This week we are looking at the next phase in the Practice Accelerator Framework and answering the question: how do you work now to deliver the results your clients want?

Last week, we talked about defining your project. Click here if you missed it.

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You can’t improve unless you know exactly where you’re starting. You need to determine the current state of your process—your actual performance baseline. This is not how you think you do the work or how you think you should do the work, but how it actually gets done right now.

Don’t skip this part. Being able to demonstrate success is more important than you might think when you are starting out. You will need it to build buy-in across your firm, and you will need it to develop confidence in yourself and your ability to effect change.

If you’ve got any skeptics in your team or practice group, they will need convincing. They will need to see how much time you have saved, how much overhead you have cut, how many fewer times you have to turn that draft agreement to get it right, or how much less frustrating the process becomes once it’s been improved.

Change is hard

Change is hard work. You will need to show (and celebrate) all your wins to keep yourself, your organization, and your improvement team enthusiastic and engaged. You can’t do that unless you can point to concrete changes for the better. And you can’t do that unless you know where you started.

For one of our clients, the improvement team convinced the skeptical partners of the value of their improvement initiative by demonstrating that one change alone would save about 25,000 sheets of paper (and the associated printing, shredding, and recycling costs) every month. The team knew the numbers and the cost. They measured.

So how do you understand your baseline? How do you see how you work now to get results for your client?  We have two tools for the Measure phase:

1. Map it out

Process mapping is, hands-down, the most powerful tool for visualizing your process. Whether you are taking a high-level view through a phase or value stream map, or getting down to the nitty-gritty in a step-by-step process map, you will learn more about the current state of your process by mapping it than by any other way.

We have a whole category of posts on our blog about process mapping. Check them out for valuable tips. We also offer a new Fast Action Process Improvement service. We will work with you over Zoom to map out and redesign your process and deliver a Fast Action Plan for how you can improve. 

2. Use the Eight Wastes

Whether you map a process or not, you can use the Eight Wastes to identify problem areas. Sit down with your team and talk honestly about frustrations, problems, and bottlenecks in your process. Create a list or mark them directly on your map.

Doing an Eight Wastes Exercise with your team is easy. You can do it. Check out our blog series on the Eight Wastes, and then download a FREE copy of our Eight Wastes Guide.

Join us next week for the next phase of the Practice Accelerator Framework and sign up here so you don’t miss it.

Thanks a lot everybody! See you next week.