What do you think of when you hear the word “processes”? Does some image like a manufacturing line pop into your mind? Except for giving a speech, would you rather do anything EXCEPT look at your business processes?
Have you ever used a recipe? Then you followed a process.
Every process has ingredients. Let’s look at something you do every day, replying to email. The easiest way to figure out your Ingredients are to work from large to small. So, in our email example, you need an Internet connection, a device capable of receiving and sending email, and a program that allows you to receive and send email.
The first definition in Wordnik is the one we want: a series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result. With an email, we may choose to delete it, store it, or respond to the sender at once or at a future date. Each of those outcomes needs slightly different steps to achieve. These steps are the HOW, that is, the Instructions you follow using the recipe’s ingredients.
In this example, we are going to read an email and immediately respond to it. So, the steps could look like this.
- Open email.
- Read contents.
- Select “Reply all.”
- Type in your response.
- Hit Send.
How do you feel about looking at your processes now? By using the format of a recipe as an example, you’ve seen that processes are not something that you need an engineer to figure out. Take heart, even the most complex systems and processes can be broken down. Remember: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
What topics would you like to know more about? This is your resource. Comment below or email me.
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