Process for Process sake....

How often do we find ourselves developing processes to improve business and streamline the work environment. I have been consulting for several years now and the one constant is "process". When I engage a client I have to come in understanding the fundamentals of their processes and help them define which processes can be retired or recreated to improve processes. All well and good (honestly, one of the favorite aspects of what I do!). The one thing I have a difficult time with is coming into a client and realizing they have processes just for the purpose of having a process.

"Well Joe, what do you mean by that?..." Simply.

We should not do things for the purpose of having something to do. Every function we provide to an organization or ourselves should have an inheritance value back to the organization or to us. Just because the organization has funds which they need to spend to justify a budget should not constitute the development of useless or non-revenue generating processes.

"Well Joe, how do you know if the process will generate revenue?..." Also simply.

If you have to weave through several processes to determine what a single process actually does, than it is less likely to produce revenue for a company or value to one's self. Efficiency is the key. A process is only as good as the time it takes to understand or explain what it does. If you cannot explain a process in two sentences or less, it's probably costing more to maintain the process than to return value. So what does this all mean???

Stop, think and most importantly keep it simple! The more time we spend understanding why a process is needed the less likely it will be retired or require much change later on and most importantly, gain value from the process.

Life is complicated only because people make it this way... Be a part of the change to come back to basics and reap the value of simplicity.

The Mortgage-Driven Simplicity Method states:
"Fear complexity. Continue to collaboratively iterate the design until the design team unanimously agrees that it’s the simplest solution possible that meets the requirements."