July 11, 2024 • 16 mins
How much more efficient could your team be if you streamlined your workflows today?
Join me, Tonya D, on this week's episode of the Operations Toolbox for Business Leaders and uncover actionable insights that will revolutionize your approach to workflow optimization.
Whether you're overseeing patient registration in healthcare or onboarding new clients in a service industry, this episode is packed with strategies to enhance productivity.
This isn't just theory; it's about turning knowledge into action. So get ready to transform how your team operates and maximize your productivity like never before!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tonya D (00:00):
You ever feel like there's a better way to do your
processes, like you have aworkflow and it works, but for
some reason, you feel like youcould be doing it just a little
bit better.
If that is the case, you aregoing to enjoy today's episode,
but first I want to welcome youto the Operations Toolbox for
(00:22):
Business Leaders.
I'm your host, Tonya D, and Iam excited to have you join me
today.
For those of you that have beenfollowing me for a while, you
know that I really loveoperations all things operations
and I love sharing some ofthose tips during this podcast.
(00:45):
So, whether you are a leaderfor the first time or you're
just looking to refine yourleadership skills, this podcast
is your go-to resource foractionable insights and
strategies and strategies.
(01:09):
Now, as a team leader, one ofthe many, many, many, many
responsibilities you have ismaking sure you and your team
are as productive as possible,and today we are going to take a
deep dive into a topic that isextremely, extremely important
when it comes to buildinghigh-performing teams.
What we're going to talk abouttoday workflow optimization.
(01:30):
We're going to explore methodsfor analyzing and improving team
workflows to enhance efficiencyand productivity.
Let's go ahead and get started.
First things first.
Before we dive in too deep,let's talk about what a workflow
is.
I want to make sure that we areall operating under the same
(01:54):
definition.
Simply put, a workflow is asequence of steps to help you go
from point A to point B.
For your team, it's a series ofsteps that they will take to
complete a project, a goal.
(02:15):
Examples of that could be, ifyou're in healthcare, patient
registration what happens fromthe time the client or patient
comes through the door to thetime they complete registration
that's a workflow.
For those of you that are inanother service industry, like
me, new client onboarding that'san actual workflow.
(02:38):
What happens from point A topoint B?
So understanding and optimizingthese workflows can make a
significant difference in yourteam's performance.
Okay, so how do you begin tostreamline workflows?
We're going to talk about foursteps.
(03:00):
I'm going to share these foursteps with you.
I'm going to go in a little bitdeep and I'm going to go in a
little bit deep and I'm going togo into a little bit more
detail into each of these stepsand before we wrap up, you
already know I got to give yousome homework, so you're going
to have some action items totake away, because I want to
make sure that we're not justtaking in information, we're
(03:21):
actually implementing it withinour businesses and organizations
right.
So we're going to go fromeducation to execution.
That's the name of the game onthis podcast.
So the four steps that I'mgoing to talk about are number
one analyze current workflows.
Number two identify bottlenecksand inefficiencies.
(03:44):
Number three implementimprovements.
And number four monitor andupdate.
This is an ongoing theme, justso that if you haven't caught on
to that, this is an ongoingtheme.
So let's talk about step one.
Step one is analyze currentworkflows.
(04:08):
Now, this step is aboutstreamlining workflows.
This first step in streamliningworkflows, or optimizing
workflows, is to analyze whatyou're currently doing Right now
, today.
What does that workflow looklike?
That is your starting point.
The very first thing you'regonna do is you're gonna map out
(04:30):
your process.
Start by mapping out yourcurrent workflow patient
registration, client onboarding,whatever that workflow is and
to do this, you want to usetools that are you know, that
will visualize each step.
For instance, if you aresomeone that uses Microsoft, you
(04:52):
may use a Visio flowchart.
If you're someone that usesGoogle, you may use a tool
called Lucid chart.
There's all different types oftools out there.
Get one that works for you.
If you already have one, youwant to go ahead and use that
when you are mapping out yourworkflow.
What you want to do is you wantto include every task that's
(05:16):
being done.
You want to include theindividual, or the individual's
title, that's responsible forthat task and I like to do
titles just in case that personmoves or is no longer with the
organization.
You don't have to go back andrevamp everything, because it's
(05:37):
the actual role of the personthat's performing that task.
And then you want to includedecision points.
So, for example, if we'retalking about patient
registration, you could say doesthe patient have insurance, yes
or no?
That's a decision point.
You want to include all ofthose when you're mapping out
your processes.
(05:58):
The second element when we'retalking about analyzing your
current workflow, you want tomake sure you gather data.
So you want to collect data onhow long each step takes.
This is important, right?
Because this is going to helpyou to go back and identify
possible delays, right?
So where are those delaysoccurring?
(06:19):
And then understanding how longit takes to complete that flow.
You also want to identify anyresources that are being used
when you are performing thattask, this data.
It will help you to understandthe current state of your
workflow.
And then the last thing youwant to do is you want to engage
(06:40):
your team, so you want to talkto your team members.
They are the ones that are onthe front lines.
They're the ones that areprobably doing this task or this
workflow over and over again,so they are going to provide
some very valuable insights intothe workflow.
They'll be able to share withyou some of the pain points and
(07:00):
some areas for improvement, aswell as some things that they
feel work extremely well.
That's step number one.
Step number two we're going toidentify Now, because we are
creatures of habit.
Sometimes we fall into routinesof doing things because we've
always done it that way and it'seasy to do.
(07:20):
Because of that, we really wantto take a step back and look
and see what we can identify interms of bottlenecks and
inefficiencies.
Within this step, we have threekey elements that I want to
focus on.
The first is task redundancies.
Are there steps that are nolonger needed, they're
(07:43):
unnecessary or they may beduplicated?
Right, because if we streamlinethese, we can save time and
resources immediately.
The other element is delays.
We want to identify wheredelays are happening.
This is one of the reasons why,when we were blowing out the
workflow, we included how longit takes us to do each of these
(08:06):
tasks.
This will help us to identifyif there are some bottlenecks
that need to be addressed.
The third key element isresource allocation.
When we're thinking aboutresource allocation, we want to
make sure that the right peopleare assigned to the right task.
(08:27):
Sometimes inefficiencies canarise simply because tasks are
not matched with the teammembers best suited to handle
them.
They may not have the skills todo it.
We may not be playing to theirstrengths.
We want to take all of thosethings into consideration when
we're talking about identifyingbottlenecks and inefficiencies.
(08:48):
The third step when we'retalking about optimizing your
workflows, is to implementimprovements.
We have identified our startingpoint and mapped out our
process, our workflow right, andwe've gone through the process
of analyzing it and identifyingsome of those bottlenecks and
inefficiencies.
(09:08):
Now we want to come up withsolutions that we can implement
for improvement right.
So we want to, number one,simplify processes.
We want to eliminateunnecessary steps and combine
tasks wherever possible.
Earlier, we talked about thepossibility of having duplicate
(09:29):
steps or unnecessary steps.
So here is where you're goingto start that simplification
process of removing some ofthose things.
The second thing that you wantto do is you want to automate
Wherever possible.
You want to make sure you areautomating, and this could be by
utilizing certain tools thatyou're not utilizing now,
(09:50):
whether it's some type ofsoftware or some type of digital
solution or project managementsoftware, whatever it is, there
may be opportunities to kind ofautomate some of the things.
One thing that we did with aclient right, a lot of people,
(10:12):
small business owners.
One of the things that they dois they create folders on the
Google Drive when they'reonboarding clients.
Well, we implemented anautomated way, so we identified
a trigger.
When this trigger occurs, itautomatically creates a folder
on the drive.
So think about little thingslike that.
Explore as much as possible.
(10:34):
The last piece, the last keyelement of this step, is to
standardize best practices.
If you've been following me forany length of time, you know
I'm really big when it comes tostandard operating procedures.
You want to make sure that youare documenting these things in
a document that everybody canreview.
(10:55):
So if I'm the one that istasked with performing a lot of
these tasks within this workflow.
Now we have a documentedprocedure where, if I'm not
there, I'm not availablesomebody else can come in and
they can pick it up and they cando it.
We want to make sure thesethings are documented.
Step number four is monitor andadjust.
(11:18):
Right.
So now we've done all of thework.
We want to make sure that weare monitoring what we've
implemented.
The first thing you want to dois set metrics.
Identify any key performanceindicators that you could use to
measure your workflowimprovement.
For instance, you may know thatpatient registration at one
(11:41):
point took an hour.
By measuring it, you may nowidentify that now it takes 30
minutes.
So you know that that is oneway that your workflow
improvements are working.
Same thing with clientonboarding workflow improvements
are working.
Same thing with clientonboarding.
It may have taken two days toonboard a client and now we're
(12:02):
down to a day, or now we're downto an hour, whatever that looks
like.
So that is a good way tomeasure.
Now we want to know that we.
I want to make sure youunderstand that when we're
talking about time savings,right Time savings equates to
reduced costs.
Now you have people that can doother tasks.
(12:25):
It also helps to increaseproductivity.
The other way that you canmeasure your improvements is by
having regular check-ins.
You want to schedule check-inswith your team to get their
feedback, to find out how theyfeel this is going.
Again, these are the peoplethat are doing it on a regular
basis.
Who better else to shareinformation with you?
(12:49):
You want to understand is itworking as intended?
Are there any new issues thathave been uncovered?
Sometimes, when our goal is tofix one thing, we actually
uncover another issue in anotherarea.
Having those conversations withyour team is going to let you
know how that's going.
(13:09):
The last piece is continuousimprovement.
Now, this is an ongoing thing.
When we're talking aboutoptimizing anything, when we're
talking about optimization, it'san ongoing process, so we need
to be prepared to continuouslyreview it, make adjustments to
improve as we go along the way.
(13:29):
So those are the four stepswhen we're talking about
optimizing workflows that youwant to make sure you are going
through.
But remember, before we go,before we go, this is one of
those podcasts where you'regonna take back some actionable
items and I wanna talk to youabout some next steps.
How can you take this andimplement it in your department
(13:53):
or in your business immediately,right?
So we want to start small, ifthis isn't something that you've
done before.
The first thing you want to dois pick one workflow I know
sometimes we want to do it allat one time Pick one workflow
and map it out.
Make sure it is a criticalworkflow.
(14:14):
You want to make sure it'ssomething that is extremely
important to you and your teamand you want to map it out, then
schedule a team meeting.
You want to engage with yourteam in a discussion about the
current workflow and get theirinsights, get their input.
Again, they are usually theones that are doing this on a
(14:36):
regular basis and then I wantyou to identify at least one
bottleneck Now you're guaranteedto have more than one, but
identify at least one bottleneck, pinpoint at least one
inefficiency and then brainstormsome potential solutions.
(14:57):
Then I want you to actuallyimplement a solution, right?
So we're going to do some betatesting.
You're going to implementsomething and it's a small
change.
It doesn't have to be anythingmajor.
You're going to implement itand then you are going to sit
back and review the workflow andyou're going to see how it goes
and review the workflow andyou're going to see how it goes.
(15:20):
So, once you implement it, Iwould wait at least a week,
regroup with your team and thenget some additional feedback
right.
So, as you're monitoring it,you want to make sure that you
identify if there's anyadjustments that need to be made
right.
So one thing we want to do iswe want to make sure that we're
not causing major problemswithin the business.
So you definitely want to stayon top of this and monitor it,
(15:43):
get that feedback, make theadjustments and keep moving.
All right, so that is it fortoday's episode on optimizing
workflows.
I hope you found these tipsuseful and I hope that you are
ready to take action with yourteam.
Remember, improving workflowsis a continuous journey, but
(16:06):
with the right approach, you canenhance efficiency and
productivity significantly.
If you enjoyed this episode,please subscribe and leave a
review.
I'd love to hear your thoughtsand if there are any topics that
you'd like us to cover in thefuture, let me know.
Thanks for tuning in to theOperations Toolbox for Business
(16:27):
Leaders.
Until next time, keep leadingwith efficiency and purpose.
Have a great day.
You ever feel like there's a better way to do your
processes, like you have aworkflow and it works, but for
some reason, you feel like youcould be doing it just a little
bit better.
If that is the case, you aregoing to enjoy today's episode,
but first I want to welcome youto the Operations Toolbox for
(00:22):
Business Leaders.
I'm your host, Tonya D, and Iam excited to have you join me
today.
For those of you that have beenfollowing me for a while, you
know that I really loveoperations all things operations
and I love sharing some ofthose tips during this podcast.
(00:45):
So, whether you are a leaderfor the first time or you're
just looking to refine yourleadership skills, this podcast
is your go-to resource foractionable insights and
strategies and strategies.
(01:09):
Now, as a team leader, one ofthe many, many, many, many
responsibilities you have ismaking sure you and your team
are as productive as possible,and today we are going to take a
deep dive into a topic that isextremely, extremely important
when it comes to buildinghigh-performing teams.
What we're going to talk abouttoday workflow optimization.
(01:30):
We're going to explore methodsfor analyzing and improving team
workflows to enhance efficiencyand productivity.
Let's go ahead and get started.
First things first.
Before we dive in too deep,let's talk about what a workflow
is.
I want to make sure that we areall operating under the same
(01:54):
definition.
Simply put, a workflow is asequence of steps to help you go
from point A to point B.
For your team, it's a series ofsteps that they will take to
complete a project, a goal.
(02:15):
Examples of that could be, ifyou're in healthcare, patient
registration what happens fromthe time the client or patient
comes through the door to thetime they complete registration
that's a workflow.
For those of you that are inanother service industry, like
me, new client onboarding that'san actual workflow.
(02:38):
What happens from point A topoint B?
So understanding and optimizingthese workflows can make a
significant difference in yourteam's performance.
Okay, so how do you begin tostreamline workflows?
We're going to talk about foursteps.
(03:00):
I'm going to share these foursteps with you.
I'm going to go in a little bitdeep and I'm going to go in a
little bit deep and I'm going togo into a little bit more
detail into each of these stepsand before we wrap up, you
already know I got to give yousome homework, so you're going
to have some action items totake away, because I want to
make sure that we're not justtaking in information, we're
(03:21):
actually implementing it withinour businesses and organizations
right.
So we're going to go fromeducation to execution.
That's the name of the game onthis podcast.
So the four steps that I'mgoing to talk about are number
one analyze current workflows.
Number two identify bottlenecksand inefficiencies.
(03:44):
Number three implementimprovements.
And number four monitor andupdate.
This is an ongoing theme, justso that if you haven't caught on
to that, this is an ongoingtheme.
So let's talk about step one.
Step one is analyze currentworkflows.
(04:08):
Now, this step is aboutstreamlining workflows.
This first step in streamliningworkflows, or optimizing
workflows, is to analyze whatyou're currently doing Right now
, today.
What does that workflow looklike?
That is your starting point.
The very first thing you'regonna do is you're gonna map out
(04:30):
your process.
Start by mapping out yourcurrent workflow patient
registration, client onboarding,whatever that workflow is and
to do this, you want to usetools that are you know, that
will visualize each step.
For instance, if you aresomeone that uses Microsoft, you
(04:52):
may use a Visio flowchart.
If you're someone that usesGoogle, you may use a tool
called Lucid chart.
There's all different types oftools out there.
Get one that works for you.
If you already have one, youwant to go ahead and use that
when you are mapping out yourworkflow.
What you want to do is you wantto include every task that's
(05:16):
being done.
You want to include theindividual, or the individual's
title, that's responsible forthat task and I like to do
titles just in case that personmoves or is no longer with the
organization.
You don't have to go back andrevamp everything, because it's
(05:37):
the actual role of the personthat's performing that task.
And then you want to includedecision points.
So, for example, if we'retalking about patient
registration, you could say doesthe patient have insurance, yes
or no?
That's a decision point.
You want to include all ofthose when you're mapping out
your processes.
(05:58):
The second element when we'retalking about analyzing your
current workflow, you want tomake sure you gather data.
So you want to collect data onhow long each step takes.
This is important, right?
Because this is going to helpyou to go back and identify
possible delays, right?
So where are those delaysoccurring?
(06:19):
And then understanding how longit takes to complete that flow.
You also want to identify anyresources that are being used
when you are performing thattask, this data.
It will help you to understandthe current state of your
workflow.
And then the last thing youwant to do is you want to engage
(06:40):
your team, so you want to talkto your team members.
They are the ones that are onthe front lines.
They're the ones that areprobably doing this task or this
workflow over and over again,so they are going to provide
some very valuable insights intothe workflow.
They'll be able to share withyou some of the pain points and
(07:00):
some areas for improvement, aswell as some things that they
feel work extremely well.
That's step number one.
Step number two we're going toidentify Now, because we are
creatures of habit.
Sometimes we fall into routinesof doing things because we've
always done it that way and it'seasy to do.
(07:20):
Because of that, we really wantto take a step back and look
and see what we can identify interms of bottlenecks and
inefficiencies.
Within this step, we have threekey elements that I want to
focus on.
The first is task redundancies.
Are there steps that are nolonger needed, they're
(07:43):
unnecessary or they may beduplicated?
Right, because if we streamlinethese, we can save time and
resources immediately.
The other element is delays.
We want to identify wheredelays are happening.
This is one of the reasons why,when we were blowing out the
workflow, we included how longit takes us to do each of these
(08:06):
tasks.
This will help us to identifyif there are some bottlenecks
that need to be addressed.
The third key element isresource allocation.
When we're thinking aboutresource allocation, we want to
make sure that the right peopleare assigned to the right task.
(08:27):
Sometimes inefficiencies canarise simply because tasks are
not matched with the teammembers best suited to handle
them.
They may not have the skills todo it.
We may not be playing to theirstrengths.
We want to take all of thosethings into consideration when
we're talking about identifyingbottlenecks and inefficiencies.
(08:48):
The third step when we'retalking about optimizing your
workflows, is to implementimprovements.
We have identified our startingpoint and mapped out our
process, our workflow right, andwe've gone through the process
of analyzing it and identifyingsome of those bottlenecks and
inefficiencies.
(09:08):
Now we want to come up withsolutions that we can implement
for improvement right.
So we want to, number one,simplify processes.
We want to eliminateunnecessary steps and combine
tasks wherever possible.
Earlier, we talked about thepossibility of having duplicate
(09:29):
steps or unnecessary steps.
So here is where you're goingto start that simplification
process of removing some ofthose things.
The second thing that you wantto do is you want to automate
Wherever possible.
You want to make sure you areautomating, and this could be by
utilizing certain tools thatyou're not utilizing now,
(09:50):
whether it's some type ofsoftware or some type of digital
solution or project managementsoftware, whatever it is, there
may be opportunities to kind ofautomate some of the things.
One thing that we did with aclient right, a lot of people,
(10:12):
small business owners.
One of the things that they dois they create folders on the
Google Drive when they'reonboarding clients.
Well, we implemented anautomated way, so we identified
a trigger.
When this trigger occurs, itautomatically creates a folder
on the drive.
So think about little thingslike that.
Explore as much as possible.
(10:34):
The last piece, the last keyelement of this step, is to
standardize best practices.
If you've been following me forany length of time, you know
I'm really big when it comes tostandard operating procedures.
You want to make sure that youare documenting these things in
a document that everybody canreview.
(10:55):
So if I'm the one that istasked with performing a lot of
these tasks within this workflow.
Now we have a documentedprocedure where, if I'm not
there, I'm not availablesomebody else can come in and
they can pick it up and they cando it.
We want to make sure thesethings are documented.
Step number four is monitor andadjust.
(11:18):
Right.
So now we've done all of thework.
We want to make sure that weare monitoring what we've
implemented.
The first thing you want to dois set metrics.
Identify any key performanceindicators that you could use to
measure your workflowimprovement.
For instance, you may know thatpatient registration at one
(11:41):
point took an hour.
By measuring it, you may nowidentify that now it takes 30
minutes.
So you know that that is oneway that your workflow
improvements are working.
Same thing with clientonboarding workflow improvements
are working.
Same thing with clientonboarding.
It may have taken two days toonboard a client and now we're
(12:02):
down to a day, or now we're downto an hour, whatever that looks
like.
So that is a good way tomeasure.
Now we want to know that we.
I want to make sure youunderstand that when we're
talking about time savings,right Time savings equates to
reduced costs.
Now you have people that can doother tasks.
(12:25):
It also helps to increaseproductivity.
The other way that you canmeasure your improvements is by
having regular check-ins.
You want to schedule check-inswith your team to get their
feedback, to find out how theyfeel this is going.
Again, these are the peoplethat are doing it on a regular
basis.
Who better else to shareinformation with you?
(12:49):
You want to understand is itworking as intended?
Are there any new issues thathave been uncovered?
Sometimes, when our goal is tofix one thing, we actually
uncover another issue in anotherarea.
Having those conversations withyour team is going to let you
know how that's going.
(13:09):
The last piece is continuousimprovement.
Now, this is an ongoing thing.
When we're talking aboutoptimizing anything, when we're
talking about optimization, it'san ongoing process, so we need
to be prepared to continuouslyreview it, make adjustments to
improve as we go along the way.
(13:29):
So those are the four stepswhen we're talking about
optimizing workflows that youwant to make sure you are going
through.
But remember, before we go,before we go, this is one of
those podcasts where you'regonna take back some actionable
items and I wanna talk to youabout some next steps.
How can you take this andimplement it in your department
(13:53):
or in your business immediately,right?
So we want to start small, ifthis isn't something that you've
done before.
The first thing you want to dois pick one workflow I know
sometimes we want to do it allat one time Pick one workflow
and map it out.
Make sure it is a criticalworkflow.
(14:14):
You want to make sure it'ssomething that is extremely
important to you and your teamand you want to map it out, then
schedule a team meeting.
You want to engage with yourteam in a discussion about the
current workflow and get theirinsights, get their input.
Again, they are usually theones that are doing this on a
(14:36):
regular basis and then I wantyou to identify at least one
bottleneck Now you're guaranteedto have more than one, but
identify at least one bottleneck, pinpoint at least one
inefficiency and then brainstormsome potential solutions.
(14:57):
Then I want you to actuallyimplement a solution, right?
So we're going to do some betatesting.
You're going to implementsomething and it's a small
change.
It doesn't have to be anythingmajor.
You're going to implement itand then you are going to sit
back and review the workflow andyou're going to see how it goes
and review the workflow andyou're going to see how it goes.
(15:20):
So, once you implement it, Iwould wait at least a week,
regroup with your team and thenget some additional feedback
right.
So, as you're monitoring it,you want to make sure that you
identify if there's anyadjustments that need to be made
right.
So one thing we want to do iswe want to make sure that we're
not causing major problemswithin the business.
So you definitely want to stayon top of this and monitor it,
(15:43):
get that feedback, make theadjustments and keep moving.
All right, so that is it fortoday's episode on optimizing
workflows.
I hope you found these tipsuseful and I hope that you are
ready to take action with yourteam.
Remember, improving workflowsis a continuous journey, but
(16:06):
with the right approach, you canenhance efficiency and
productivity significantly.
If you enjoyed this episode,please subscribe and leave a
review.
I'd love to hear your thoughtsand if there are any topics that
you'd like us to cover in thefuture, let me know.
Thanks for tuning in to theOperations Toolbox for Business
(16:27):
Leaders.
Until next time, keep leadingwith efficiency and purpose.
Have a great day.
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