What Comes First Workflows or Processes?

Welcome to another episode of what would Charlotte do where we are talking workflows. Today, I’m answering a question that I have been asked a lot more recently, and that is around, can I just skip the workflow bit and document my processes?

I am a business system and automation consultant, and I run my implementation agency. But there are lots of other people out there that do business systems and business systems consulting, and everything else around that.

But my idea is to create workflows that you can then document into processes. And for some people, you may say, why can’t I just skip that and document the process. The reason is that if you skip creating the workflow. delve right into the documented process, sure that’s something that you’re going to use every single day, or as frequently as you need. But if you skip with the workflow. It’s very difficult to then understand how all the pieces come together.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fFmUcGnQT94

And that’s why I am a firm believer in creating the workflows.

Before you document your processes, I know some other people would say differently I know people say, don’t worry about documents just record your screen, next time you do the task and then hand that off to your team member when you hire one. Although this is a really good strategy to use, and it is a strategy that I suggest using when you are documenting your processes.

It’s also a strategy that’s not very sustainable and it’s not scalable.

And the reason behind that is because if you do hire a team member and you hand them over this video that shows them how you do this particular thing. Fine, they can see it in action. But what happens the next time they do that task.

They have to sit there rewatching the video and then they’ll implement, and the next time, they’ll watch the video, and then implement. Chances are they won’t be able to just watch the video once. They will have to watch the video multiple times or pause it through every section to understand what step needs to be taken.

That’s why I really really believe that you need to have documented processes.

So, not only a view of what needs to happen. But you also need to have the points documented out that almost give that tick box access for your team members to be able to just work through. Because otherwise, you’re going to be billed for that team member watching the video over and over again. Ultimately that’s then going to take them longer to complete that task, and that’s time you could have them spend on something else that’s going to generate a return for your business.

Having the workflows in place means that from a bird’s eye point of view you can see the entire journey.

I usually recommend keeping it really really basic. A lot of the time when I’ve said workflows people have said oh no I don’t really understand what’s happening when they’re doing the workflow. I don’t want you to complicate this workflow, I want you to create a really simple workflow.

You can just use a PowerPoint and create this workflow to just show you where the moving parts join together. Because once you can see that, you can then see if there are any gaps or if there’s anything that has been duplicated.

Or if there are any parts that don’t really need to be there.

But when they’re documented, it can be quite overwhelming to look at just a list of things that you need to do.
This is why I really really believe that no, you should not skip the workflows when creating your processes.
So I hope that’s helped and I hope that’s given you a bit of insight into my answer to Can I Just Skip Creating A Workflows And Go Straight To Documenting Process? If you have any questions, then do get in touch and I’ll be happy to answer them.