systems for performing tasks, but that’s not going to be easy to do if you don’t understand exactly where you are at the moment. That’s why documenting workflow processes is a critical first step to developing the systems that will improve your business’ functioning.

So, do you know how you do things? Does anyone really know how you do things? Top-to-bottom?  In detail? If you can’t answer “yes” with absolute assurance, it’s probably time to take a detailed look at your business’ workflow.

To System Success,

Tags: Brad Semp, document workflow, process workflow