Are your processes documented, or are they all in someone's head?
"Death by documentation." It's a lazy excuse used to avoid mapping business processes. And frankly? Ignore it at your peril.
Everyone is looking into AI, Automation and Digital Transformation as the magic pills to their problems and onward growth.
But if you try to layer those tools over chaos, you don't get efficiency. You get automated chaos.
Process maps aren't just paperwork to be filed and forgotten. They are the blueprint of your organisation's brain.
Without them, you are relying on tribal knowledge.
Staff have no "True North": They can't stick to the standard, and more importantly, they can't challenge inefficiencies because they don't see the whole picture. The "Whisper Game" Training: New hires learn from whoever is available. They inherit that specific person's bad habits and shortcuts. Productivity Drain: Your best performers are pulled off the line to teach basics. If they are great doers but bad teachers? You get inconsistent results. AI Blindness: You want to implement automation? Good luck identifying the true pain points without a map.
With them you get a Single Source of Truth: A definitive "business way" that eliminates ambiguity. Scalable Onboarding: New starters get up to speed faster, with consistent quality, without draining your senior team's time. Optimisation Ready: You can visualise bottlenecks instantly. You can't fix what you can't see. AI & Automation Prep: You provide a structured logic flow that tools need to function. You turn "pain points" into "automation opportunities." Resilience: If key staff leave, their knowledge doesn't walk out the door with them.
The festive muted period is approaching. There is no better time to get this done. It is an investment that will pay dividends forever.
What is stopping you?
The tech is easy. Tools like Scribe, Loom, and my personal favourite, Snagit (love the "annotate on the fly" features), make capturing the doing simple.
I get it. Even with great tools, it is heavy lifting. It takes effort to turn recordings into usable, high-quality maps.
But the alternative is a business that runs on guesswork.
If you know you need this but dread the execution, let's talk. It's better done right the first time.
Originally shared on LinkedIn
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