Having trouble deconstructing your business in terms of processes? Try this exercise on for size.
Imagine how a process would flow if you and only you had to perform the entire thing. Pick a particular key activity, and begin looking at all the tasks that enable that activity to be completed. Assuming you have the ability to perform all the tasks required and access to all the technology available in you organization, when would each activity be accomplished, from beginning to end? Keep pulling back until you’re looking at a long string of activities, which together form a process.
Because you are only one person, the process should flow more or less in a sequence, with only a few elements that could potentially occur at the same time. Does this process look anything like what is currently happening within your organization? Is it more or less complex than what you have?
Examine your single-person process. At which points would the addition of one other person make the biggest impact? Are there strings of tasks that could be performed simultaneously by two individuals, cutting the duration of the process down considerably? How much effort and time does the addition of one or two people save? Write it down. Are there places where inexpensive technology would vastly increase efficiency? Are there steps that can be cut out—or ones that should be cut out because the value they contribute is not worth the time or effort?
Once you have answered those questions, consider the process in light of the resources available at your organization and the actual scale of work. In other words, compare your organization of one to the real deal. Does your individual process shed light on places where your organization's process can be streamlined? Is your organization’s current level of staffing proportionate to what you determined you needed in your ultra-streamlined version? What are the differences? How can your experience of the process as a single person inform the way the larger organization accomplishes the same thing?
Does this exercise work for you? Does it provide a new perspective? Is that perspective even valid when compared to the full scale of your organization? Sometimes, an extreme thought exercise is the only way to simplify the extremely complex nature of some processes. Send us a comment about what it revealed (or didn't reveal) for you.