Is your business process broken?

People often complain about processes and systems at work, but how do you know if there’s a serious problem? It’s easy to blame corporate policies, other teams, or a particular tool that your company uses, rather than considering the bigger picture. However, consistent issues are usually a product of a poorly designed or broken process.

Here are some common signs of a business process that just isn’t working:

• Deliverables are consistently backlogged in one functional area, even though employees are working long hours and may be at risk of burnout. This may indicate a constraint in your business process design.

• Two or more groups that work together are exhibiting frequent infighting, complaining, or resentment. This suggests a lack of clarity about mutual roles and responsibilities.

• Critical projects or deliverables often have unanticipated issues that cause major delays or failures downstream. This is usually a sign of ineffective risk management and/or poor communication in your process.

• One group of employees frequently has trouble getting data that should be available from other parts of the organization. This is a common symptom of poorly designed information flow.

• Employees constantly complain about a particular tool, even though it seems to be working as expected. This indicates a mismatch between your process and systems design.

If this sounds like your process, it may be tempting to implement a quick fix – hire more people, buy a new system, create more rules for employees to follow. However, if there’s a deeper issue with process design, these approaches likely won’t fix it. This can lead to rounds of restructuring, multiple systems rollouts, or a series of “new” management programs, without any meaningful impact to employee productivity or the bottom line.

Alternatively, consider the benefits of an outside perspective. A process improvement expert can interview key stakeholders, analyze the process flow, and help the team identify the root cause. Is there anyone in your organization who can view the situation independently and provide difficult feedback to senior leaders? If not, an external consultant may be the best option to help your team document and improve their process.

What processes does your organization struggle with the most? Have you seen any of the consistent issues mentioned above, or noticed other signs of poor process design? Please share your experience in the comments below.