The Dreadful Secret About Process Maps

Boxes and Arrows

It is one of the greatest quality management tools…

And you all know how to do it.  You all know how to draw up a process map or create a flow chart.  It’s easy, you write the activity in the box and then link it to the next box with an arrow.  Simple.

And if you can’t manage it by yourself don’t worry… there are 100s of IT tools to help you do it.

• Microsoft Visio
• PowerPoint
• Casewise
• ProVision
• Aris Express

There is even a website that tells you which tool is the best — though it is a little hardcore for me.

Personally, I am a bit old school, you can’t beat a pad of Post It notes and a felt tip pen, though I’m told doing it this way isn’t digital, and therefore, by definition, I am an old git.

But all that process mapping misses the point

99% of the effort drawing up a process map goes into the boxes.  But the boxes aren’t the problem. We know what we are doing in the boxes.  Things rarely go wrong in the boxes.

The arrows between them, though… they will kill you.

The arrows are the problem, they are where:

• The hand-offs are
• Nobody knows what is happening
• Nobody cares what is happening
• The power plays play out
• Hands are washed of all responsibility
• The finger of blame gets pointed

Look after the arrows, and the boxes will look after themselves

Think about the feedback loops and interactions.  Worry about the connections and white spaces.

Don’t manage inside the box, think outside it — groan, I’m so sorry about that.