| You want to find that new restaurant downtown | | | | much earlier if you started with a map, right? It |
| that everyone has been raving about, but you've | | | | would've saved a lot of time and you could've |
| never even heard of the little side street it calls | | | | avoided a few trips to McDonald's, too. |
| home. What do you do? | | | | There's also a strong chance that the route you |
| You break out a map and figure out how to get | | | | finally discovered to the restaurant isn't the best one. |
| from your front door to the restaurant. You look it | | | | You may not have figured it out yet, but there could |
| up on Google maps, type the address into your GPS | | | | be a faster and more efficient route from your place |
| system or, if you're old school, you reach for that | | | | to the restaurant. Map it out. See what happens. It's |
| folded up paper map you keep in the back of the | | | | never too late. |
| utility drawer. | | | | Let's get back to your business. You have processes |
| You don't just hop into the car and head off in the | | | | in place. Some were developed in chunks based on a |
| general direction of downtown. If that's your plan, | | | | combination of luck, skill and experience. You also |
| you can count on the night ending in frustration and a | | | | need to formalize other processes. Right now, you're |
| trip by a drive-through window. | | | | still struggling to find your way from Point A to Point |
| Maps are our friends. That principle doesn't just apply | | | | B. |
| to that new Spanish joint with the great tapas, | | | | And that's why it's important to remember that |
| either. It's a key part of doing business. | | | | maps are your friends. |
| Maps work because they provide an understandable, | | | | Business process mapping involves organizing and |
| efficient and accurate means of seeing how things fit | | | | breaking down your processes into formalized, |
| together. Business process mapping recognizes this | | | | easy-to-follow steps. It's a matter of finding |
| undeniable fact and leverages it for increased | | | | repeatable and optimized systems to reduce |
| productivity and efficiency. | | | | complication and to increase your ability to handle |
| Although there are parts of your business that are | | | | regular challenges effectively. |
| one-of-a-kind or one-time affairs, most of what you | | | | When you have those maps, things get done and |
| do is a little more predictable. There are processes | | | | they get done the right way-every time. You don't |
| that you follow to get the results you need. | | | | get lost and you never arrive at a restaurant two |
| Those processes may develop organically over time. | | | | hours after it's closed for the evening. |
| If you kept driving downtown every night for a few | | | | Are you creating organized systems to accomplish |
| weeks, you might eventually find those tapas in time | | | | regular events in your business? If you're not, you |
| to get a table. You'd then have a system in place for | | | | need to make a point of engaging in some serious |
| finding the place again. | | | | business process mapping. |
| However, you could have found your way there | | | | |