Workflow is an interesting, complex word that can have a profound meaning and impact on a person’s career. Whether figuring out how to provide very simple, efficient services to clients or weaving a complex net of supply chain logistics for a multinational corporation with intertwined clients, partners and customers, a clean workflow is the beating heart of success.
When managed properly, workflow is the key that unlocks innovation, which is the fun part of any career. Here are a few ways to think about workflow that could help you:
Flatten the org chart
When your company or team has an organizational chart that looks like an extended family tree, then it often means a flow chart of responsibilities. While that looks clean on paper, it’s going to come with no shortage of headaches.
The first is that you’re creating a larger-than-necessary process chain where things can go wrong. When focusing on complex processes and workflows, understanding, limiting and controlling variables are the secret sauce to make it all work. An overly complicated org chart can get in the way of that.
By flattening the org chart, you also steer people away from an ivory tower or “not-my-job” mentality and encouraging collaboration among peers.
Understanding ease of use
The biggest trip up when it comes to workflow is making sure ease of use is a factor at both ends of the process.
Some teams get hung up on making the workflow easy to use internally without giving enough thought to whether the process is still easy to interact with on the client side. This leads to frustration and lack of engagement.
On the other side, some workflows are geared so toward client satisfaction that the work is a headache-inducing mess for a team trying to put the finished product in the client’s hands.
It is absolutely essential to develop a workflow that is easy to execute by the team and easy to engage with for the client.
Tailor your software suite
In today’s business realm, there is no end to the software available to accomplish the work.
From managing client data to billing and scheduling, software can be generalized or tailor-made.
From scheduling software that helps manage larger teams to clinic software that provides only the features you need, there are options for every industry and the functions within those industries.
Research what best fits your needs and helps improve your workflow’s ease of use.
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Empower your team
By flattening your org chart, you are unlocking ways to get time back on the management side through empowering your team.
If you provide an effective workflow that provides a clear path and use software that builds meaningful infrastructure, having a team of collaborators empowered to be nimble and apply their skills to nurture relationships and address variables as they come up allow managers to focus on strategy and spend less time in the trenches. And when they do step into the trenches, they can pick their battles effectively.
Empowering your team stimulates innovation by allowing it to come from any part of your team. It empowers managers to recognize innovation and fold it into a strategy in a meaningful way.
- This post has been written by an outside source – See Disclosure Policy
