5 Steps to Streamline Operations for All Business Sizes
Are you looking to streamline operations? Is process improvement something you’ve been thinking about lately?
Are you doubting the how-tos of your work and wondering if there are better ways to get the job done?
If you responded YES to one of the above questions, then this article is for you.
In this article, we are going to go through the exact process I follow to help companies achieve their operational goals.
It does not matter if you are a start-up or a well-established business, the framework is the same.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
Step 1. Scalable org structure.
Jumping right into the processes is a big mistake. If your org (organizational) structure is not scalable, optimizing your processes won’t get you anywhere. So the first thing we want to do is remove the org chart roadblock.
That means we need to:
- Build the org chart.
- Stress-test it.
- Fix the issues.
Building the org chart
Org chart that is built by the CEO/business owner/COO can be trashed immediately (unless this is your first day of operations).
Instead, we are going to ask every individual team member to fill up a simple form.
Why so? That’s because we want to know what the org chart actually looks like instead of how the CEO imagines it in his/her head. Two completely different things as practice shows.
Now that we have data collected, let’s go and build the chart.
When reviewing the org chart, search for these issues:
- Missing leadership positions
Basically, a department full of front-line team members.
- Too many reports
That’s a leader/manager with more than 5–7 reports.
- Cross-reporting
One person reports to multiple people.
- Wrong reporting
People report to the wrong manager.
These are the indicators of misaligned responsibilities, people wearing multiple hats, people out of capacity, etc.
Org chart gives you the first insights into existing issues without even looking at the processes.
Stress-test your organizational structure
Now let’s move from the org chart (actual people working at your company) to the org structure (positions/roles structure).
At this stage, we just want to understand if we can scale this structure and if scaling might cause any issues.
Front-line team members (architects in the example) are dependent on the demand of the specific customers.
Now that we have identified all the issues it is time to fix those OR at least build an implementation plan for moving from the current chart/structure to a new chart/structure.
Work is evenly distributed across front-line team members (architects) with a separate department responsible for customer experience. Scale by adding more team members and more management levels.
Start-ups can do it within a week, but bigger companies need months to complete the transition.
Step 2. Streamline processes.
This is not an overnight task either. Streamlining/optimizing/improving processes consists of these steps:
- Defining processes per department
- Process mapping
- Review and optimization.
Defining
As simple as listing processes per department. You can go as granular as per the role. At this stage, it does not matter. We will get into the granularity later down the road.
Mapping
Every process must have a process map. I talked about process mapping and in general about process development in these articles:
- Business Consultants Use This Framework for Process Development
- TOP 6 Process Improvement Tools to Avoid a Complete Disaster
These articles will give you enough context to complete the mapping step.
Review and optimize
We are looking for these issues in your process maps:
- Over-involvement of management
Too many review stages, for example, or active participation of upper management in execution processes (front-liner job). This can point out issues like lack of training/expertise/trust, defective process, or lack of workforce. - Repetitive tasks
Doing the same thing over and over again without adding value to the customer with each repetition. - Wrong order of tasks
First this then that might sound great when you actually execute but does not make any sense when you look at it on the paper. - Non-value adding tasks
We do it just because it is the way it is. Probably, it made sense somewhere in the past and hence nobody ever questioned it. Now that you look at it, you cannot find a valid reason to keep doing it. - Opportunities to automate
Everything can be automated but that is not the approach to take. Look for the small things that can make a huge difference. Start with something as simple as when this happens, do this. You will always have time to add complexity to it. Remember, at this stage, we just want to identify opportunities. - Bottlenecks
Tasks/steps that take too much time (think outliers) - Costly tasks
Tasks/steps that stand out in terms of their cost. You can look at those as opportunities to save money. - Missing steps
These are the missing tasks that damage the process (affect the quality of the outputs).
By this time you might have identified all the issues/weak spots.
Duplicate your process map and rebuild it fixing all the problems. This way you will have both versions (old and new) always available.
Step 3. Implement systems.
Process maps are nothing without systems to operate those processes. Each system must consist of:
- Actual system to execute the process
- Control component to measure the effectiveness.
The system is not just a one-thing-fits-all kind of solution. Think of it more as [your company] OS. It is an Operating System (operating architecture) that consists of multiple systems within.
Depending on your industry, the systems you implement can be anything from out-of-the-box project management tools to custom-code unique solutions.
Take a look at the tools section of this article for some examples.
Implementing systems must follow these steps:
- Test implementation
- Implementation plan
- Roll-out
Test Implementation
You probably found the best system in the world and your processes look amazing.
Trust me, nothing stands a real-life stress test.
The main purpose of the test implementation is:
- To validate your process.
- Basically, to see if what you made on paper passes the sanity check and is as effective as expected
- To discover unknown unknowns
- We do not know what we do not know. Nobody knows what can go completely wrong when you implement systems.
Test implementation is your time and money saver.
Here is how to do it right:
- Create a list of questions you would like to respond to through test implementation
Think of it as a list of hypotheses. In other words, what do you think will happen due to the implementation of systems? For example, if we implement a time tracker, we expect to see a reduced number of hrs paid. This is a hypothesis. - Select a person or a group of people who will go through the test implementation.
These are your team members (one or many) who will actually be testing your system. - Define the time frame and conditions
How long would the test run last? What do selected people have to start/stop doing for the test to be valid? - Do the test run
Pay attention to all the questions they ask as those are worth documenting for a full-scale roll-out. This is the stage when the test implementation purpose is fulfilled. - Document feedback and results.
All the info collected during the test run will inevitably be used during the next steps.
Implementation plan
You learned a lot during the test run. That does not mean you learned everything but you learned enough to significantly reduce friction during the company-wide implementation.
The implementation plan is a document outlining steps to implement tested systems company-wide.
Roll-out
Let’s roll…. out!
Just follow your implementation plan and adjust when needed.
Step 4. Document it.
Process maps are a major part of documentation but they do not usually cover the needy-greedy details.
For example, where to find a button to issue an invoice might not be specified on your process maps but it may be worth including in your SOP (standard operating procedures).
Create a habit of keeping your docs up to date.
Review those every now and then (3–6–9–12 months) and consistently add missing information as you spot gaps during operations.
Step 5. Continuous improvement.
This process never ends. The challenge here is how far in the improvement process are you willing to go. What it would take you to reach operational excellence?
Let’s briefly cover the right way to improve existing systems/processes.
Usually, people start with systems. They see something that is worth improving ➝ they go and immediately implement changes.
Fast forward 12 months, and they are stuck and looking to rebuild everything from scratch.
Why so? Well, that’s because they change systems without looking at the effects caused on the process maps.
They think they made things better, but in reality they increase the complexity of the process until the process stops being effective.
You guessed it, the right way to improve some things is to start with a process map.
Duplicate it, update, see the effects, and decide if it is worth moving forward.
The process is the same all the time. Does not matter if you are building operations from scratch or going through improvement programs.
Tools
In this section, I’ll list some tools that can help you in your streamlining journey.
Mapping
LucidCharts, Whimsical, Miro, MS Visio are all great tools for process mapping. My personal preference for mapping is LucidCharts. However, I use Whimsical as it helps me in other aspects of business (wireframing, for example).
Management
ClickUp, monday.com, Asana, SmartSuite, Airtable are all great out-of-the-box solutions that can help you manage your processes better.
If you are looking for more custom low-code/no-code solutions, consider these options: Noloco, Glide, bubble.io.
My go-to option is ClickUp. That does not mean though that it is the best solution on the market out there.
You might want to consider MS Dynamics, or Odoo if your company size allows it.
Automation/integration
Make.com, Zapier, n8n are the market leaders. Zoho Flow and Power Automate are worth considering as well.
I found make.com to be sufficiently user-friendly, flexible, and cost-effective to cover the majority of automation/integration needs.
Analytics
My personal favorite (functionality and cost-effectiveness) is Power Bi. Tableau and Looker are wonderful tools, of course.
Office
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are both great. pick one.
Communication
Slack is the industry standard. Look into MS Teams or Discord for alternatives
Time tracking
Time Doctor, Everhour, Hubstaff, Clockify, and a bunch more — pick one.
CRM
Hubspot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Pipefy are great systems for different company sizes.
If the volume is small, adopt your management tool for CRM needs.
These are all great tools. There are plenty of industry-specific solutions out there that are not included in the list above simply because I focused on tools that can be used independently of what industry you are in.
Conclusion
Does not matter the size or industry, when it comes to streamlining operations, the framework is the same.
- Build a scalable org structure
- Streamline processes
- Implement systems
- Document everything
- Rinse and repeat
Tools will help you ease your process improvement journey.
Refer to more articles for more specifics on separate topics.
Clap, comment, and follow for more advice.
