A Picture Says a Thousands Words| Documenting Your Workflows.

Supplies:

• A very large roll of brown craft paper
• Several packs of different colored Post-Its
• Roll of string or that curly ribbon for gifts
• Scissors
• Sharpies – The wider the better – But needs to write legibly on said Post-Its
• Tape
• Three-ring binder
• Three-hole punch
• Optional – Pictures of people who are involved in the process (you’ll need several copies of each photo

Schedule a meeting with anyone who has input in the process.  You can do this as an entire group or if you have a decent grasp on the start, middle and end you can set up timeframes for each person to go through their part.  I like to do this in a fairly informal setting.  Bring in bean bag chairs, beach chairs, something to lighten the mood.  Typically this meeting takes awhile!  Depending on the length of your process it can be from 1 hour to several 2-3 hour sessions.  Anything beyond 2-3 hours and you will be staring at a group of Zombies!

Before the meeting cover a large wall or space with brown craft paper and get your supplies in order.

Now that you have everyone together tell them that your goal is to find out every step in the process you are working on.  Recently, I reviewed small projects that require copywriting, artwork, and printing.  It was a fairly simple process but it was riddled with inefficiencies.  Ask them to bring copies of any documents/forms that are produced in the process and define someone to be the runner to get things that are forgotten.  There will be some!

Assign a person to be your scribe, this person writes everything on the Post-It Notes.  Assign a person to be an Artist, this person organizes everything into a pretty picture on your brown paper.

Then ask how is this process started, who does that, how do they do it, how long does it take, is a document or form used?  What percentage of the time is it complete and accurate? Write all of these answers on your post its.  I how found that using different colors for each of these questions and stacking them helps bring clarity.  If you have pictures of who does it then tape that to a post it.  If there is a document produced or form used label it with a number on the post it and then place the document in a 3-ring binder.  Place the post-its on the brown paper at the far left side.  Then go to the next step and ask the same questions.  Then the next step, and on and on until the process is complete.  Make sure you are consistent in how you document.  For example, turn the post it so it looks like a diamond, for a decision which has to require a yes or no answer.  Just a thought, but I typically start by documenting either the all yes track or the all no track and then work back to fill out the other track.  It just makes it easier. Then I take my string or ribbon and start connecting post-its.  This shows information and work flow from one post-it to the next.  I’ve also created stickers that are arrows, but it gets cumbersome throwing all those stickers up there and string or ribbon is so much faster.

I’ve actually created an area, that is now called the Brown Bag room because I use brown paper so much! You will find that you move Post-its around a bunch because there will be a little bit of debate and controversy.  I have found that you have three types of people in the room.  Contributors, those who provide specific input that is relevant and useful.  Dead Heads, those who say nothing unless they are asked.  And, the infamous Askhole, the person who asks a million meaningless questions generally just to hear themselves talk and feel important, contradict others in the group and generally just make you want to punch them in the face.  Twice.  Now, it is possible to have some people who at times are more than one of these, but it’s rare. As a facilitator it is your job to keep everyone engaged and get the Askhole to shut up.  In a nice, professional way of course!  I do this by giving them a job to keep them occupied.  Hey, can you be another scribe?  We’re getting a little backed up here.

Once you have the entire process documented, take a picture with a high resolution camera.  Then go to your computer and redraw the workflow in Visio.  Now you might say this is a bit inefficient, but the large visual picture really helps get the group engaged.  So, I permit the efficiency for the effectiveness.

Next I go back to my desk I go into our tracking system and start to verify or adjust the “how long does it take section” based on actual projects.  I find that people tend to underestimate this category.  And they overestimate the percent complete and accurate category, so I put some reality into that estimate as well.  People don’t mean to lie, it’s just that it typically takes way longer than anyone realizes and they like to think that they do things right and many times they don’t.

Then I update the document with the numbers I came up with from the reality check and move to the next step.  For the complete process look at “Cutting the Fat out of Marketing| Using Workflow Analysis and Risk Assessment to Increase Operational Efficiency”.

• 
• 
• 
• 

About Nichole

Nichole

Nichole Kelly is the CEO of Full Frontal ROI Consulting, the social media firm that understands your bottom line. She helps companies figure out where social media fits and then helps execute the recommended strategy across the “right” mix of social media channels. She uses a scalable content approach and measures the results to your bottom line. Do you want to rock the awesome with your social media strategy? Contact Nichole

No related posts.

Tagged as: Marketing Operations, Risk Assessment, Workflow Analysis