How-to... Recommendations for processes

Recommendations are optional and given in the free form.

Some recommendations we will consider helpful right from the start and we will want to apply them immediately, and some other recommendations require certain experience and we will be able to use them later.

It is important not to forget them and to return to them to test whether they solve a certain problem.

The Core process always takes precedence

You should be aware of this fact:

Not all activities in the company can be optimally organized at the same time.

Raising the optimization in some processes, we will more or less noticeably degrade the optimization in others.

That's why you always prioritize the Core process over the Support processes.

Try to have as few handover TaskPacks between processes as possible

Handover TaskPacks between two processes is always problematic. The reason for this is that they are usually executed by different Doers and coordinated by different Process Managers.

Skillful process creation can reduce the number of handover TaskPacks to a minimum. One TaskPack on delivery and one TaskPack on receiving should be enough. Such construction of the workflow promises much simpler management without errors and misunderstandings.

Simplify then standardize

Do not complicate with variants. Processes should contain only necessary tasks.

If you think that adapting TaskPacks and processes to all kinds of variants is a matter of skillful and good organization with which you cover the most diverse cases... You should know that you are wrong.

The challenge is just to be the other way around.

Standardize the process so that it is simple, fast, and efficient. If the need for variants often appears, it is because you have not created a process that is simple, fast, and efficient.

Don't tailor the process to individuals

Don't adapt to current employees.

Avoid distorting the process to fit the Doer you currently have at your disposal.

Insist that the process and TaskPacks serve the successful business of the company and not the individual. In the next step, think about how to get a suitable Doer and how to train him/her.

If you work the other way around – you adapt TaskPacks and processes to existing employees, you will begin to deform the process with variations that are not in the strict direct interest of the company.

Most entrepreneurs consider it a virtue when they change their business in order to make the most of the capacities of the staff currently available to them. It sounds logical, but in reality, such adaptation leads to deformations in the organization with far-reaching bad consequences.

Instead, create processes and Task Packages that contribute 100% to the success of your business. And train the Executors to do them.

When a compromise is inevitable, it should be considered a necessary evil and a situation that needs to be exited as soon as possible.

Universal Doers

Consider whether and how much efficiency is achieved by one Doer executing as many interconnected TaskPacks as possible, regardless of how different they are, requiring different knowledge and skills.

The fact is that the handover of results between TaskPacks is the most critical part of any organization. When the same executor is in charge of 2 interconnected TaskPacks, this problem is almost eliminated.

It is desirable to execute as long as possible a series of TaskPacks performed by one Doer.

Simplify TaskPacks. Use modern technology wherever you can. Then keep training the Doer to carry out as many consecutive Task Packages as possible, however, varied they may be.

Specialists

Contrary to the previous recommendation, it should be seen that higher efficiency is achieved when interconnected TaskPacks are given for execution by different Doers.

Sometimes you will be forced to create certain TaskPacks whose profile requires some specifics that are difficult to learn.

The reality lies in finding a balance of effectiveness between universal and specialized Doers.

Avoid paving goat paths - formalizing poorly designed processes

Process creation is a unique opportunity to get our business set up right. That is why we should be critical of the existing way of doing business in the company. Let's try while creating processes and TaskPacks, to improve, simplify, and speed them up... Let's create with Workanizers a "highway" along which business will be carried out quickly and without errors.

The wrong approach is when we simply introduce our existing jobs, which are wrong, complicated, and unfinished, into the organizational platform.

Some entrepreneurs become amazed at how their current processes (however bad they are) look when they are in software.

They only formalized previous bad practices and habits. Instead of building highways for their businesses, they just paved their own goat paths that they continue to use.