If you want to get really good at getting computers to do work for you, it's very important that you understand and manage processes. It's much more easier to program computers if you understand the underlying processes in your work first. So we need to increase our own knowledge of processes first. Let's get started.

Process is at the core of everything we do. Someone approaches you to do work, you do it and give them the result. That is already a process with a beginning, middle and end. We can make investments to improve our processes. Small investments now will pay off greatly later, especially if a process is repeatable and high volume. So let's look in detail at what a process is.

There are a handful of key things that make up a process:

Trigger. How do we know to start the process? The trigger can be a person reaching out to you. Or an event like a contract expiring. Or a set time, like every January 1st we do a review. Every process has to have a trigger. What is your trigger?

Actor. Who exactly is doing the process? If nobody is assigned, then the likelihood of the process being completed decreases. You could even appoint an intake manager who will determine the best person to assign it to. Or you could give your customers a roster of your team members and say "These are the people who will help you with different kinds of requests. Reach out to the appropriate one." Every process needs to have a person (or even an inanimate actor) to whom it is assigned.

Inputs. Give me the inputs I need in order to help you. Not getting the right inputs up front causes us to go back to the requester. This back and forth takes unnecessary time. Shorten that time. Get them to give you the exact inputs you need the first time. Is it still unclear? Train them. Record the training. Put the training right next to the intake form so you don’t have to take time training new people every week. The inputs should also be exactly what you need in order to create the output. Nothing extra. You should only be "adding" an input into the output if it adds value. Who determines if it adds value? Ultimately, the requester, the customer. Therefore, if you're doing something you think adds value, but the customer doesn't know about it, and the customer doesn't experience the value and didn't ask for it, then what you're doing is a waste of time. (A quick note here about legal requirements: This last idea does not completely apply to legal requirements. We often fulfill legal requirements because they are required and we would experience a negative consequence if we don't fulfill them. This is why legal is sometimes seen as not adding value. Legal teams should communicate the value that they add and decrease activities that are not adding value, while still fulfilling legal requirements.)

Processing. This includes clear instructions, tools, materials, any specialized knowledge needed. Like a recipe along with the ingredients and equipment, perhaps a cook who went to cooking school. This is where the sausage is made. Get this down to an exact science and you can start using computers to automate your process as long as you have the rest of the pieces in place. Computers are very good at following clear instructions. They make your high-volume tasks completely repeatable. Humans on the other hand, can be less reliable. So the more processes you can give to computers to do, the more you can free up your humans to do the higher-level things that they are good at and enjoy doing.

Output. This is the result of your process which you hand off to the next person, perhaps the original person who made the request. Notice here, that your output might be the trigger for somebody else's process for further processing. Another thing about outputs: if there is no output, what was the point of the process? If your output was a contract, but now we have no idea where the contract is and we don’t know its contents, where is the value in that? You also need to report on your outputs to tell the story of your work. If you do not communicate about your work, it's also as if your work never happened. This is a significant part of Communication, which will be covered in another training. Your output should be the culmination of all the inputs. If you have left over inputs that were not needed and not used to add value to the output, then what was the point of gathering those inputs? That would be a waste of time.

Also notice that in the middle of your processing there might be things that come up where you need somebody else to start a nested process before you can go further. So processes can be infinitely deep within each other.

It's therefore important that we map out all of our processes.

Think of it like a bakery. When does a baker know to start baking a cake? There might be two triggers: 1) When inventory is low or 2) when a customer makes a custom order. How does a customer make an order? They come into the bakery, call, or make an online order. What are the inputs we need from the customer? Their order details! How does the customer know what details the baker needs and what is possible? An order form and a menu! A customer cannot just come in and say "I’m hungry". That would be like in our company if a business person just said "I need legal help". We would be like, "Um, I need more details".

So we present our customer with an order form and a menu. They know the exact possibilities and the details we need from them. Is it possible for a customer to go outside the boundaries and make a special request? Of course. Like that carrot cake they are ordering. They might want organic carrots. Grown by the bakery in a little garden out back. Is our bakery willing to go to the lengths to add the value the customer wants from growing our own organic carrots? Maybe, but it's better to map this out ahead of time and build it into our process.

This brings up another point. Outsourcing and specialization. A normal bakery would say "No, we'll get the carrots from the grocery store next door. We are not a carrot farm. We are a bakery." It really depends on your situation whether it makes sense to go outside of your area of expertise to fulfill a special request and whether the special request really adds value. Do you see yourself as a white-glove service or a shared service? Like in a legal department, do you reach out to outside counsel for a quick question? Or do you get your hands dirty and go work in the soil growing those organic carrots? These things are great to plan up front so your process becomes repeatable and not every situation is simply one-off. These organic home-grown carrots connect back to the idea of adding value. If they in fact do not add value, the customer doesn't know about the value or experience the value and did not request these special carrots, then the carrots do not in fact add value and we should stop this activity since it would be a waste of time. You might see these special carrots in your work life going forward. Customers want to be treated special and there are times when it does add appropriate value. But if you are doing something that does not add value, then it is a waste of time.

Now that we have a trigger (customer orders a cake) and we have an actor (a baker, possibly with a team of specialized people under her) and we have the inputs from the order form with the help of a menu, now we need to make sure we have the rest of the inputs: the ingredients, equipment, and culinary knowledge. Do I have the tools I need to do my work? Do I know what is expected of me at work? Do I know where my job ends and my colleague's begins? Now it's time for the processing. Are you following a recipe that is tried and true or are you making it up as you go along every time? Will that carrot cake taste different if your colleague makes it instead of you? Are you fresh out of carrots so somebody has to make the decision to go to the grocery store or plant some seeds in the back garden? Eventually, all the movements could be done by an automated factory if we plan it out right.

Congratulations! You've now successfully made the carrot cake. The output. And you've delivered it to the customer. What triggered the customer to order a cake from you? They were probably hungry for cake or it's somebody's birthday. Those are some good triggers. They now have the input required (cake) to have a birthday party! Your process was inside of somebody else's process. So why not advertise your services? Make a menu! Make an order form! Arrange your staff in different specialties, giving them clear instructions and give them the equipment and ingredients they need. After all, they went to cooking school for this. Let them make cakes! (instead of worrying about the process😊)

What are your experiences with improving your processes?