Process: Make the Right Way the Easy Way
In the last article, we explored the People component of the BOSS Strategy Execution System™.
Great people are essential, but even the best people need a clear and consistent way to execute. That’s where Process comes in.
Simply put, process defines how work gets done.
Why Process Matters
One of the most common objections I hear is, “Our people already know how to do their jobs.”
Your employee who has been doing the same job for twenty years doesn’t need a documented process to perform at a high level. But what about the new employee doing that job for the first time? Or the experienced hire who spent the last ten years working for another company that did things completely differently?
Without documented processes, every new employee starts from a different place. Training takes longer. Quality becomes inconsistent. Small mistakes become recurring problems. Improvement becomes difficult because everyone is following a slightly different playbook.
Documented processes aren’t just about efficiency. They make onboarding faster, create consistency, support quality, and allow a business to scale. They also create the foundation for continuous improvement. As Sir Dave Brailsford demonstrated with the British Cycling Team, small improvements made consistently—what he called marginal gains—compound into extraordinary results.
The value becomes even more apparent during growth by acquisition. If your best practices exist only in the minds of your long-time employees, there is no clear way to integrate another company into your organization. A documented process becomes the standard that allows multiple organizations to operate as one.
What Processes Should You Document?
Here’s the good news. You don’t need to document everything. Every company has hundreds of processes. Trying to capture every one of them is an overwhelming task that rarely gets finished.
Instead, apply the Pareto Principle. Focus on the twenty percent of your processes that drive eighty percent of your results.
Ask yourself:
- Which processes have the greatest impact on our clients?
- Which ones most influence quality, profitability, or schedule?
- Where do mistakes cost us the most?
- Which activities do we perform over and over again?
Start there.
Those critical processes will deliver the greatest return on your effort.
How Much Detail Is Enough?
This is where documenting process becomes both science and art. The science is easy. Identify the major steps. Put them in the proper sequence. Assign ownership for each step. The art is knowing when to stop!
Engineers, in particular, love to be comprehensive. I’ve seen a simple process become a fifty-page procedure because every possible exception and contingency had to be documented. The result? No one reads it.
When people are under pressure, they don’t have time to search through a manual. They need guidance they can absorb in a minute or two.
Start with the major steps and the person or role responsible for each one. Capture enough detail that someone unfamiliar with the process can understand it without trying to document every possible scenario. You can always add detail later if experience shows it’s needed.
The goal isn’t to create perfect documentation. The goal is to make the right way the easy way.
Where Process Often Breaks Down
Even a well-designed process has little value if no one can find it. Too often, companies spend time documenting their best practices only to save them in an obscure folder that everyone promptly forgets exists.
In today’s digital workplace, processes should live where work happens. Whether that’s your project management platform, operating system, knowledge base, or another business tool, they should be easy to find and easy to reference when people need them.
The organizations that consistently outperform their competitors don’t necessarily have the smartest people or the most sophisticated systems. They make it easy for good people to do good work, the same way, every time.
In the BOSS Strategy Execution System™, process creates consistency. Consistency creates confidence. And confidence creates the capacity to grow.
0 Comments