When businesses think about improving operations, they often jump straight to solutions—new tools, software, or restructuring. But before you can fix inefficiencies or improve workflows, you first need to understand what’s happening within your business at a granular level. This is where our Process Discovery Days come into their own.
A Process Discovery Day is the essential first step in strategic business engineering. It brings key players across your organisation together to uncover, analyse, and refine the processes that drive your business. This collaborative approach not only highlights inefficiencies but also fosters alignment and sets the stage for meaningful change.
In this article, we’ll explore what a Process Discovery Day entails, why it’s so impactful, and how it can help your business take the first step toward efficiency, consistency, and growth.
What is a Process Discovery Day?
A Process Discovery Day is a structured workshop where key stakeholders from across your business come together to map out and evaluate all the processes performed by each team or department. It’s a day of exploration, collaboration, and insight designed to:
Identify and document processes: Teams often don’t think of their work in terms of “processes”—they just do it. This exercise reveals the scale and scope of what each team is doing, often uncovering hidden inefficiencies.
Clarify ownership: It’s common to find that some teams are performing processes that should sit elsewhere. A discovery day helps align responsibilities and improve accountability.
Set priorities: By scoring processes across key criteria, you can identify which areas need immediate attention and which can be optimised later.
Think of it as taking a step back to see the big picture—something that’s often overlooked in the day-to-day hustle of running a business.
Our 3-Step Framework for a Successful Discovery Day
Here’s how a typical Process Discovery Day might unfold:
Step 1: Map Out All Processes
The first activity is to produce a comprehensive list of all the processes performed by each team or department. This exercise achieves two key outcomes:
Revealing the scale of work: Teams often don’t realise how much they’re handling until it’s laid out in front of them. This can be an eye-opener for leadership and employees alike.
Spotting misaligned processes: Some teams may be executing processes that logically belong to another department, creating inefficiencies and confusion. Identifying these misalignments is the first step toward streamlining workflows.
Step 2: Score Each Process
Once the processes are mapped out, the next step is to evaluate them using three key criteria:
A. Process Criticality
– Ask: If this process is not performed, how long before the business feels a significant impact?
– Processes with a high criticality score are those that are essential to business continuity and must be prioritised for optimisation or automation.
B. Process Pain
– Ask: Which processes are the most problematic?
– Manual, error-prone, or delay-heavy processes should be flagged. These are the bottlenecks that cause frustration for employees and delays for customers.
C. Process Knowledge
-Ask: How well-documented and understood is this process?
– Processes with low knowledge coverage pose a risk to the business, especially if key staff leave or are unavailable. These processes need better documentation and knowledge sharing to mitigate risk.
By scoring each process, you can create a prioritised action plan that focuses on the areas with the most significant impact.
Step 3: Align on Next Steps
The final step of the day is to align on the next steps. This includes:
– Identifying quick wins: Processes that can be improved with minimal effort but deliver immediate value.
– Planning for long-term changes: Complex processes that require more time and resources to optimise.
– Assigning ownership: Ensure that each process has a clear owner who is responsible for its ongoing improvement and performance.
This alignment ensures that the insights from the discovery day translate into actionable improvements.
A Day that Becomes a Game-Changer
A Process Discovery Day isn’t just about mapping workflows—it’s about creating a culture of transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Here’s why it’s so impactful:
– Fosters Collaboration: Bringing teams together fosters cross-departmental understanding and alignment, breaking down silos and improving communication.
– Uncovers Blind Spots: Many inefficiencies go unnoticed in the daily grind. A discovery day shines a light on these blind spots, allowing you to address them proactively.
– Empowers Teams: Involving employees in the process gives them a sense of ownership and accountability, making them more invested in the outcomes.
– Sets a Strong Foundation: By starting with a discovery day, you ensure that any changes you make are based on a solid understanding of your current state, reducing the risk of wasted effort or resources.
The Role We Play
While a Process Discovery Day can be facilitated internally, there’s significant value in bringing in external experts. Consultants can provide:
– Unbiased Perspectives: They can identify inefficiencies and opportunities that internal teams might overlook.
– Best Practices: With experience across industries, they can recommend proven strategies and tools.
– Facilitation Expertise: External facilitators can guide the discussion, ensuring that the day stays focused and productive.
Take Action Plan Your Process Discovery Day
If you’re ready to take the first step toward transforming your business, here’s how to get started:
1. Identify Key Participants: Include representatives from all major teams or departments.
2. Set Clear Goals: Define what you want to achieve from the day—e.g., mapping all processes, identifying inefficiencies, etc.
3. Prepare the Tools: Use process mapping software or templates to document workflows.
4. Engage an Expert: Consider bringing in a facilitator to guide the day and provide external insights, we can, incidentally, provide the tools, too.
5. Follow-up: Turn the insights from your discovery day into a concrete action plan with clear priorities and timelines.
Conclusion
A Process Discovery Day is more than just a workshop—it’s a strategic investment in your business’s future. By taking the time to map out and evaluate your processes, you can uncover hidden inefficiencies, align your teams, and set the stage for long-term success.
Don’t wait for inefficiencies to hold your business back. Start with a discovery day, and take the first step toward a more efficient, consistent, and scalable operation.