Four Signs a Process is Ripe for Improvement
4/22/2025
Whether you have a specific process in mind or are looking to make broader changes, here are four approaches used to determine processes that are ready for improvement.
Ask the Right Questions of the Right People at the Right Time
Ask the people who perform the specific task or high priority tasks for the following questions:
At some point, process improvement grew somewhat synonymous with management decisions, when the opposite should be true. Asking the people closest to a process is critical. Sometimes there is pain or resistance to change but new processes will fail without input from those who know the outcomes best.
Timing is also key. Waiting until something is blowing up is the wrong time to ask the question. That creates urgency that leads to half-baked solutions and does not allow the time to truly think through the best approach versus the fastest approach.
Evaluate Areas of Increasing Cost with No Correlation to Revenue Growth
When a business center requires increasing investment but shows no growth in members, attendees, sales, etc., that’s a good time to look at processes and efficiencies.
It’s also a great time to sit down and get to the bottom of why costs are increasing. Are there extremely custom processes that require a lot of technical underpinning? Are processes so inefficient that they require more people than they should?
If we flip that question on its head, where are you unable to move the needle in profitability? “Profitability” can be a dirty word for associations, but the fact is associations need to be profitable on some level to survive.
Ask Yourself Whether You Have Lost the Ability to Map Processes
Institutional memory fades at an incredible pace…until a change is suggested. It’s at that point that every issue, emotion, and detail of how the current process came to fruition is drug onto the conference room table.
Ask yourselves, “How did we get here?” If you can’t find the answer or the answer is rooted in old thinking, it is probably time for process improvement.
Work toward process mapping on key processes and take notes of maps that are circuitous or that double back on themselves repeatedly. How many stops along the way of any process are done with intention?
Many times, the phrases “that’s how the system works” or “because that’s how I was told to do it” are perfectly valid. However, they can also be phrases that become reasons for resisting improvement.
Study Issue Resolution Logs, Customer Service Calls or Help Desk Tickets
Do the same issues come up repeatedly across the organization? This might be an indication that a process is fundamentally broken or overly complicated. It can also be a sign that there is no process at all.
While it can be complicated, it’s also a good idea to find places where the organization is going backward in leveraging technology. Lots of organizations make substantial investments in systems that can handle complex processes. However, they don’t document the processes for using the system, so over time that complexity becomes something akin to a bug.
In closing, consider this: Process maps or process improvement never conclude. The world in which we function is ever-changing, and we have to adapt. Adopting the above habits or simply picking a time of year to focus on documented process maps and review can help you stay current and can help identify opportunities ripe for improvement before the process becomes onerous.
Ask the people who perform the specific task or high priority tasks for the following questions:
- What takes you longer today than it did six months ago?
- Is that because of growth or increasing complexity?
- Where do you see opportunities to save time and other resources?
- What could you be doing instead that would provide more value?
At some point, process improvement grew somewhat synonymous with management decisions, when the opposite should be true. Asking the people closest to a process is critical. Sometimes there is pain or resistance to change but new processes will fail without input from those who know the outcomes best.
Timing is also key. Waiting until something is blowing up is the wrong time to ask the question. That creates urgency that leads to half-baked solutions and does not allow the time to truly think through the best approach versus the fastest approach.
Evaluate Areas of Increasing Cost with No Correlation to Revenue Growth
When a business center requires increasing investment but shows no growth in members, attendees, sales, etc., that’s a good time to look at processes and efficiencies.
It’s also a great time to sit down and get to the bottom of why costs are increasing. Are there extremely custom processes that require a lot of technical underpinning? Are processes so inefficient that they require more people than they should?
If we flip that question on its head, where are you unable to move the needle in profitability? “Profitability” can be a dirty word for associations, but the fact is associations need to be profitable on some level to survive.
Ask Yourself Whether You Have Lost the Ability to Map Processes
Institutional memory fades at an incredible pace…until a change is suggested. It’s at that point that every issue, emotion, and detail of how the current process came to fruition is drug onto the conference room table.
Ask yourselves, “How did we get here?” If you can’t find the answer or the answer is rooted in old thinking, it is probably time for process improvement.
Work toward process mapping on key processes and take notes of maps that are circuitous or that double back on themselves repeatedly. How many stops along the way of any process are done with intention?
Many times, the phrases “that’s how the system works” or “because that’s how I was told to do it” are perfectly valid. However, they can also be phrases that become reasons for resisting improvement.
Study Issue Resolution Logs, Customer Service Calls or Help Desk Tickets
Do the same issues come up repeatedly across the organization? This might be an indication that a process is fundamentally broken or overly complicated. It can also be a sign that there is no process at all.
While it can be complicated, it’s also a good idea to find places where the organization is going backward in leveraging technology. Lots of organizations make substantial investments in systems that can handle complex processes. However, they don’t document the processes for using the system, so over time that complexity becomes something akin to a bug.
In closing, consider this: Process maps or process improvement never conclude. The world in which we function is ever-changing, and we have to adapt. Adopting the above habits or simply picking a time of year to focus on documented process maps and review can help you stay current and can help identify opportunities ripe for improvement before the process becomes onerous.
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