What is a process? It’s any action you take to accomplish an activity. Having clearly defined processes for recurring activities enables you to spend time on the things that are most important to your business. When everyone is working through the same processes in the same way, your brand is strengthened and your core values are followed. Concise processes make your business more efficient and they can provide time for creative solutions to big picture challenges. By developing and evolving your processes, less time and resources will be wasted, in turn making your business more efficient.
In rapidly growing companies, existing processes frequently break. Alternatively, existing inefficiencies may become magnified causing delays and lost profitability. It’s also quite common for people to bypass existing processes in an effort to speed up activities. Unfortunately, this frequently results in inconsistent quality or customer service, both of which will adversely impact your brand.
When evaluating the processes of a company, most consultants will start at the beginning, map them out step by step, and then figure out what is working and what is not. At RedKnight we like a more direct approach, so we start by identifying what is broken and go from there. We compare how a process is working to how it is supposed to work, then work with employees to either create a more efficient process or fix the current one. There are times when a process must be changed completely, but many times the problem is a small, easily overlooked issue. Seemingly unimportant steps in a process are sometimes skipped because individuals don’t understand how they interact with other people in the process. We work with everyone involved to make sure each step of a process is understood and carried out properly. We will work with you to restructure any processes so that they fit closely with your internal branding and the culture of your company.
The key element in our training and consulting process is getting employees involved and guiding them to understand why processes are important. In many cases we hear: “This is how it’s always been done.” And yet, the person doing it may question the process. This should be encouraged. After all, would you still cut a plank using a handsaw just because that’s the way it’s always been done? Often, those who perform the task everyday have ideas about changing a process, yet they have never been asked. We not only help improve processes, we also involve your employees which results in a smoother implementation of the new process.
"People want guidance, not rhetoric; they need to know what the plan of action is and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and the authority to act on it."
Howard Schultz
