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NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS FOR PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

Reading time: about 7 min

It's that time of year again when people make resolutions to be healthier,
happier, and more productive. But resolutions aren't just for individuals. If
you want the teams at your organization to be stronger, why not set a New Year's
resolution to make process improvements that will keep your company competitive?

Every organization follows processes, whether big or small, but few take the
time to spell them out. In fact, according to a 2016 survey by BP Trends Report,
a mere 4% of companies say they always document their processes, while 53% never
or only occasionally do. And that's a problem. Because organizations that don't
know their processes can't determine if they're successful—or change them if
they're not.

Bad processes can lead to inefficiencies, employee burnout, and customer
dissatisfaction. But good processes can enhance productivity, engage your team,
and create products that ensure customer loyalty and business success. Investing
in your company's processes might seem like a big task, but it pays dividends. 

Below are some New Year's resolutions you can make to ensure process
improvements and start the year off on strong footing.


TEAM RESOLUTIONS 

A company is only as good as its teams—and processes can only work when
individuals understand, agree to, and feel inspired by them. Here are some key
ways to ensure that your processes are helping your team members to do their
work productively and with purpose.

Onboarding new team members quickly 

Nothing shows the strengths or weaknesses in your work processes quite like
bringing in a new member. Your company's onboarding process reveals critical
aspects of your organization's process, from who has what knowledge to how that
knowledge is stored and shared.

Most companies adopt ad hoc processes over time, and fail to clearly spell out
who is in charge of which parts of the process or to document how the
organization's processes are communicated. These companies do not keep a
centralized bank of information with all the information a new employee needs to
plug and do their job. Instead, they rely on existing employees to show new
employees the ropes. This process can lead to inefficiencies and a lack of
clarity for new employees, and is especially tricky when some employees work
remotely. Ultimately, it's risky and ineffective to have all the knowledge of a
company's processes reside in the heads of certain employees, because when those
employees leave, the knowledge leaves with them.

Instead of an ad hoc onboarding process that depends on certain employees
communicating informal processes and expectations, resolve to create a
centralized, documented record of company roles, processes, and expectations
that new employees can refer to when starting their new positions. This will
allow new team members to hit the ground running and feel engaged and productive
from the start.   

Giving everyone a chance for their input to be heard 

Even the best-laid plans and processes won't work if your team refuses to adopt
them. To get buy-in on new processes, it's critical to solicit feedback from the
people who will be using them. 

You can start by asking for feedback on existing processes. Try starting with a
small, daily process that everyone uses and work your way up to the bigger ones.
Get feedback from as many people as you can on the process—from team members to
managers. The more people you have responding to the processes, the greater the
perspective you'll have on what is and isn't working. Plus, people will feel
valued and know that their opinions matter, which will increase the likelihood
that they'll adopt the new processes going forward.    

More team alignment 

Once you've resolved to improve your team processes, make another resolution to
bring your team into alignment on how they'll use these processes to do the most
efficient and purposeful work to achieve team goals. 

Involve your team in the whole course of redesigning your processes. Include
them in mapping out how existing processes work, what could be improved or
eliminated, and what processes would work better. Once you've created your new
processes, be sure to communicate with each team member so they know the new
expectations and how the new processes will affect their roles. 

Use technology to visually document workflows, roles, and expectations. You can
use features such as project management timelines and virtual whiteboards to
spell out your team's processes. You can also use communication maps to diagram
out who is in charge of what duties and who should reach out to whom for
guidance.

Don't forget to schedule frequent one-on-ones to get continual feedback from
employees using your new system. This will especially help team members working
in hybrid work environments and ensure everyone feels heard and is on the same
page.


EFFICIENCY RESOLUTIONS 

Now that your team's clear on roles and aligned on goals, it's time to create
processes that make work lean and efficient.

Remove bottlenecks 

To determine how well your existing processes are working, try creating a
process map. A process map visually captures how your processes work, giving you
a bird's-eye view of who does what when, and how.

Once the process map is complete, your team can look it over and evaluate how
well things are working, identifying redundancies and bottlenecks as well as
what's working. It also helps to determine how long each task currently takes,
and what could be done to improve efficiency. 

After you've created and evaluated your process map, you can set new goals and
make new workflows to streamline your processes and create greater efficiency.  

Increase ROI of a process 

Everyone on your team wants a good return on the work they're putting in every
day.  Even the best processes won't help if you don't know what your goals are.
So to get the most bang for your buck, make sure your team is clear on what
their objectives are and why. Do you want to increase sales? Create a new
product? Beat last quarter's revenue? 

After you determine your goals, decide how you'll measure success—and then
measure again and again. Testing and evaluating your processes gives you real
information on whether you're reaching your goals. If you're not, it's time to
go back to the drawing board and tweak your process and make improvements, from
reassigning roles to investing in training or new technology. 

Cut out busywork by automating parts of the process 

Your team members bring valuable skills to their jobs. Don't make them spend
their limited resources on tasks that a machine could do. According to a
McKinsey report, roughly 60% of all occupations have at least 30% of activities
that could be automated. Instead, those tasks are being done by employees,
leading to burnout, lowered productivity, and a decrease in employee
engagement. 

Turn those inefficiencies on their head by using technology to do your team's
busywork, streamlining processes and allowing your employees to do what they're
best at.


DOCUMENTATION RESOLUTIONS 

Once you've set your New Year's resolutions to make process improvements, it's
critical to document those goals so your team actually achieves them. Here are
some simple ways to make sure all your good work isn't lost in translation.

Create a shared library of process documentation 

You've identified ways to improve your processes and do better work, faster. Now
it's time to capture those goals and document new processes so that everyone is
working together toward a common, clear objective.

One of the best ways to make sure everyone is on the same page is to put
everything on the same page—in a shared library where everyone can access the
plans, steps, and processes they'll use in their work going forward. Creating a
shared library helps existing employees know what team expectations are and who
to reach out to for help. It also helps new employees to onboard more quickly,
and have a clear idea of what they need to do and how. And it helps team members
in hybrid work settings, as well, ensuring that everyone has the same
information whether they're on site or not.

Document processes visually in Lucidchart 

Brainstorming, documenting and implementing new processes doesn't have to be a
heavy lift. It can even be enjoyable, bringing your team together to find the
best solutions to everything from bottlenecks to communication breakdowns. 

To help your team brainstorm and create new processes, use Lucidspark, a virtual
whiteboard, capturing everyone's ideas in a clear, visually compelling way.
After you've selected the best ideas and processes from your brainstorm session,
use Lucidchart to create workflows, process maps, and communication plans to
document the process visually. 

Learn how to optimize processes across your hybrid teams.

 



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LEARN HOW TO OPTIMIZE PROCESSES ACROSS YOUR HYBRID TEAMS

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