Creating efficiency isn’t just about working harder—it’s about working smarter. Leadership often requires identifying bottlenecks, eliminating inefficiencies, and implementing sustainable improvements.
Streamlining processes doesn’t have to be complicated, but it is crucial to your team’s long-term success. Here’s how to get started.
Ask Your Team for Input
“When it comes to everyday work, no one is more of an expert than the person actually doing the work,” said Clay Eure, Director of Client Success at Eure Consulting. “Trying to change the flow of work without involving your workers will be ineffective. Employees can be a wealth of knowledge on improving the processes they work with every day—you just have to ask.”
For additional insights, consider taking the time to walk through the work with your team members. When working with clients on processes, Rachel Wolfe, Business Advisor and Chief Integration Officer at The Miracle Manager, usually asks them to show her what they do instead of telling her because high performers usually don’t know what makes them great.
“During the demonstration, they might do things they didn’t think to mention because those parts of the process come naturally to them to the point where they feel automated,” she said. “That’s a critical piece of the puzzle that most procedures would miss.”
By understanding the employee experience at the practical level, you’ll have a solid foundation as you begin to dive deeper into the process.
Understand the Process
The next step is to break the work down into repeatable actions. To do this, ask the following questions:
- What are the typical steps in this process?
- Who is involved at each step?
- What happens during each step?
- What is the desired outcome of each step?
- Are there additional steps that happen only occasionally?
- What is the desired outcome of the entire process?
- What is the current outcome?
Once you’ve documented this information for each process, you’ll be able to identify opportunities for improvement.
“It’s crucial to document your processes!” said Clay. “It's very easy for small businesses to get by without actually writing any of their processes down. At first, the CEO may be able to teach the process easily and have the bandwidth to check in on a regular basis, but as a company grows, a lack of written processes can lead to all kinds of problems.”
She tells the story of a company she worked with that had not documented its equipment check-in and check-out process. This led to people returning heavy machinery to the yard at the end of the work day without reporting any maintenance issues, which in turn led to people picking up equipment the next morning and heading out to the job site only to find that the equipment wouldn't work. This simple oversight—and what the CEO hadn’t thought to document because it should have been “common sense”—led to hours of wasted time.
What one person considers basic knowledge can be completely overlooked by someone else. Ensuring everything is well documented and understood will prevent future issues in your improved processes.
Identify Opportunities for Improvement
After outlining the steps, you can start to identify improvements that need to be made and where the issues are occurring in the workflow. Does the process need to be faster, cheaper, more efficient, a better experience for the customer, or something else?
Focusing on the desired outcomes, at each step and at the end of the process, will help you identify where enhancements are needed.
Look for opportunities to simplify and streamline. Are any parts of the process redundant? Is there clear communication between all parties? Are there too many people involved? Too few? Can any steps be automated? If AI is relevant to your work, can it be used to handle simple tasks that will free up your employees for more meaningful work?
Also, consider the negative impact of having the wrong person in the wrong role. This can cause delays, overlooked details, inconsistency, and even conflict. Using an assessment tool is especially helpful during this part of streamlining. You’ll be able to measure if an employee’s behaviors, motivators, and skills fit the work that needs to be done.
“The most important part of processes is people,” said Rachel. “Not everyone gets things done in the same way, and leaders need to understand that. The breakdown happens when we expect compliance, you have to understand why the person is not complying—-does it go against their natural style?”
After identifying changes that need to be made, consider the impact as you set out a timeline for the improvements. If a process is simple, changes can be implemented almost immediately. If it’s complex and involves multiple departments and deliverables, it may need more deliberation.
“It's important to not be too hasty when making changes to a process because any change may have unintended consequences,” advised Clay. “Take time to think through how this process change will affect other areas of the business and all key stakeholders. What will be the impact on customers? On employees? On the company? On the market?”
Test and Reevaluate
Once the new process is finalized and implemented, begin to track progress and results. Set check-ins with a cadence that makes sense for your team. That might be once a month, once a quarter, or once a year.
Connect with team members, evaluate if the changes are having the intended consequences, record both progress and setbacks and keep a diligent record for future reference.
Effective workflows can empower their teams, boost engagement, and drive better results. By seeking input from your team, breaking down processes to their core, identifying issues, and leveraging automation where it makes sense, you can create a system that works for everyone.
