Process Inventory, Say What?
Have you and your team ever inventoried your processes? It’s super easy and there are so many benefits! Here’s how you do it:
Supplies: Sticky Notes, Sharpies, White Board/Large Post-it Paper
Get your team together!
Pick a Scribe (a person to document the discussion)
List out all the “processes” in your team
Sometimes it’s easier to go around the room and ask, what are the processes you work on?
Don’t be surprised if this is the hardest part. It’s sometimes difficult to identify the “things” we do every day into process. This is a part of the learning.
Once you have them listed walk through each one and document
Who is the owner or lead?
Who are your process partners (those who have a piece of the process)?
Who are your customers?
Once you have the list created run through again and ask this question:
What’s the health of the process?
Red – Process needs evaluation or improvement. (Don’t be afraid of red, think of it as a signal “to do” something. :)
Yellow - Process could use some work.
Green – Process is healthy!
Add any correlating notes as to why you rated that way.
Once your inventory is documented it’s a key tool to use with your team. Huddle around your process board at least once a month and discuss how things are going and what needs to be worked on next. Maybe you have a process that’s in the yellow that could use some improvement on processing time. As a team you can decide the next steps and how to approach it.
Benefits
Visibility into your team body of work.
Clarity on who owns the process.
Clarity on who your partners are and who could be impacted by a change (if you make one)
Focus on customer! Keeps them front of mind!
Awareness on how your processes are doing.
Keep it easy. You can modify and improve the list as you go. Just getting it documented and posted for discussion is the whole point!
Try it out and tell me what you learn.
Your Problem Solving Latina Friend,
