Execution · Proving to Organising
Mapping your core processes
You know which processes run your company, from a customer coming in to the money coming in, and at which handover the work gets stuck.
Does this sound familiar?
- A client signs, then hears nothing for two weeks because nobody knew it was their turn to pick it up.
- Sales promises a lead time the workshop has never once hit.
- An invoice goes out three weeks late, because nobody thought of the project as finished.
- When a complaint comes in, every department points at the next one.
Who it's for, and when
For founders who can't be everywhere any more, and notice the work no longer goes right on its own. In Proving you map one chain: how the kind of customer you've just learned to win comes in and pays. In Organising you map them all. In Searching it's too early; the chain still changes every month, and it should.
The model
An org chart shows who reports to whom. It tells you nothing about how a customer moves through your company, from first contact to paid invoice. That work cuts across the departments. Rummler and Brache called the space between the boxes on the org chart the white space: that's where work changes hands, and that's where it gets stuck.
So next to the org chart, Harnish puts a second overview: the processes that run the company. From a customer coming in to the money coming in, there are usually six to eight, which you group into three to five main processes. Map each one from start to finish as it really happens now, detours and waiting included. Do it with the people who do the work. They know where it gets stuck, and a map you drew on your own stays yours.
This lesson is about which processes there are and where the work gets stuck. Who looks after a process after that is covered in the lesson An owner for every process, and how to write down a single step in Writing down how you work, without a thick manual.
Verne Harnish, Scaling Up (2014): the Process Accountability Chart, an overview of the processes that together run the company, next to the org chart. The idea that work goes wrong in the handovers between departments comes from Geary Rummler and Alan Brache, Improving Performance (1990), which is about the white space on the org chart.
A name that says what it delivers
Name a process after what it does, with a verb: winning customers, delivering projects, collecting payment. 'Sales' is a group of people; 'winning customers' is work that marketing and the managing director take part in too.
A start and an end
It starts with something from outside, like an enquiry or an order, and ends with a result: a signed contract, a finished installation, a paid invoice. If the end is the moment it leaves someone's desk (the quote's been sent), the hardest part drops out of view.
The handovers
Next to each step, write who does it, and put a cross where the work passes from one person to the next. At each cross, ask: how does the next person know it's their turn, and what do they get handed? Write down how long the work sits there.
Main processes and sub-processes
Nobody remembers a list of twenty. Group them into three to five main processes everyone can name, and put the rest underneath. Job preparation is a step in 'delivering projects', not a main process of its own.
Pitfalls
A habit on the list
'The weekly meeting' or 'the monthly report' ends up on the board as a process. That's a habit, or a step in another process. For each process, ask what it produces at the end, and who's waiting for that.
Watch and read
In three minutes you see what the Process Accountability Chart from Scaling Up looks like: a handful of processes next to the org chart, each one from start to finish.
Watch on YouTubeAn organisation designer shows that the work runs between the boxes on the org chart, and that you won't see it as long as you only look at the boxes.
Watch on YouTubeA former president of Tesla on how, during fast growth, he mapped the processes and kept them simple, together with the people on the front line.
Watch on YouTubeTo go further
Deming uses a game to show that the outcome comes mostly from the process, not from how hard someone tries. Useful for the next time you want to point at a person when something goes wrong.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Scaling Up
Verne Harnish · 2014 · ISBN 9780986019593
This is where you'll find the Process Accountability Chart: the processes that together run the company, from start to finish. Published in Dutch as Scaling up: de groeiformule (Business Contact, 2016, ISBN 9789047008682), 287 pages.
View the bookImproving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart
Geary A. Rummler en Alan P. Brache · 1990 · ISBN 9781118143704
The classic on processes that cut across the org chart, and on the handovers where work gets stuck. The ISBN here is for the third edition (Jossey-Bass, 2013). A specialist book, not an easy read.
View the bookApply it
- 1
Start with the list for your type of company
Below, for each kind of company, is the chain from a customer coming in to the money coming in. Take the list closest to yours, cross out what doesn't apply and add what's missing.
- 2
Pick the chain with the most hassle
Where do the complaints come from, or where do customers chase you most often? Map that one first.
- 3
Spend an hour mapping it with the people who do the work
Someone from every step the work passes through, including the engineer and the accounts team. At a whiteboard, as it happens now. Put a cross at every handover and write down how long the work sits there.
- 4
Pick the most expensive handover
At which cross does the customer wait longest? For that one, agree what the next person gets handed, and ask who's going to look after the process (see the lesson An owner for every process).
Examples
An agency or service provider
1. Bringing in enquiries 2. Writing a proposal and following up 3. Starting the work: intake, team and planning 4. Doing the work and adjusting course 5. Delivering and reviewing 6. Logging hours and invoicing 7. Collecting payment Main processes: winning customers (1-2), delivering the work (3-5), collecting payment (6-7).
An installation or construction company
1. Enquiry and site survey 2. Writing the quote and following up 3. Job preparation: drawings, materials, permits 4. Scheduling people and equipment 5. Carrying out the work on site 6. Handing over to the client, finishing the snagging list 7. Invoicing stage payments and the final account 8. Maintenance and service Main processes: winning customers (1-2), delivering projects (3-6), collecting payment (7), keeping customers (8).
A trading company
1. Winning customers and managing accounts 2. Taking and confirming orders 3. Purchasing and restocking 4. Picking and shipping 5. Handling returns and complaints 6. Invoicing and collecting payment Main processes: winning customers (1), delivering orders (2-5), collecting payment (6). Purchasing sits under delivering orders, because the customer only notices it when the product isn't there.
A software company
1. Bringing in leads and giving a demo 2. Closing the contract 3. Onboarding until the customer is live 4. Support and questions 5. Building and releasing the product 6. Invoicing and direct debits 7. Renewing or expanding Main processes: winning customers (1-2), getting customers live and keeping them (3-4), building the product (5), collecting payment and renewing (6-7).
A handover in someone's inbox
An installation company mapped 'delivering projects'. The job planner only saw the signed contract when the client rang to ask where the engineer was. The contract landed with the salesperson and went no further. One cross on the board, and the biggest source of complaints.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- Go to Processes. On the Processes tab under KPIs you set out your main processes with the sub-processes underneath. You can also start with Pick processes from a kit and adjust them.
- You look back on a situation from your own work. Only you can read what you write.
- You set a date with yourself, and on that day the app asks how it went.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.Your business partner writes down the core processes as: sales, production, accounts and HR. What's wrong with that?
2.Your salesperson says 'winning customers' is finished once the quote has gone out. What do you say?
3.After an afternoon with your leadership team there are twenty-two processes on the board. What do you do?
4.A signed contract sits untouched for two weeks before planning hears about it. Where do you look first?
5.You're going to map 'delivering projects'. The quality manager has already described it in the manual. How do you go about it?
6.You have three customers and adjust your offer after every conversation. An adviser says you should now write down your core processes. What do you do?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- An owner for every process · Every main process has one owner who keeps an eye on the whole chain and improves it, and there's a written agreement with the line managers on who decides about the process and who decides about the people.
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