A look at the source
Let's take a step back first: what exactly is a “flowchart”? Asked that question, your trusty artificially intelligent helper might produce a definition along these lines:
“A flowchart is a visual representation of a process, system or algorithm, made up of various symbolic shapes such as rectangles, diamonds, circles and arrows. These symbols represent the different steps, decisions, actions and connections in the process.”
Good, thanks, post finished, right? Well — let's unpack it. A flowchart does nothing other than present the individual steps of a process graphically. Different work steps, decisions and any other events that can occur during the process are distinguished by different geometric shapes. Arrows make the order of the workflow clear — the “flow” in which tasks are meant to be completed. What emerges is a connected graph, read from one (or more) starting events towards one (or more) end points, potentially with the odd loop along the way. The whole thing might then look like this:
The question of why exactly this form of representation is used for visualizing PROCESSES answers itself here: what we are visualizing is precisely THAT — a FLOW.
Once it flows …
So let's turn our attention instead to the advantages of presenting a process as a flowchart; after all, I could just as easily record my process as prose, as a table, or as a checklist.
Clear visualization: Well, first of all a visualization is of course faster and easier to grasp than a large pile of text. The visual component makes the structure of the workflow considerably easier to follow in particular — a factor that becomes important as soon as more than one strand runs at the same time, or loops can occur. It is precisely here that a flowchart offers big advantages over a tabular representation too.
Spotting room for improvement: better visibility and comprehensibility of the individual work steps make it easier to see where problems can arise in the process. The marketing team generates leads by the bucketload, but only a handful reach sales? Then something is probably going wrong in the communication between the departments. In the same way, it becomes easier to follow when errors occur in the process, and how they can be fixed.
Effective communication: presenting a process as a flowchart creates a “common language” for everyone involved in the company, no matter which department or which site they come from. The C-level manager should be able to read and understand the flowchart just as well as an apprentice in production (the author's opinion: and if that isn't the case, you may be doing something wrong).
Simple standardization: presenting things as a flowchart provides an efficient basis for standardizing processes. When everyone knows what the process has to look like graphically, they also know how it has to be carried out for real. That also produces more consistent results.
Understanding how things connect: flowcharts show the relationships between the different activities of a workflow transparently. That transparency makes it clear to everyone what role they play in the workflow, and how they interact with the rest of the workforce in relation to this process.
Measuring KPIs: flowcharts provide an ideal basis for defining key performance indicators (KPIs): because every step and every decision in the process is clearly defined, the performance of the process can be analyzed and monitored better.
Without simplicity and clarity, things back up
All of these advantages of course only hold if the flowchart really is comprehensible. That means it has to be precise and detailed enough that every facet of a process can be grasped in an instant, but it shouldn't be so complicated that it risks causing confusion or incomprehension. Hitting that “golden mean” takes a good deal of judgment from the process owner.
Building and updating flowcharts also involves a certain amount of effort, both in the initial rollout and in continuous upkeep. It should also be said that the rather static nature of a flowchart isn't ideally suited to every process, and that it doesn't always capture the dynamics of the “real world” without further ado.
That said, sufficient care and experience on the part of the company's process owner can remedy this: it is up to the process manager to find the right middle ground for the company and to see it through.
In summary: the flow often leads to success
There is a reason flowcharts are used for workflows of every kind: they simply offer a straightforward way to establish clear, transparent communication of how things run. Flowcharts make it possible to analyze both individual steps and whole processes thoroughly — and, handled properly, they have virtually no drawbacks.
So what are you waiting for? Off you go — build a flowchart for your own workflows.