Creating and Implementing a Workflow
Workflow specialist and guest blogger, Jason Ryncarz is sharing the second part in a series on creating a workflow that saves you time today and for the rest of 2018. I introduced Jason as my secret weapon here.
Whenever I talk to creatives in any setting and mention the word workflow I either get a deer in the headlights look or I get told “this is so boring”. Well I am here to tell you in the words of Marcus Lemonis from the Profit there are three things that matter in business “people, process, product”. As you guessed, we are really going to be digging into the process part of your business. Specifically this series is focused on improving your workflow or implementing it if you don’t have an established one. For more on why you should have a workflow go here.
Now, I know that workflow is sometimes the last thing anyone wants to work on. In fact, my wife will make up things just to get out of working on it or she just says I’ll make dinner if you do it for me. That offer, I will never turn down. But I have to say that workflow is not that bad especially if you make a continuous effort to improve it.
To start this series let’s look at the first step you do to making a good workflow. This step is critical and believe it or not it has nothing to do with workflow itself. We will be looking at making a vision and mission statement. By establishing both of these, you are creating a framework and direction on how your business will move forward. In the strategic planning world, this is the first step in the VMOSA action planning process. Lets first look at a vision statement.
The Vision Statement
The vision statement is the first statement you should tackle. A vision statement in its simplest terms is what you want your company to become. It is your aspirations and hopes which, when formed correctly, provide the purpose of your business. This is also linked to the WHY of your business. A vision statement is very personal but here are some considerations from Business News Daily:
- Project five to 10 years in the future.
- Dream big and focus on success.
- Use the present tense.
- Use clear, concise language.
- Infuse your vision statement with passion and emotion
Mission Statement
Now that you have your vision statement lets move on to the next part. The mission statement is a clear concise statement that defines the business’ purpose. This takes the vision statement and answers more or less “what are we doing to get there?”. To write a good mission statement, I prefer a 5 step model written by BPlans:
- Start with a market-defining story- it defines how your business is different from most others, or even unique
- Define what your business does for its customers
- Define what your business does for its employees- if you don’t have employees you might have to imagine if you had them
- Add what the business does for its owners
- Discuss, digest, cut, polish, review, revise
So this is a good start to starting the workflow process. Please take your time with this and do it right. Below are some great examples:
Company: Amazon
Mission: We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.
Vision: To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
Company: Google
Mission: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Vision: To provide access to the world’s information in one click.
Company: Uber
Mission: Transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere for everyone.
Vision: Smarter transportation with fewer cars and greater access. Transportation that’s safer, cheaper, and more reliable; transportation that creates more job opportunities and higher incomes for drivers.
Stay tuned for our next article in this series where we start the actual workflow process and if you missed the first part, head here. In the mean time have fun leaning out your business and feel free to reach out if you need help developing your workflow.
Jason is a Arbinger, Spectrum, and Crucial Conversations Coach as well as a workflow specialist.
