Process is about people

I spoke to a colleague recently about flexibility and working without clarity. Having lived through the complete disarray that 2020 and 2021 brought, the benefits of "working through uncertainty" as a life skill need no explanation.

Forced remote work adoption pushed our limits. Today, not one employee lacks first-hand experience of operating in uncertainty. Covid came to educate us, with rapid exposure to different challenges. Teams that grabbed the opportunity to learn from these challenges, likely implemented new processes to prepare for the future.?

While processes can seem restricting and cold, my colleague highlighted that usually processes are a product of teams wanting to deliver great work to their colleagues. As well as quality, processes may exist to protect the executing team from unrealistic workloads.

As I mulled this over it became clear that processes are all about people. Here are 3 situations where we all benefit from a clear process:

1. Returns policies

Buying presents for others? It’s worth considering policies before gifting clothes, as the process behind returning them can be cumbersome.?

When I worked retail, we had clear definitions for what can be returned and why. This process protects those working in retail from fraudsters, and protects the buyers from shoddy quality. For example: a coat might be expected to last 6 months of constant use, and wear-and-tear beyond a button or two coming loose is not acceptable quality. Therefore, a shop might accept returns of coats from their fall line right into May or June. However, a T-shirt at a tenth of the value, might not be expected to last more than 5 washes, or 5 weeks without the price tag still attached.?

It’s worth knowing a store’s return time limits if you’re buying for others well in advance of the actual exchange, so that the recipient can return items in time to meet retail process stipulations.

2. Dining out

If you eat out at chain restaurants with multiple locations, there are often guidelines that staff need to follow in the case of a complaint or special request.

Waiting tables some time ago, we were told that any client with a complaint could, as standard, be told “your after-dinner coffee’s on the house” because it’s a low-cost concession to make. If this offering did not suffice, the approvals process for a discounted bill needed to be set in motion.

Chain restaurants especially, will have their own process for quickly appeasing clients, because they see the same challenges every day, and develop mechanisms that minimize stress for their workers, and keep clients happy.

So, know that a kindly-delivered complaint to a server can quickly jump start a process to solve your complaint, without the need to bring a floor manager out.

1. Supermarket re-orgs

We’ve all seen it. Food stores love to do a reset : reshuffling every aisle’s contents. This process has a purpose beyond increasing our exposure to new products by forcing us to search for items on our grocery list…

Resets improve the customer experience, especially when there are product shortages or delayed deliveries (think 2020 winter holidays amid Covid). Say you’re looking for frozen roast potatoes and they’re out of stock. Store managers might come up with creative solutions to place fresh potatoes, peelers, and ready-made seasoning alternatives near the frozen version’s usual spot.

Another people element to supermarket processes is ease of shelf stacking. To help the already tired staff around peak eating season, some shelves will be stocked with empty packaging and only a few true products, because this is easier than re-configuring an aisle.

All the above are situations we encounter outside of work and especially during the holiday season. However, our own colleagues also have processes that help us receive a better finished product or experience, as well as easing that team’s workload.

Next time someone imposes a process on you that seems cumbersome, channel your inner Wise Man and ask them what the process achieves. Does it help you get closer to your true goal? Is that team trying to align your request with company goals in order to prioritise it? Was the process implemented to prevent burnout in the actioning team?

Alternatively, if someone is reluctant to adopt your process, or unwilling to allow the time for your process to play out, gift them an explanation of its raison d’être: it ensures they receive quality and likely protects the executing team’s sanity! Because process is all about the people it helps.