Rethinking Workflow: Workflow is about the “Flow” of work, not the “System”
Wrapping up this 4-part series on productivity, let me tackle one of the trendiest and most talked about of topics —workflow. Over the last 10 years, there has been a push to “workflow” everything with the goal of creating efficient, fixed, and repeatable processes. We have applied workflow to mega projects like enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) to our filing systems to any and every task we can think of.
Workflow has become the engine of the corporate world and the superconductor of our knowledge-based economy. However, the workflow I am talking about isn’t SAP or Oracle, Six Sigma or Total Quality Management. I am talking about our human ability to “flow” work (which is a far more interesting discussion).
How can you leverage your flow—and your team’s— to improve your performance?
At the end of the day, the elegance of your project plan or the slickness of your scheduling software doesn’t matter. What counts is your ability to grab information, think, process, learn, and connect with others to get work done and drive action.
Let me offer an alternative perspective to thinking of workflow as what your software vendors are jamming down your throat or what the “fixers” in your group are calling for. (Or, God forbid, your consultants.)
If we get clear about what we’re trying to do, the information we need, and the bottlenecks (people and processes) that get in the way, then we can find ways to develop our own logic, repeat that process, and scale our solutions.
Let’s rethink workflow.
Workflow is about “infoflow,” not automation.
In our knowledge-based economy where information is our currency, we are walking information processors. Workflow, or information flow (“infoflow,” as I like to call it), is the bloodstream of our work.
Your personal workflow is about recurring sources of information throughout your workday:
Your meetings
Your ideas
Your to-dos
Your notes
Your projects
Your folders
Your customers
Your issues
Your sales opportunities
Your information requests
Your team or department has infoflow of its own through a range of activities (some of which may not be necessary after all):
Team meetings
Team approvals
Team shared files
Team forms
Team Project Management tools
Team tracking systems
Team chats (electronic, water cooler, and other)
Team memos, processes, and reference materials
Team decision-making records
For your daily infoflow, think of yourself as an actual information processor. What information goes in and what comes out? Draw a diagram of your “flow.” My diagram would show people talking to me (inputs) and me spitting out documents on the other side (outputs).
A team diagram should show team meetings, files, systems, and workshops going in one end and your “product” (sales, closed orders, proposals, work done, etc.) out the other.
Visualizing your infoflow is your first step to improving it. Ask yourself if your inputs (i.e., meetings, notes, discussions, systems) are leading to better outputs (i.e., what your team is designed to do and deliver) or is the correlation murky to say the least? Are your interfaces designed with world-class simplicity (like Google)?
Focus on process, not platforms. (We fiddle too much with apps.)
I have watched companies implement fancy workflows or tools for projects, audits, and internal control programs only to realize that email does the job much better with zero configuration.
I am embarrassed to admit how many tools I have tried for our business that have failed miserably. I once spent months playing with an app from my personal trainer, only to revert back to emailing her my progress.
Yes, we do need structured apps for high-volume activities like incident management or purchasing. (And of course, I’m an advocate of useful tools and streamlined systems that can give us scale, repeatability, and control.)
But don’t get too misty-eyed when the next vendor approaches you with a utopian workflow or other system for your business, at least for most areas. Focus on the process and your business need first. Find a workflow solution with the tools you already have on hand: it might be your email, the whiteboard in your boardroom, you team’s shared folders, your SharePoint or Teams sites, or your notebook.
Technology solutions don’t just happen by magic little elves. Access, configuration, settings, changes, training, testing, troubleshooting, support are not to be taken lightly. Before you buy a fancy new tool, weigh the heavy cost of fiddling. Get the process right before the platform and invest in scale when the ROI is clear. That’s true for your personal workflow, your team’s, and of course enterprise-level investments.
Write your own code (or borrow from others).
Systems do what they’re told, but our brain has a mind of its own, as we know.
But that doesn’t mean that our brain doesn’t need “code” to process work. In fact, logic, rules, or sequences (or however you want to think about it) are critical for your brain to process more tasks, get more done, and drive flow, momentum, and impact.
Your team needs “team codes” too to optimize individual productivity, respect working styles, and process group information.
To maximize your workflow and that of your team, here are some of the best logic sequences that I have learned over the years (and borrowed from many):
Dripping – I wrote a book while having 3 kids 6 and under and a business. It’s not that impressive though. It took me 6 years. A tiny bit of anything every day, with consistency, gives your projects flow. Dripping is about the power of iterative, consistent, daily efforts to achieve goals. Are you dripping water on your big personal and team goals that you want to move forward (but can’t carve out big chunks to do)?
Sticking – Have you ever been working on something and had to force yourself to stay on task? (Ok, it happens every day, all day.) Does your team use “sprints” to stay on task and build collective momentum? Sticking to a task until it is done (i.e., over, dunzo, finito, Hasta la vista, baby) is a logic guaranteed to make your work more productive.
Batching – Why is superstar Wharton professor and bestselling author Adam Grant so productive? He batches. He groups his tasks strategically to avoid lost time. He goes so far as writing during certain months of the year and teaching in others. Is your team chasing a zillion projects, or are they set them up to tackle careful, deliberate batches of work?
Chunking – Experts claim that working in 20–30-minute intervals is the most effective for getting things done. It’s like CrossFit for your work. Are you chunking your time to get more done? Are you chunking your meetings to make the best use of your team’s time?
(Just) Doing – This may seem reactionary and not logic at all. But there are times when an idea, thought, or opportunity comes up and you need to jump on it. Screw the planning, to-do listing, and scheduling. In David Allen’s Getting Things Done, he uses this strategy for tasks under 2 minutes (where he breaks from his rule of to-do listing everything). Mel Robbins in The 5 Second Rule gives us a logic for taking action in 5 seconds to avoid killing our strokes of inspiration.
Your operating system probably defaults to one or several of these rules. Your team has its own sequence. And yes, the rules do conflict. You will need to pick the best for the situation that you’re in.
The point is not to pick the perfect rule or to stick religiously to one or the other. The point is to learn a few codes, use them with intention, share them with those you work with, and continually adapt your program to give your day and your work more flow.
