My top 3 tips for awesome Process Mapping Workshops
Process Mapping Workshops haven’t moved on in the last 20 years…
When you mention process mapping workshops to most people they’ll think of standing around brown paper with pens & post-it notes, talking about the same thing over and over and over. The more arguments there are, the better the workshop right? Can you accept that they are successful and collaborative workshops based on this experience?
However, as Process Mapping software grows in popularity, here are Skore’s top tips to make your process mapping workshop engaging and enriching.
Why use Process Mapping Software?
People love post-it notes right? You don’t get the same engagement looking at a screen?
Wrong. Paper-based approaches aren’t slick, moving dozens of post-it’s around because you’ve suddenly remembered a step is a daunting task. Plus, rolling up the paper and spending days translating them into a digital format results in two major problems:
- Workshop output has a half-life. The longer between the workshop and the delivery of the output, the less impact it has.
- It’s very difficult for one person to successfully translate what was captured into an accurate representation. Couple this with the time it’s taken, you lose engagement as people don’t relate to the output
Whatever success you’ve experienced engaging through a workshop will be lost when the reporting doesn’t match up to the conversation you had two weeks ago.
Our Top Tips for Process Mapping Workshops
Use a common language
Even if you’re clever enough to have learnt BPMN, no one is going to be impressed with your use of connector symbols, diamond, squares, etc… Keep it simple, people don’t want to have to learn a whole new language to engage in the workshop. Keeping it simple and accessible means the whole organisation can be engaged in change – not just the process experts. We love UPN which is easy for everyone to use and understand
Don’t jump into the detail
It’s all too tempting to spend hours focusing on one part of the problem. You’ll get a far better picture if you start at a higher level, then break it down into the detail as needed. It also means you can get the right people in the room at the right time. Using software means you can drill down into the detail easily later while keeping the process map to one page.
Share it instantly
If you’re doing it right, the content should be shareable by the time the attendees are back at their desk. You want them to be able to review it whilst it’s still fresh in their minds, make that comment, ask that question. Also, they’re more likely to share it with people that didn’t make the workshop, gaining a wider level of feedback.
Using a process mapping software, and our tips, will help you engage on a whole new level. You’ll be able to get to answers quicker, demonstrate instant value and move the audience onto the next stage sooner, be it future process improvements, system implementation, or something else.
Skore is the Process Improvement Platform that enables you to map processes in live workshops at the speed of conversation. Create instant insights and dashboards and share to everyone.
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