Do you ever feel stuck running round and round a hamster wheel? When life is hectic, it’s easy to be so busy working that you can’t take a breath to make things better by streamlining your business processes.
But until you step off that hamster wheel, nothing will change. So grab a cup of coffee, turn off your phone for 10 minutes and remind yourself of why it’s worth the effort.
In mechanical design, streamlining is all about smoothing the friction to improve speed and reduce wear. The same is true in business, where making one process change can offer multiple advantages.
The potential gains
1. Save money
If time equals money, then add up the cost of all the time that is wasted on inefficient processes. When everyone is tightening their belts, can you save money by making processes more efficient? Or can you delay adding more headcount while your orders grow?
2. Improve consistency and reliability
It is a fact of life that human beings make mistakes. They can be really quite inventive at it, and they can also be quite lazy and go for shortcuts, without caring whether they cause problems further down the line.
So it’s important to make sure processes reduce the chance of errors happening, and also increase the chance of catching errors before they become a problem.
3. Reduce delays and missed deadlines
Slow processes quickly cause backlogs when there is a peak of work. Streamlining them reduces the chance of missing an important deadline and potentially losing a customer. In addition, we live in an age of impatience, where customers expect a much quicker turnaround than previously. If you want to keep up with the higher expectations, you need to do things differently, or risk your customers growing cold on you.
4. Avoid dangerous shortcuts
If processes are laborious and time is tight, the focus on customer service can lead to steps being missed out. Work may be started before the contract is signed, or documents issued without being fully checked. But this can leave you exposed to disputes later, or miss regulatory or contractual conditions. Process reviews can plan ahead for these situations and ensure there are fail-safes.
5. Make your customers happier
Customers will get irritated if your processes are too long-winded or difficult to follow. Hopefully they will at least let you know, so keep an eye on your customer feedback mechanisms. But beware the silent resentment, and look for ways to actively solicit feedback on a regular basis.
6. Focus on what matters
Too much time spent on low value tasks ripples outwards and affects people’s attitudes to their whole jobs. High-value, creative tasks take a lot of concentration and may seem inefficient by nature. So streamline the mundane processes in order to free up more time for the really valuable ones. It’s easier to find inspiration when you are not worrying about everything else that you need to find time for.
7. Scale more easily
A process that takes 20 minutes per customer may be fine if you do it once a week, but will become a problem if volumes grow to 10 per day. As you grow your business, you need to revisit processes to check they are still fit for purpose.
8. Make staff feel more valued
The upshot of doing low-value jobs that take a long time has a cumulative effect on employee morale. People rise (or sink) to expectations, so don’t expect wonders if you make them feel like paper pushers.
Streamlining processes not only makes staff feel more productive. Done in the right way, it can improve their engagement and raise the quality of work across their whole week.
Principles for streamlining
People write books and books about methods for process improvement – whether or not to use flowcharts or process flows or checklists, automation tools etc etc. So let’s focus here on the principles that apply, whatever type of work you are looking at.
1. Use what you know
There is no need to get too complex. If you use Agile or Kanban methodologies for software development, they will adapt very easily to reviewing processes. Prioritise the highest value process and start there. Work iteratively in small loops and move onto the next thing once you have gained enough value.
2. Question everything
Prioritise processes that are causing the most pain, happen most often, or involve lots of departments.
Before you make a process more efficient, start with the big question. Do we need this process at all? Does anyone read this report? What would happen if we just stopped? Could we do something simpler that achieves the same effect?
3. Focus your efforts
Think about the costs and benefits. Can you actually justify the time spent on improving the process by the ongoing savings or quality improvements? This is especially true if you decide to invest in new software or equipment to make the work more efficient.
Many years ago, I worked for a company where we justified new IT projects by a proposed cost saving of 10 minutes per person per day. Across 1,000 users that added up nicely….except that we all know that an extra 10 minutes just vanishes and few people make a significant difference with it. Be realistic about the savings you plan and the impact they will have on the business.
Some processes are particularly difficult to tackle. Beware of spending too long trying to automate processes that are rarely used, are very complex by necessity, or have lots of variations.
4. Simplify everything
Delegate decision making wherever possible. Many bottlenecks and customer service problems occur because someone is not empowered to take things forward on the spot.
Take a look at John Timpson’s approach of Upside Down Management. He trusts his staff to sort things out, to the point where he has a sign in his shops, saying
Our colleagues in this shop have my total authority to do whatever they can to give you amazing service.
John Timpson
This endorsement is not empty words. If you have an issue with your shoe repair, dry cleaning or key cutting, his employees can spend up to £500 putting it right on the spot.
5. Talk to your team
Employee buy-in is vital, but not everyone welcomes change. Do you recognise any of these characters?
- Ava gets defensive if she thinks she is being criticised.
- Billy hoards knowledge because he likes to feel indispensable and he thinks his job will be safer.
- Clara fills her time with low level work because she’s not sure how to do the rest of her job and fears being exposed.
- Dillon positively enjoys the routine and mundane, and gets satisfaction from getting things neatly boxed off.
- Erin just likes an easy ride and doesn’t want the effort of learning new things.
- Franco’s life outside work is stressful, so he wants a straightforward job just to get through the day.
It can help to use external factors to explain why change is necessary. There may be a need to cut costs in order to preserve jobs at a time of austerity. Or there may be a need to become more efficient to deal with a surging workload due to business growth. Either problem can cause employees to feel overworked and under-valued.
So be honest about the challenges and ask for their support. Make it a shared project rather than a done deal, and take time to explain the reasons in terms that make sense to your team. Make sure to point out how it benefits them as well as the customer and the bottom line, tapping into their different motivations.
6. Invite collaboration
Plan how to help your staff feel positive about change, by reinforcing a culture of innovation where you positively seek out and encourage ideas.
Almost everyone has opinions and most people like to share them, while the very fact of asking helps people feel valued. If anyone doesn’t want to get involved, try to understand the reasons.
If they are actively hostile or passive aggressively undermining change, that needs confronting before the poison spreads. But other people may just be quiet. They may be shy, or they may be unused to being listened to and so have stopped trying to speak out. These quiet, reflective people often have real insight when you can get them to open up, so do keep trying. A key part of diversity and inclusion within a company is helping everyone be heard and respected for their opinions, and it’s proven to improve results.
But I still don’t have time…
The point about hamsters is that they don’t run all day and actually spend far more time sleeping. If life is too busy to make any improvements to your business, you have a serious problem.
Try starting small. Identify the item that sucks up most time in your week and block out an hour to see what you can do about it. If you can streamline the process and save an hour a week from that, use that hour to look at the next thing. Then the next, until continuous improvement becomes a way of life in your business.
Which brings me to my final principle…
7. Celebrate improvement
Whenever it feels like you’re running a marathon, take time to stop and look back to see how far you’ve come. Don’t forget to thank those who’ve supported you on the way, even if you feel there is a lot more left to do.
The initial gains may be marginal to your bottom line, customer satisfaction and employee engagement. But they will accumulate and multiply over time. And the psychological difference is huge, because you are now taking control instead of being at the mercy of the hamster wheel.
“I do mean to, but…”
It’s hard setting time aside for things that are important but not urgent. But if you don’t take the first step, nothing will ever change. It helps to find someone who can meet with you on a regular basis, so you keep up momentum.
I offer an external perspective on your business, will be an accountability partner and can guide you and your team through the process of prioritising and streamlining your processes. With over 25 years in IT, I have experience of many different ways of working and of implementing improvements for greater efficiency and success.
Don’t let it drift any more. Get in touch and book a free 15 minute initial chat to explore further.
* With thanks to my nephew for the photograph 🙂