I am launching a few articles on using food as a metaphor for business and leadership. This post focuses on processes.
I was preparing my Turkish coffee. I let it boil for a while being absent-minded. The coffee did not have the usual good taste. This is because the flavoring components evaporated leaving me with tasteless coffee.
This event raised many questions. The process of making coffee is exemplary of process in business.
Roasting coffee beans using charcoal as a source of heat, will it be different from using a gas burner? Both charcoal and gas serve to roast coffee. However, using charcoal gives a better-roasted coffee product. This is because charcoal upon burning produces a gas that will keep the beans upon removal from the roaster fresh. Roasted coffee beans tend to react with oxygen and deteriorate. Charcoal prevents this from happening. Not only this but charcoal enriches the aroma of coffee beans.
The change in the process may change the quality of the product. This is the lesson we may derive from the above discussion.
An appropriate example for these discussions is the use of oil in cooking. Cooking oil serves to distribute the heat evenly to the cooked food and prevent it from sticking. However, not all cooking oils are the same. Oils have each a smoking point. This is the point where the oil burns and produces smoke deteriorating the quality of the cooked food.
I imagine leaders and managers who want to achieve results. Some of those leaders/managers may fume too early and produce “smoke” that suffocates the work environment.
Do we need to establish a scale of fuming points for leaders/managers? They are supposed to be the fair distributors of work and to prevent employees from “sticking” or being stuck. The process of motivating the employees is subject to variations in the leaders’ “smoking points”.
I am sharing the above discussions to say that business processes are similar to food processing. They too need careful attention to variations. Ignoring the importance of processes to focus on smart goals is a big mistake if the process in not right achieving goals becomes a distant reality.
You want to persuade your employees. Please consider the process of persuasion because it is the dividing line between success and failure.
Thank you my friend, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you.
The pleasure is also mine my friend, Aldo.
Thank you
The business process is the basis of an organization, as it helps to “break down” the activities of a company into easily controllable, measurable and optimizable macro areas. Managing the single process, as well as the entire chain of processes carried out by a company, means being able to organize and optimize projects in the best possible way, allowing the company to develop, grow constantly and above all increase its efficiency.
map business processes?
The map allows you to analyze the individual process in depth, to have the clearest and most exhaustive picture possible of everything that happens before arriving at the final result. This is a crucial phase, as it concerns not only the elements of the process, but also all the actors involved, such as people, operations, timing and methods in the execution of each activity.
Furthermore, the mapping of business processes is essential for the work team, as it clarifies the objective and offers the information necessary to carry out projects as best as possible. In short, it provides the team with the right motivation and enhances everyone’s role, showing how all the people involved are fundamental to the success of the process.
In this way, company managers and executives are also facilitated in creating effective and cohesive work teams, helping each member to fully understand their role, to find the right why in carrying it out in the best way, also making them understand how the work of each has an important impact on that of the others, and is decisive for achieving the final objective.
The result will be a true visual representation of the project, which will allow you to analyze every aspect with extreme transparency and clarity.
Thank you my friend Aldo for sharing your great thoughts and reference to the “business process mapping”.
Also. for reminding us of designing processes that are friendly to the ecosystem.
Your highlighting of the value of processes adds value to the post as it did not elaborate on this importance. You filled the gap and I am grateful to you