At first glance, the idea of mapping out management processes might seem almost impossible. Good management is an activity that is highly social, interactive, and at the same time largely invisible. It is, effectively, a never-ending activity that requires the manager to continually set goals, plan, monitor, execute, lead and repeat.
But look a little closer, and there are many ways in which planning automation and process mapping can support and even improve business management. Let’s see why automated processes and mapping can benefit an organization’s management.
Get up to speed: What is process mapping?
Why we need planning automation for business management
Management theorists generally agree that the management process comprises of five key activities:
- Planning
- Organizing
- Leading
- Selecting people and resources
- Controlling and monitoring
Whether a manager is overseeing a specific project or undertaking general management of a team, all of these activities are continually at play. On any given day, a manager could be organizing staff, planning tasks, responding to changes, monitoring progress, and producing reports. They also spend time talking to teams, leading and motivating people.
At most organizations, these activities are carried out simultaneously, often on an ad hoc basis. Management is highly manual – managers are constantly performing all these activities, all the time, as and when they see fit.
It may therefore seem irrelevant to think about how automated processes can support this highly interpersonal and interactive job. Nevertheless, a manual approach to business management has some serious drawbacks:
- Lack of repeatability
Managers are required to juggle the many different processes they must complete and hold it all in their heads. That is fine for highly experienced or ‘natural’ managers – yet many people working in management positions don’t instantly know how to do all these tasks. By using planning automation technology, you ensure all management tasks are carried out – and nothing is missed.
- Lack of governance
When organizations leave managers to oversee projects or employees, they have very little oversight over how managers are doing their job or what they spend their time actually doing. Is a manager being efficient and effective? Or are they failing to provide the support, guidance, leadership, or communication needed?
If you do not automate processes around management, it is almost impossible to know what managers are really doing – especially since much of their work is un-quantifiable.
- Lack of systematization
In most organizations, management styles are highly varied – each manager works in their own way, according to their own personality type, values, or education. This means that they approach projects and people management in very different ways. Some managers are ‘hands off’, while others try to control and monitor every single task. This means there is no common way of doing things across an organization. And this, in turn, affects business culture and leads to inconsistency.
By planning automation of management processes, businesses can dramatically improve how they run projects and organize staff and resources. To improve how business management is done, the first step is to map out business management processes.
eBook: The definitive guide to America’s most broken processes
Process mapping examples for business management
If your organization wishes to improve business management processes, you first need to map out management workflows. The following process mapping examples show how this could be done for three common business management activities:
Process mapping example 1: Individual employee management
A good manager helps the employees they lead by setting goals for them, planning activities for the coming weeks, guiding them, and monitoring their output. In most organizations, this activity is done manually. However, by building a process map, people management becomes much more systematic, transparent, and repeatable. An employee management process map would include steps like:
- Setting goals and targets at the beginning of the year which are stored in a shared document
- Setting alerts to periodically review progress against these goals
- Monitoring progress – if goals have been achieved, or whether they need to be reviewed
- Leadership – reminders for the manager to check in with an employee to see how they are doing
Process mapping example 2: Project management
Project managers must wear many hats, and they spend their days continually planning projects, monitoring and reporting on progress, interacting with stakeholders, and organizing employees. Again, in most organizations, these tasks are highly manual – requiring the manager to remember to perform all these activities. However, by completing a project management process map, you can find many ways to improve this workflow:
- Identify any redundant activities
- Automate stage approval
- Automatically organize things like weekly progress meetings
- Automatically generate reports
- Map out protocols for when things go wrong
Process mapping example 3: Organizational transformation management
When businesses go through major changes – be it the adoption of new technology, entering a new market, or moving offices, the ‘newness’ of the activity might make it seem impossible to map out processes. Nevertheless, process mapping can significantly help support organizational transformations. Process maps can do things like:
- Organize and standardize the repeatable aspects of a change project (especially since many ‘new’ activities will have actually been carried out in the past)
- Identify who is responsible for specific tasks, approvals, training, procurement, and so on
- Provide a framework that ensures business changes do not stall
Related: 7 ways process mapping benefits your business
Improve your management with automated processes
Nintex Promapp® is a powerful process mapping tool used by project and people managers to map out workflows, identify weaknesses, eliminate redundancies and improve efficiency in management processes.
By using mapping technology to define how your organization manages staff and workflows, you develop a more reliable, transparent, and standardized approach to management that helps you to continually improve.
Now yours time to try Nintex Promapp® today with a free trial to see how it can help support your management processes.
