People need three things to deliver optimal work: the right training, the right tools, and the right information. In a business process redesign, your company has an opportunity to improve performance by improving the quality of those tools and the ways in which they’re used. And part of the process of identifying the right changes is getting employees involved.

Here are some keys to ensuring that everyone understands what you’re trying to accomplish:

• Manage from the front lines. “The desk is a dangerous place from which to judge the world,” says Shane Green, author of Culture Hacker: Reprogramming Your Employee Experience to Improve Customer Service, Retention, and Performance. “You have to be on the front line.” He finds new employees particularly useful because they have a fresh perspective and are not yet stuck in the status quo.
• Use the “trenches” to find and remove bottlenecks. Working with people in the trenches helps you learn how processes are currently managed and where the people who perform the tasks see opportunities for improvement. You can more easily see pain points and bottlenecks and find solutions, and you get team buy-in at the same time. And that has a huge cultural impact.”
• Empower employees to improve processes. Once you’ve identified opportunities to streamline work and improve processes, you’ve set the stage for empowering employees to play a more active role in decision-making. But to do that beneficially, they need to understand not only their own tasks and activities. Process maps can offer a clear visual perspective of the process, end to end. Once the team understands both their jobs and the way those jobs fit into the overall scheme, they’re better equipped to understand the impact of each decision on the company’s fortunes.

Managing effectively and keeping employees in the loop regarding goals and objectives are critical to improving both processes and productivity.

Read the Pushing Team Speed to learn how your management style and engaging employees can help take your company to the next level.