Do you know all of the steps in your process?

Of course, I hope you say 'yes!' to this question.

But, too many people in our businesses don't know all of the steps.

Why might this be:

Are the steps too confusing?
Are the steps not visible to staff?
Are the steps not taught to your team when they join?
Are there too many options, to be able to define the steps?
Are the steps kept inside the heads of a few team members?

If your results are suffering as a result of a lack of knowledge inside your business, use these five questions as a way to reflect.

Thankfully, once you have worked out which one is most likely to be your problem, you just need to flip the situation around to define your strategy:

Simplify.
Promote and use visual aids.
Revamp your induction.
Standardise.
Write it down.

The benefits from having clearer processes revolve around improved customer satisfaction, better profits and less dependency on individuals.

If this kind of situation sounds good to you, check out my book Losing the Cape. It looks at options to get away from needing super heroes to bail us out and into smoother, consistent ways of working.

Fewer crises and more opportunity to build a business without the (bad) dramas!

Available from Amazon here

About the author:

Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes and embracing Kaizen.

Giles is also the author of Effective Root Cause Analysis and 'What Does Good Look Like?'.

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