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Process Innovation: Spend More Time On Stuff You Love

Using Way We Do

As much as we love processes and procedures at Way We Do, we know some people think the task of writing them is as dull as dishwater. It’s okay. We get it. It’s why Way We Do exists. By helping you understand the power of processes and process innovation to transform your business, we can hopefully help you build a better relationship with this critical part of your operational success.

So let’s take a closer look at the value of processes and process innovation using that “dull as dishwater” analogy.

You’ve got a pile of dirty dishes sitting on the kitchen bench. No one is going to use them like they are, so you have to wash them. Fill up the sink, add your detergent and get scrubbing. Boring, right? (Some people find it calming and meditative, but my guess is they are in a very large minority.)

You could pretend they weren’t there and go and do something more fun — like your tax return — but what would that achieve? You’d run out of dishes pretty quickly, “things” would start growing, and the atmosphere in your kitchen would start to get a little gamey…

So you grit you teeth and do it. But let’s face it: You’ve got better things to do with your time. You start looking for ways to get the job done faster — to innovate your dish-washing processes. If you’re washing dishes on an industrial scale — think busy restaurants and bars — you’ll be all about automating as much as you can.

Enter: the mechanical dishwasher. The first hand-cranked device came out in 1850 — such was people’s desire to get away from this hot and tedious job. The innovation caught on, and has itself gone through massive refinements in operation, saving water, energy, and time (particularly the newest “no-need-to-rinse-first” models). Dishwashers can help us get more done in less time, so we can do more of what we love.

But these time-saving treasures wouldn’t be anything close to what they are without someone way-back-when taking that first step toward process innovation. And there is no innovation without understanding.

To Know Them Is To Love Them: Understanding Your Processes

When we analyze and record our processes — while it may seem boring and time-consuming at first — we’re taking a look under the hood of our business to see what’s really happening and why. With this understanding, the ways it could run better, smoother and more efficiently, begin to unfold. As a result, our business can evolve and adapt more readily, growing leaner and fitter as time moves on. We find we’re able to spend more time serving clients — and therefore handling more sales — and making sure our teams are performing at their peak.

Whether we’re talking about washing dishes, or growing your business, the only way we’re going to be able to clear the pile and build capacity is to understand and refine each process.

Taking the First Steps Toward Process Innovation

Every week, my Way We Do colleagues and I talk to business owners and leaders from around the world. Their commitment to excellence means they’re actively looking for centralized SOP and workflow solutions that can help them cut down the guess work and repetition, and build more capacity to serve their own customers and clients. In the past two weeks alone, I’ve spoken with an amazing array of people from businesses around the world, helping them get on the path to transformational process innovation through Way We Do. Here’s just a small sample…

  • A dynamic managed services, point-of-sale technology company, based in Florida, who are putting Way We Do front and center alongside Microsoft Teams to solve what they called an ‘ancient problem’.
  • A family interior design business, also in Florida, where father and daughter have jumped right in to Way We Do, mapped and digitized their entire business in a three-week sprint, then nested it with Teams and SharePoint.
  • A Senegal-based Business Analyst, on assignment for a New York-based global aviation company that has outgrown Google Sheets for managing their SOPs.
  • A UK-based Virtual Assistant company that thought they’d already hit the limits of Way We Do’s capabilities, only to be blown away by the Microsoft connectors within the software, and the powerful simplicity and ease in implementing decision-point work.

Some other companies I’ve worked with so far this year include:

  • an immunogenics lab in the United States
  • a charity that supports mothers with cancer
  • a digital nomad running a global immigration services company (one of my favorites so far)
  • a tea brewery and cafe in the UK.

Every business is different, but they all rely on people and processes. Way We Do can help alleviate your process headaches, and unlock your full potential — whatever field you’re in, whatever size business you run, whatever development stage you’re at.

Master Your Processes

If it’s time to be a master of your processes, rather than having them be the master of you, get in touch with me and the Way We Do team at support@waywedo.com. We’ll help you create a solution that will build capacity in your business so you can focus on more of what you love.

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