Processes? Who the f#$k Cares?
Ugh, who would write about processes? What a boring subject. Maybe you’re thinking, “I’m just a DIY’er who doesn’t care about processes. Why do I need processes? What’s the point? Can’t you just start doing something and make it work?” Sure, but what happens when you want to repeat the process? Or you have another project which is basically the same? What happens when your company grows and you’re onboarding more employees? Wouldn’t it be great if you had training materials? It’s easy to get in the mindset of memorizing your actions and repeating the steps when you’re a one man show. But it only works for so long and can lead to excessive and unneccesary mental fatigue. Processes can be refined and improved and in the event you or your company is sued, processes can be referenced proving your steps thus saving your proverbial bacon. I’m currently managing 20 projects in various stages of construction. I have some in pre-construction, construction, and warranty. Without clear action steps, which are clearly outlined, it gets difficult to move quickly from task to task and project to project. I want to provide the best customer value possible in a block of time so I can stay on track and prevent burnout. While this isn’t a blog about time management it must be noted, in order to be effective at time management, there must be a process.
Boiled down to its core element a process is essentially chronicling (processing) a journey. One of the beauties of processing a journey is you don’t have to actually take the journey, you can write about it and see where it takes you. You can find out where the issues will be, the ups, the downs, the potential time savers, sharp bends, or curves in the path. A process can be a thought experiment leading you down a road of how to and what now? A process can become a schedule or reality check firmly planting you in the here and now with real and repeatable action steps. But how do you get there? What’s the process to make a process? You may be thinking, “What is this guy even talking about? I’m not in the construction how does this apply to me?” While I’m using construction as my example, the steps are the same even if your project leans more white-collar than blue. The steps can be adapted just as easily to create a customer and lead intake process for a multi-million dollar tech firm as a plumber looking to tie into an existing septic system.
There are three main steps to creating a process. Determine where you are, what you want, and where you’re going. Developing a process can be simply creating a mind map or it can be a large book which refers to checklists and sub-procedures. The depth of your process depends on where you are, what you want, and where you’re going.
Let’s take a small funky project for example. Wade has a shop with a 1/2 bathroom in it and want’s to tie the plumbing into his existing septic system so when his party guest come over they don’t have to walk all the way to the house when nature calls.
Determine where you are.
Gather the facts. You must ask questions and discover the truth and reality of the situation. Suspend your own judgment about what you think is going on and what you think is happening and instead open your mind up as an investigator would looking into the facts of the matter. If you think you know what’s happening and you’ve only been looking into it for five minutes, you’re probably missing something. Very likely the thing you’re missing is one of the most important details begging to be discovered. If I refuse to see the situation for how it truly is, I’m denying myself and the customer the opportunity to achieve the desired outcome. As you start to ask questions, answers may fuel more questions, which leads to more answers and so forth until the picture becomes clear and the path known. Your insight, instinct, intuition, and knowledge will grow as your experience grows. Lean into the fear of the unknown and ask your way forward. The path will become clear. Ask questions which reveal the state of how things are right now. Ask Wade where the septic tank is. How big is the septic tank? Does Wade have a preference on running the line through the shop or around the outside? How far away is the shop from the septic tank?
Finding the facts in Wades case looks like asking questions of the customer and the scene. If you are working for an organization, determining where you are will look different. However, follow the same guidelines by gathering the facts. For example, does your company already have some processes? Are the processes broken or fragmented, scattered throughout the cloud waiting to be syncronized into a cohesive document? Compile your findings and dig through the folders searching for work someone before you may have already done. You may need to ask questions such as, “How many customers do we have coming through our doors on a daily basis?” Or “Where are the hangups?” Why do we keep getting stuck here? What do we keep getting stuck on? And the all important question, “What are we doing when things are going right?”
What do you want?
Honesty is key here. Just as you were willing to suspend your judgement about the current state of affairs. Act as an investigator would looking into your own want’s, needs, and desires. Suspend your own judgement of yourself and whether or not you think a want, need, or desire is valid, right or wrong, etc. Be as honest with yourself as you can. Don’t judge yourself here, this is a judgement free zone. Now in Wades case, you will need to be the non-judgemental investigator looking into and brining out those wants, needs, and desires. Again, the backbone of investigating is asking pertinent questions. You are not there to determine if what Wade wants is achievable but to discover what Wade wants and put a value on it. It’s up to Wade to weigh the cost and accept the findings or to move on and change his plan into something which aligns with the a cost he’s willing to accept. Ask questions like, “How often will the facility see use? What’s the frequency of use? Do you have guest everyday? Every week? Every month? What time of year do you have guests? Do you want to avoid cutting into the shop floor? Would you rather dig up landscaping than cut concrete? Is cost a factor? What is your budget? When would you like the project completed by? Do you have an event coming up you are preparing for? When is the event?” I’m sure you get the idea by now. It basically comes down again to asking questions to determine the actual state of things. The questions should help you determine where the customers mind is, what their expectations are, and hopefully draw out the customers (or your) assumptions. Discovering what you want usually leads right into where you are going. Determining what you want will probably look a little different in a corporate setting. Listening and understanding is key. Hear what people are saying. Are they frustrated because onboarding takes too long? How long is too long? What is the ideal length of time to onboard? Are employees often feeling over worked? Are they overworked or are they inefficient? Can they describe what steps they take to accomplish a task? Again, asking questions to determine where are folks getting hung up and finding the areas where people are getting frustrated will often uncover the areas where a better process is needed.
Where are you going?
Success. The one word answer for where all situations and projects are going. We are aiming to bring Wades project to a sucessful outcome. Success can be defined with a variety of metrics specific to the situation but in my mind it all comes down to one question. Did all parties feel there was an equitable and fair exchange of value? What does value look like in your situation? How are you defining value? For Wade he will feel there was a fair exchange when he gets what he wants for a cost he is willing to accept. Generally, when you have determined the state of things with an honest lens and have clearly defined the wants, needs, or desires, the path forward becomes clear. Where you are going often becomes the largest action step of the three steps and develops into a plan with a purpose, setting the stage to present the findings so an informed decision can be made. As with all the steps, record your findings. I find it helps to start with an outline and fill in the details later. The details being answers to all those wonderful and investigative questions you asked earlier. Where you’re going often finds its path in the frustrations of those around you. You may hear people frustrated with how long it takes to accomplish a task or how they feel scattered and interrupted and when interrupted they cannot find their place again. A process doesn’t need to be a long boring book with step by step instructions about how to accomplish a task, unless you want it to be. It can be a visual guide simply helping you through the point of, “Well that’s done, what’s next?” To who does what? And when do they do it? To figure out where you’re going, look back at what you want. Will you create more confusion by instituting a thick complex how-to manual? Or will the thick how-to manual be just the thing to bring understanding and order to a complex set of tasks? Being the process maker also requires decisiveness. Understanding decisiveness is simply choosing a path or direction which has often become clear by now through fact finding. Make a choice, analyze the results, and re-evaluate the choices depending on the results. It may feel scary to make a choice but it feels better and uncovers more truth to make a choice and head down a path than to do nothing. If you find yourself down a path you don’t like, you know more than if you would have stood still, and you can always change course.
Remember, when you’re wearing the hat of the process maker, your job is to find the facts, uncover the wants, needs and desires, create a path to get there and present the findings. The findings may be a cost or they may be a plan. Even if you’re the process maker for yourself, still go through the steps and present yourself with the information necessary to make an informed decision.
Distilled down into outline form the process to create a process is to:
Determine where you are.
Gather the facts.
Seek to understand reality and fully see the situation.
Record the findings and your steps.
Discover what you want.
Be honest.
Suspend personal judgment.
Finding the truth is more important than what your view of the truth is.
Record the findings and your steps.
Determine where you are going.
Define what success looks like in your situation
Was there a fair and equitable exchange of value?
What was the value exchanged?
Record the findings and your steps.
The facts you find may be spoken or unspoken. Those around you may not be able to articulate their frustrations, what they want, or what they would change. Observation is essential to creating a process. Listening to those around you, your own senses and experiences, and remaining as un baised as you can while you gather facts will aid you greatly in the process of creating a process. Creating processes can be very rewarding and save you time and energy. You may be repeatedly putting unnecessary time and energy into tasks when you could be following a guideline and refining your processes. Life is full of decisions and decision fatigue is no joke. Help yourself and those around you by observing the way things are run and choosing to do something about it. You will likely be respected and find satisfaction by chronicling a process, refining a process, or developing a process. If your coworkers drag you down because of your kick ass work, find new coworkers. You clearly have skills which could be put to better use elsewhere.
