Why visually map a process

Powerful visual analytical tools help you unlock new, hidden and supressed value in your delivery chain.

When people can see work flowing across a page, patterns and problems often become immediately apparent. Visual maps illuminate:

• illogical flows

• chunky, bloated steps and transitions

• missing pieces

• failures of integration, lack of integration

• instances of double-doing (even triple, quadruple)

These issues create friction. They slow delivery, increase cost, reduce quality and erode both customer value and profit (note: these are two different things and increasing one does not automatically increase the other).

Most people understand complex systems more easily when they can see them.

Processes often exist as a mixture of conversations, assumptions, training, procedures, spreadsheets and system configurations. While each source contains information, none provides a complete picture. Mapping a process brings these fragments together into a single visual representation that people can examine collectively.

The act of visualising work helps people:

• Understand the whole system, not just the part they personally touch

• Spot relationships, dependencies and knock-on effects

• Challenge long-held assumptions about how work is performed

• Reach a shared understanding more quickly than through discussion alone

• Identify opportunities for simplification, automation or redesign

• Expose the difference between how work is supposed to happen and how it actually happens

A process map becomes more than a diagram. It acts as a thinking tool, helping teams explore complexity, ask better questions and make more informed decisions about where improvement efforts will have the greatest impact.

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