The (Mis)Adventures of Mike: Mapping out business processes

In the first (Mis)Adventures post we met our fictional harried hero, Mike, creator of Wondrous Widgets.

Poor Mike is tired and worried, and seriously considering throwing in the towel. He is ready to close the virtual doors on his business, and head back out into the 9 to 5 corporate world.

Fortunately, his wife spotted an ad for Make Way For Biz, and Mike sent us an email.

It contains one word: HELP!

Most of the time, we get a bit more information from our clients. But, it is normal to know something is not quite right with the business, but not know how to articulate it.

That’s perfectly okay. A few consultative email exchanges and we get a starting point.

Clearly it’s all their fault!

In Mike’s case, his biggest concern at the moment is the communication with his outsourcers, the Wondrous Widget Workers.

Make Way advises clients to start with a map, charting the major business steps that occur from the moment a job is firmed up with the client to the moment the final cheque received. This is where we suggested Mike start.

Mike, however, wanted to jump right to ‘fixing’ his outsourcers.

After all, he explained, they clearly aren’t very professional. And really, if we can’t fix them, then he is going to have to fire the lot of them. And then where will he be? Orders coming for Wondrous Widgets and no one to build them!

“Oh woe is me!,” wails Mike.

Slow down, Mike

“Not so fast, Mike”, we calmly respond. “Let’s walk through your processes and see if we can find a bottleneck, before we go lopping off heads.”

 

 

Through a couple of email exchanges, in which we ask questions and Mike responds, we came up with a high level map. Part of which is shown in this map.

This looks great. Everything seems to moving along as it should be. Except according to Mike it isn’t, so we need to dig deeper.

 

 

 

 

Getting to the root problem

The communication break down is between Mike and the Workers, so we drill down a layer.

Ah ha! Right off the bat we see a broken link in the chain.

“Mike, how does the Wondrous Worker know that there is an assignment for them?” we ask.

“Because it’s in the project management tool,” Mike responds, seriously doubting Make Way’s ability to think.

“Okay, how do they know you put it in the tool?”

“Because … oh! Well, they should be going in daily to check this. I just assumed they were constantly monitoring the job assignments.”

“Okay. What is your definition of ‘constantly monitoring’? Once per day? Three times per day? Every hour? What is your policy on this?”

“Well, um …. “

Process problem not people problem

 

Turns out, after talking to the Wondrous Widget Workers, one of them checks the assignments once daily, another one hourly, and another one every day or two when he remembers.

It’s not that the Wondrous Widget Workers are unprofessional. It’s a matter of communicating procedures and expectations.

How does Mike do this? By taking this process and figuring out all the steps that happen to complete it.

 

What’s up next?

The exciting world of work breakdowns. Don’t  miss it!

Tips for improving your business

Often we focus on the people when something goes wonky with our business.  Nine times out of ten, it boils down to a miscommunication of expectations of processes and procedures. Fix the broken links, communicate the processes, and everyone is once again happy and productive.

Any broken chains in your business? We can help you find them and create a solid link of business processes. Contact us today. Or fill out our free no obligation assessment .

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