How to Build a Process When Everyone Does It Differently

Ever tried getting five people to agree on how to make the perfect sandwich? Now imagine trying to get your whole team to agree on exactly how to run a specific process. That’s the reality for most owners and op’s leaders. Everyone’s got their own way of doing things, some based on experience, others based on shortcuts, and a few just winging it.

Prefer listening? Watch this week’s Solo Session where I expand on the topic.

The problem when everyone does it differently, is that we often end up with missed steps, bottlenecks, and frustration inside and outside of our organization. Let’s dive into creating clear, consistent processes, without stepping on everyone’s toes.

Step 1: Start by Watching, Not Writing

Before we jump into documenting anything, we need to actually walk the process. Ask the team to walk you through what they do and observe. You want to make sure you understand the flow, what slows them down, what parts they skip or work around, and if they use any tools or templates.

Ask lots of questions… Why are you using that? Why did you do this vs that? How do you know to do that? What do you do when this happens? Now what do you do? Asking these questions will help you determine if there are real constraints or just old band-aids and bad habits.

Step 2: Map it Out

I talk about process mapping a lot because it’s such a valuable tool for this and so much more. Take all of the touchpoints and observations you’ve made and create a visual. Use whatever method makes the most sense in your scenario… sticky notes and a blank wall, whiteboard, flowchart in Lucid or Visio (or something else), pen and paper, etc.. Remember the goal isn’t to create the future state, it’s to capture what’s happening now (the current state). Make sure you note or highlight where you observed people doing things differently as that’s where the real opportunities will lie.

Step 3: Bring the Team Together

Now’s the time to share your messy version and ask, “what did I miss?” We need to make sure we capture the current state accurately otherwise we’re setting ourselves up for failure. What thing I didn’t say earlier but needs to be said is that depending on your familiarity of the process being looked at, you can skip right to this step and do a current state mapping session with the team. The reason I suggest doing this on your own as an owner or op’s leader is often times you’re not intimately involved in the day-to-day so without this background, it makes asking questions and challenging answers much more challenging.

The goal beyond the current state is creating consensus around both the goal or outcome of the process and defining the future state. Think, what are we trying to optimize for here… efficiency, accuracy, cost, customer experience? Once you can agree on the goal, you can work on designing the future state. The goal here is not perfection, it’s consistency. Perfection often requires additional capital or resources that tend to be out of touch (at least in the short term) so don’t let this derail your progress. Beyond this, the most important part is accurately documenting and creating support documents (videos, pictures, pictograms, checklists, etc.) that allow for more consistent execution of the future state.

Step 4: Time for Testing

This has been a hot topic lately too but one we skip far too often! I suggest rolling out changes in small groups where possible. If you have a small company this doesn’t make sense but in most companies, doing a small scale test often uncovers at least one thing that was either overlooked or indirectly impacted that ultimately needs to be addressed before rolling out the changes across the board.

Step 5: Keep it Going

Once the future state has been rolled out, we want to make sure we’re checking in. I’d recommend a quarterly or semi-annual check-in depending how many changes were actually implemented. Backsliding into bad habits and shortcuts will happen… it’s what got us here in the first place! We want to make sure we understand if there has been a change somewhere else in the process that has prompted these and if so, it’s back to step 1!

Final Thoughts

It should go without saying that creating standard work isn’t the answer for every situation. There are plenty of opportunities where outcome based processes are equally effective. That said, when you have a requirement for creating standard work, this process helps your team get engaged and aligned.

That’s it for today.

See you all again next week!

Dave