Today, we talk about how processes make up every aspect of our daily lives and how optimizing them in your business can make a huge impact
Did you brush your teeth today?
It’s an honest question because I’m right by your mouth and, well, there’s some yucky breath coming out of there.
Seriously though, did you brush today?
How about get dressed? Make coffee? Pack a lunch? Drive a car? Scroll Facebook?
If you did any of those things… actually anything at all… there was a process involved.
Let’s take the teeth for example.
You went into the bathroom, grabbed your tooth paste, opened it up, grabbed your tooth brush, put a big glob onto your brush, brushed your teeth (for like 5 minutes, right?… right) OK, for probably 20 seconds, rinsed your brush put it all back and you were done.
Truth is, life is somewhat a series of processes. Everything we do follows a process. Whether it’s something quick like brushing your teeth, something longer like losing 10 pounds or a bigger task of getting a degree or raising kids.
One thing I love is studying and optimizing processes. It’s probably one of the reasons why I’ve been successful as an engineer. My brain is just wired that way. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Matrix, think of when Neo becomes fully aware and can see the matrix for what it is and then manipulate it.
That’s how I feel about processes. So, essentially Keanu Reeves and I are like the same, right? Yeah, well, maybe not.
But it’s honestly something that’s hard for me to turn off. Of course, I use it at work as I design and analyze manufacturing work flows and individual steps. But it also crosses over to things around the house or when I’m at a store or a restaurant or waiting for the one traffic light in our town that I swear never recognizes my presence!
All that said, I love looking at processes and seeing how they can be improved and streamlined. I almost see it as free money right there. Granted, sometimes you might buy a new machine or new software or an app that will help you automate or optimize a process. But often, it’s already all there right in front of you like a puzzle. You just have to re-imagine how the pieces could fit together better.
You have these processes in your business as well. Some of them are physical. Some are electronic or information-related. If you could put on magic glasses and see all of them in front of you, it might indeed look like some form of that matrix. A little overwhelming, honestly.
But there is so much potential there. Every step it takes to go from customer order to shipping your product, every email, every instruction, all your training procedures or onboarding or accounting. All of it can be optimized, streamlined, clarified, standardized.
I want that to bring you some hope today. Even if you’ve felt like you’ve been squeezing everything as tight as you can to try to improve that bottom line, there are still opportunities right in front of you that you can leverage to get you there, often with minimal resources. Just a different perspective or different approach.
I want to help you get there. Join me in coming episodes as we dig into all aspects of your processes. Communication, automation, identifying and reducing waste, standardization, fun (yep, fun is allowed), innovation, creativity, curiousity. All of it makes a difference.
I can’t help you make sure your teeth stay cavity-free (though regular brushing might help), but I can help you make a positive impact through the processes you touch each day. Let’s get after it!
