Who in the company is actually responsible for which task? What looks at first like a fairly simple question — especially in smaller companies — can turn out to be quite a challenge on closer inspection. Sure, I know (hopefully) who does what in my own team … but what about responsibilities in the other departments? Who exactly gives me the answer to the one question I have right now? Who actually works in that department? What if I depend on information from an entirely different site — who helps me there? In short: companies are, by their dynamic nature, complicated beasts. So which tools can I set up for myself and my colleagues so that everyone finds their way through this chaos of information and responsibility a little better?
Process management
Yes, that is the simple answer. “But process management only makes everything more complicated,” I can hear you thinking. Well — if you do it wrong, yes. But we want to do this properly, and process management done WELL brings several advantages at once: overview and transparency are the key words. And that is exactly what we want to achieve for our people, isn't it? A TRANSPARENT OVERVIEW of the structure, the people and the processes inside the company.
Which leaves the question: how, exactly? “I have so many processes and employees that I can barely find my own way through them.” It doesn't have to be that way — which is why we have …
1. A process map
Processes set up? Very good. What is not good is having them fly around the system at random. To keep order there, we use the process map. The process map arranges your company's workflows into higher-level process groups and presents them simply and understandably. Looking for an invoicing process? Off to finance. How do the other sales people run a pitch? Off to the sales processes. Clustering at its finest, and often nicely laid out graphically too.
2. An org chart
So we have drawn the site plan for our processes. But how do I see who is responsible at which process step, and who exactly I have to inform once I have done my part? This is where we come to the link to the list of people — or, ideally, to the roles and departments inside the company. To map that list we use the org chart. Here the company is shown hierarchically, often as a tree running downwards, in which every employee is assigned to their department, which has a department head, who in turn sits under their own manager, until we finally arrive at management level at the top. Makes sense? Makes sense. As an old hand in the company this may strike you as a little excessive, but believe me: as a newly hired rookie, you would have wished for it too.
Process map and org chart — the combination of the two brings order to the system and helps us keep an overview of it. And since a process management system can — ideally — be understood as a “digital likeness” of your company, it follows that a good understanding of the structure and the workflows inside the company also helps people find their way around the real company better. Excellent, isn't it? And really so simple to answer … thanks to the right tool.