Summary: The real opportunities for your organization’s growth and profitability lie not in the boxes of your flowcharts but in the arrows that connect them.
First, a quick announcement for my dedicated readers. I’m gradually working on integrating this blog with my organizations website. Why be in two places? Over time, this blog will be found at the Strategic Alignment Group’s site. The transition will not be an easy one, Rest assured that when it’s done I’ll announce it here and the current URL will still redirect you there.
Throughout my career I’ve diagramed perhaps 500 or more processes – office workflow processes, manufacturing processes, thought processes, software processes, you name it.
From a distance, they all look about the same: Variously shaped and positioned Boxes (representing events, activities, people, output, decisions, etc.) and arrows (representing process flow and associations).
Processes and their diagrams can be simple – such as an inner-departmental process – or quite complex – such as a “Quote-To-Cash” process in a custom manufacturing environment.
Regardless, the flowchart boils down to boxes and arrows.
I think it’s fair to say that the most attention is typically given to the boxes. Is it because they are prettier? Because they are easier to identify? Easier recognize? Contain better labels?
In reality, your greatest opportunities for growth, cost reduction, return on investment, and innovation are in the arrows.
Arrows are deceptively simple splatters of ink. But consider what they contain for a moment.
Take a simple example, part of a Claims Receiving process (we’ll call the circled envelopes “round boxes”):
Now ask the following questions for each arrow:
- How does the Material Handler move from one box to the next?
- What decisions must be made?
- What information does the Material Handler need to perform this step properly?
- What are the ramifications of not having the correct information?
- What skills and knowledge are necessary to perform this step well?
- What are the ramifications of not having the adequate skills and knowledge?
- What attitude is necessary to perform this step well?
- What are the consequences if the Material Handler has a bad attitude?
- What could slow down movement from one box to the next?
- What could speed up movement from one box to the next?
- What if progression between these boxes is omitted altogether?
- How much time and money is spent between one box and the next?
Do you see the importance of the arrows? Many more such questions could be asked, and a different process would elicit different questions. This is a relatively low-impact example, too. Plug in your own, and ask the questions that matter.
The point is, it is the arrows rather than the boxes that provide the most opportunity. The arrows contain knowledge, information, data, culture, methods, conflicting priorities, procedures, policies, talents, technologies, attitudes, materials, time, costs, and a whole lot more.
The arrows of your organization are its lifeblood. Look there to increase your profit.
If you have insights or questions on this topic, please start a dialog in the comments section below and I will reply.
If you’d like to know more about how to process improvement can costs, increase innovation, and improve employee morale, Contact Me
