What you can and cannot do when designing processes

Take the time to learn the process you want to restructure. A great way to do this is to take part in the execution of the order or some stage of the process and follow its progress from the beginning to the end.

Depict the current process as a "swimming lanes" diagram. Each department involved in the process should have its own horizontal or vertical stripe. This will allow you to clearly see how often the process moves from one department to another.

Prepare the process design team, and the entire organization, for the fact that mistakes in this matter simply cannot be avoided. No one has ever created a perfect project the first time.

Each team should deal with only one process. Try to make it consist of two-thirds of the insiders, that is, employees of different departments of the organization involved in this process, and one third of outsiders, that is, those who have nothing to do with the process.

Immediately make it clear to team members that their position may change, i.e. if they wish, they have the right to transfer responsibility to others and take on the role of consultant. Then it will be easier for you to move them to another position if necessary.

Constantly tell everyone in the organization what your team is doing so that there is no room for gossip and rumors, and employees do not feel guilty because they left their old job.

Do not get too carried away with the analysis of the process - this can be done endlessly, and as a result, the design work slows down and it becomes more difficult to achieve the goal.

Do not try to depict the new process using the "swimming lanes" scheme that was used in the analysis of the old process. As a result, you can again engage in the construction of functional "mines", and in fact your main task is to understand what operations the new process should perform and who will be responsible for this.

Do not skip the stages of modeling and experimental tests - this is the only way to detect and correct your mistakes without major losses.

Do not include more than nine or less than five people in the design team. If the team is large, it will become clumsy, and if it is small, you will miss people and different points of view.

Do not create a new process in the image and likeness of the old one, otherwise you will make only superficial improvements, and the results will disappoint you, and further work on the implementation of the process will be stopped.

Don't forget to tell team members that they will always be able to return to their old job, otherwise they will strive to work here and there.