[MUSIC PLAYING]
DAVE WILLIAMS: Doctor Edwards Deming said,
if you can't describe work as a process, you can't improve it.
One of the most powerful and accessible process improvement
tools we have to learn with is something called a process map.
A process map is a visual display of the activities of a process or a system.
Process maps are extremely useful and helpful
for understanding how a current process is
designed by enabling you to quickly identify opportunities for improvement.
Once a process has been improved, process maps
can also act as guidance to support people doing standard work
and following a designed process reliably.
Process mapping is a powerful exercise for learning and improving.
I often describe it as one of the secret weapons for helping teams
to identify variation and potential failure points in their work processes.
In an ideal scenario, I like to do process mapping
with a mixed group of stakeholders of the process we're trying to improve.
I also strive to go to where work happens versus doing it in a conference
room or a meeting space.
I begin by inviting the team to think about the average patient
or someone who represents the normal population this process must
serve every day.
Then I ask them to attempt to describe the process at a macro level, as
high a level as possible.
So let's take an example here and draw just a simple diagram.
So usually, every process has a start.
And the start and the end often use a shape that looks like a pill.
And then what you do is you start to ask yourself,
what are each of the steps in the process?
And so we might go and say, well, here is step one.
Put a box there.
And step two.
And step three.
And maybe after step three, there's actually
a decision that has to be made.
So we reflect that by making it a diamond,
and that may bring us to an extra process step down here.
So if yes, for example, it may continue on-- I'll put a little Y here, or just
write a yes-- it'll continue on down the process.
If it's no, then there might be a decision
to go down here and fix something before the process continues.
And then we keep going until we reach the end, and again, at the end,
we often describe it as a pill.
So each step along the way, right.
We've got process step one and two and three
and then there was a decision that had to be made, and so that either
takes us to step four or drops us down here to this step
before we move up to four.
But it's basically a simple visual display
of the steps in a process from start to finish.
Now, in my experience, most teams won't make it
past the first step or the second step in a process
before they start describing multiple ways a step can be done,
or they disagree on what the step is or identify a failure point.
All of this is fantastic for generating improvement ideas.
This dialogue and listening here is essential for learning,
and I try to balance keeping people focused
on getting to a first draft process and honoring and capturing all of the input
from team members.
There are a number of different approaches
you can take in doing a process map.
From the very basic hand-drawn flow diagram
on a whiteboard or piece of paper like I just did, to more complex variations,
including value stream analysis, spaghetti diagrams, swim lane diagrams.
Each helps us understand better how work actually happens.
Process mapping is a great tool.
Think about a process you want to better understand and see
if you can map it out from start to finish.