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One of the most important needs for modern businesses is not capital, but relevance with their target audience. This is why businesses continue to invest in processes and methods that improve them from within and make them more streamlined towards the end goal. Process improvement efforts that businesses make are for improving the overall business process workflow by reducing redundancies and increasing productivity. But it is not an easy path.

Business process improvement is a long process that needs to run exactly as planned in order to deliver the success you expected. This is why there are a number of pitfalls and shortcomings that you need to avoid. What are these pitfall? Let’s take a look at the most common ones.

Common Process Improvement Mistakes To Avoid

  • Picking The Wrong Process To Improve

Processes that need improvement are picked after a strategic selection process. Why is that necessary? Because you need to identify the need for improvement before you start changing things internally. Picking the wrong process to improve can wreak havoc throughout the organisation, especially when you understand that a business is nothing but a chain of interconnected processes. Do not change the processes that are well, but identify the right process to change for a thorough success. 

  • Not Picking The Right Speed

Change needs to be implemented at just the right speed. A burning forest needs the right speed of water delivery. It cannot be too slow otherwise the forest will burn down or too fast to cause a flood and/or waterlogging. It needs to be just right to stop the fire. Similarly, process improvement implementation needs to happen at the right pace. Too slow would mean that the problem evolves and becomes bigger, and too fast would make it difficult to adapt to the culture.

  • Not Documenting The Process

Process documentation is one of the most integral needs of process improvement and change management. It keeps a track of what needs to be changed and what actually is changed. Everything, from your process to process mapping software needs to be in the documentation loop in order to paint the exact right picture in the minds of your stakeholders to agree to the change. 

  • Not Hiring The Right People For Improvement

Competency is important when you are considering making necessary process improvements. You need the right team for the job so you can get the right results. Choose people who can perform multiple tasks like mapping, analysis, management, and presentation for the best overall outcome. Also, experience is something that counts in the field, while the knowledge of different tools also matters. 

  • Treating Improvement As A One-Time Process

The biggest mistake that businesses make with process improvement is thinking that it is a one-off event and once the results are in, they can stop it. On the contrary, process improvement is a continuous effort as you consistently find areas of improvement and tweak systems for the best results. It has the advantage of keeping you up to date with the latest technology, removing processes when they become obsolete, and reducing rework when you need to restart the initiative.

Businesses need process improvement now more than ever, as the survival of organisations continues to depend on their relevance with their user base. Making mistakes with process improvement will definitely cost you a lot, not just in terms of money, but customer satisfaction as well.

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