Author: Franz Malten Buemann

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A great business needs a great many things in order to succeed – strong leadership, a competitive advantage, and a unique vision among them. However, one element that could make or break a business is its process (or lack thereof).
A clear, repeatable process has two major hurdles to a successful implementation in a business. Number one is the development of that process, and number two is getting buy-in from stakeholders on that process. That said, the best way to overcome both of these potential roadblocks is to transparently and logically outline a process.
Many businesses use flowcharts to accomplish this task, as flowcharts:

Visually outline a process roadmap for a full-scope understanding, and…
Can be easily digested by employees who need to know and follow the process.

To help you create actionable flowcharts for your organization, we’ve listed the eight best flowchart templates for you to download and start using today to create a better process in any area of your business.
Let’s dive in.

What is a flowchart?
A flowchart is a visual map to help explain a process for decision making, achieving results, or projecting an outcome. Flowcharts begin at a starting point on the graphic, and as users follow through it, they will choose one of several outcomes or options until reaching the end of the process.
In business, flowcharts might be used for any of the following purposes:

Team alignment and process
Email nurturing
Customer journey mapping
Customer or employee onboarding
A/B testing
QA-ing work
Career progression
Customer support

Here are eight templates and examples of flowcharts for business – each one comes with a download link for you to start using that template right on Google Slides.
8 Flowchart Examples for Business
1. Basic Process Flowchart Template

Download this Template
The basic flowchart template is the ideal solution for those just getting started with flowcharts. The template allows its designers to specify a starting point, two potential outcomes, and then the resulting aftermath of those decisions. Due to its limitations, this flowchart template might be best suited for basic processes, like a simple A/B test.
Flowchart Example: Basic Process Flowchart

This template visualizes how a user visiting a company’s landing page could convert and become a lead.
Who should use this flowchart?
This flowchart is helpful for those looking to design an A/B test to determine the most way to get the results they’re looking for.
What We Like About This Flowchart Template
The basic process flowchart is easy to use and follow and is ideal for documenting straightforward or simple processes.
2. Swim Lane Flowchart Template

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The swim lane flowchart template is for dividing up the steps of a process into different sectors. For your business, these different sectors could be time periods, teams, employees, or work requirements.
Flowchart Example: Swim Lane Flowchart

In the example above, the swimlanes are divided by department to illustrate the process of the customer journey.
Who should use this flowchart?
Swim lane flowcharts are particularly helpful for those who oversee cross-functional processes.
What We Like About This Flowchart Template
This template visualizes the different process steps that take place across multiple organizations.
3. Task Flowchart Template

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A task flowchart template is differentiated by what each shape on the flowchart represents. This format is beneficial when multiple teams’ work is intertwined throughout the process, as individuals can easily discern the tasks for which they are responsible. These responsibilities are noted in a key on the flowchart for a quick reference.
The shapes can also represent different types of action.
Flowchart Example: Landing Page Flowchart

In the example above, the different shapes represent the start of, end of, and actions taken during the process of viewing a landing page. This task flowchart example follows an “if this then that” format, showing the various outcomes that could occur when a potential customer visits a landing page.
Who should use this flowchart?
Project managers looking to keep track of various tasks and their outcomes.
What We Like About This Flowchart Template
The task flowchart visually depicts how various contributions to a product support the end result. Each stakeholder can see how their tasks impact the flow of the project.
4. Complex Flowchart Template

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For a flowchart that doesn’t need gridlines or different shapes, this template is the best solution. It provides the option for multiple endpoints depending on which steps are taken through the process.
Flowchart Example: Hiring Flowchart

The above hiring visual is an example of a complex flowchart that has various events and potential outcomes.
Who should use this flowchart?
Teams looking to manage processes that could have various endpoints or projects that have multiple steps and stakeholders involved.
What We Like About This Flowchart Template
Complex processes can be difficult to keep track of. This flowchart template creates an intuitive visual for multi-step processes.
5. Circular Flowchart Template

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The circular flowchart template changes things up with a different shape, but it also provides a different path structure.
Flowchart Example: Social Media Flowchart

For example, in the image above, the template can be used as a decision-making framework. Here, it’s used to help a social media manager determine which site should be used to post content on.
Who should use this flowchart?
Social media managers, product marketers, and content strategists may find this template suits their needs.
What We Like About This Flowchart Template
This template has a cleaner appearance than some of the more complex templates and may be better for visual learners.
6. Linear Flowchart Template

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A linear flowchart template is a solution for when there’s really only one optimal result, and every step of the process will either lead someone to that outcome or result in the process simply ending.
Flowchart Example: Email Nurturing Flowchart

One example – highlighted above – might be for a nurture stream. In the image, the process ends whether someone signs up for an event or not.
Who should use this flowchart?
Email marketing specialists, sales teams.
What We Like About This Flowchart Template
With one singular goal, this flowchart format has a clear beginning and end.
7. Tree Flowchart Template

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A tree-style flowchart template makes the most sense for situations where there are multiple options and when each option has a clear and distinct next step.
Flowchart Example: Phone Tree Flowchart

This example depicts the various options and next steps a caller can take when contacting a business via telephone.
Who should use this flowchart?
For businesses, this flowchart would be perfect for the support department – which can use this template to map out responses from automated chat support or (as outlined above) a phone tree.
What We Like About This Flowchart Template
Each action has a clear next step and a predetermined outcome.
8. Organizational Flowchart Template

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The final flowchart businesses might want to utilize is an organizational flowchart (or org chart) template.
Flowchart Example: Organizational Flowchart

While not exactly procedural, this visualization helps those within the company quickly understand who reports to whom and who is responsible for what.
Who should use this flowchart?
This template is utilized by the heads of a company and/or a department to outline the chain of command in an area of the business. It can also be used by Human Resources teams to inform team structure and organizational decisions.
What We Like About This Flowchart Template
Users can see how a team is structured at-a-glance, and can quickly determine who they need to go to for their project or to have their questions answered.
Business Flowchart Templates
Business flowchart templates are the fastest and easiest way to build flowcharts. All of the above templates are downloadable by clicking here and are completely customizable when it comes to shape, format, color, and imagery.
Download the templates for free to better illustrate and communicate processes in your company.

There are two types of employees – “exempt” and “non-exempt.” You might’ve seen these terms on job postings, or heard them in conversation.
If you aren’t sure what they mean, don’t worry. Trying to understand labor laws can be confusing, especially if you’re new to the workforce. — We’ve broken these terms down to help you navigate the exempt vs. non-exempt employee classification.

How the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Affects Exemption Status
Signed into law in 1938 by President Franklin Roosevelt, the Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay eligibility, and recordkeeping standards in addition to youth employment guidelines for both the private and public sector. During the time the act was signed, child labor was the norm and adults often worked 10 or more hours per day, six to seven days per week.
While the conditions that brought about the FLSA may seem like the dark ages, the law is still relevant today and plays a major role in how the modern workforce is regulated. It establishes the guidelines for how work hours are documented and how exempt and non-exempt employees should be paid. Generally the FLSA provides an exemption from minimum wage and overtime regulations for employees in the following fields:

Executive
Administrative
Professional
Outside sales
Computer-related occupations

That said, job titles alone do not determine exempt status. Instead the employee’s specific job duties and salary have to meet requirements set by the Department of Labor. Certain states, like California, impose additional requirements to qualify for exempt status.
Exempt Employees
One of the biggest differences between exempt and non-exempt employees is overtime pay. An exempt employee is not entitled to overtime pay according to the FLSA.
Instead, exempt employees are given a salary, and they are expected to finish the tasks required of them, whether it takes 30 hours or 50. Exempt employees are also excluded from other FLSA protections afforded non-exempt employees.
To be exempt, an employee must earn a salary basis no less than $684 per week, or $35,568 annually.
Non-Exempt Employees
On the flip side, non-exempt employees must be paid overtime — one-and-a-half times their hourly rate, for any hours worked beyond 40 each week. As the name implies, they are not exempt from FLSA regulations.
Most non-exempt employees must be paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25, but some states with a higher cost of living have set minimum wages above the federal base. Non-exempt employees can be paid a salary, an hourly wage, or commission.
Exempt vs. Non-Exempt Employee Examples in the Workplace
Let’s consider this example to demonstrate the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees:
Sarah, who is an exempt employee, is stressed because she hasn’t finished her proposal due Monday. She spends most of Friday night tweaking it and finishing it up, staying at the office until late. On Monday, she gets her paycheck — the same amount of money she would’ve gotten if she hadn’t stayed late.
Meanwhile, John, who is a non-exempt employee, chooses to take extra shifts and work overtime on Fridays. He doesn’t have to — he could leave at 5 p.m. if he wanted to, but on Monday when he receives his paycheck, he knows he’ll receive extra money from the overtime hours worked.
Which classification is right for you?
Working as an exempt or non-exempt employee will each have their own set of pros and cons. Which classification works best for you will depend on your personal needs and preferences. 
This article was originally published Oct 19, 2018 but has been updated for comprehensiveness.

No matter what your service or product is, you need to get in front of potential customers in order to make the sale. Many businesses put their faith in social media.

While social media platforms are an amazing way to get in front of people, they have two major drawbacks. First, you may have tens of thousands of followers on your platform of choice. However, thanks to algorithms that few (if any) humans understand, you only reach a small percentage of those followers with any given post.
Second, what happens if that platform ever goes away? Don’t think for a minute that you’ll receive a neat list of contacts. If a platform ever shuts down, your audience will evaporate in seconds.

Fortunately, knowing this is half the battle. Now that you understand that you don’t “own” your contacts through social media, it’s time to look at how to safeguard your audience and take ownership of and responsibility for their contact information and data.
This is called Database Marketing and you’re about to learn why it’s essential to your business as well as how to utilize it properly.
What is database marketing?
Before our digital landscape became as vast as it is, businesses would collect names and addresses and send out direct mail pieces like postcards, brochures, flyers, etc. to potential and existing customers.
While traditional direct marketing still exists and can be an asset to your business, digital options give business owners a world of choice when it comes to reaching their audience. It allows you to figure out how customers want to be marketed to and then give them what they want.
Database Marketing is where businesses collect customer data such as:

Names
Addresses
Phone numbers
Purchase history
Customer support history

Once collected, this information is used to create personalized experiences for each customer and house personal and buying information about them.
The Benefits of Database Marketing
Now that you understand what database marketing is, you can determine if it’s right for you.
Hint: It’s probably right for you.
No matter the size of your business, keeping your database fresh, constantly adding to it, and nurturing it is absolutely essential to your business success. You’ll see a variety of benefits, such as:
1. “Own” your contacts.
Information is power, and when you put all of the power in the hands of social media platforms, you put your future in jeopardy. Social media is wonderful and should be a part of your marketing plan, but it shouldn’t be the whole plan.
2. Speak directly to your audience members.
It’s so loud out there! It’s impossible to turn on the television or the radio, or surf the web without being bombarded with marketing and sales messages touting the next best thing that you absolutely must have.
These messages are meant to cast a wide net and reel in any customers they can. You, however, are savvy. You know that in order to be “heard” above the noise, you’ll need to adjust your messaging to your specific audience. Database marketing allows you to do this.
3. Identify avatars or buyer personas.
Who is your best customer? How do they live? What keeps them awake at night? What problem of theirs have you been able to solve? Where can you find more people just like them?
Database marketing allows you to understand your ideal customer and then target individuals who “look” just like them on paper.
4. Segment your buyers.
Create different “audiences” based on their demographics, behaviors, and buying history. This helps you understand them better and offer them more of what they want and less of what will lose their attention.
5. Create loyalty programs that inspire repeat purchases.
Figure out what is the best channel and time to contact your customers so you receive maximum engagement.
6. Kick your customer service into high gear.
Give your staff the opportunity to view all of the interactions a customer has had with your brand.
Database Marketing could be the answer to your business prayers. Of course, like anything, you have to do it properly to see a good return on investment. For that, we need to look at building a database marketing strategy.
Avoid These Pitfalls of Database Marketing
Before we dive into strategy, let’s look at a few challenges you may encounter with database marketing.
1. Data Decay
People move, change jobs, change names, abandon email addresses, and start new ones. Life changes like these could render their information relatively useless.
2. Data Accuracy
Typos happen. Sometimes accidentally, but sometimes purposefully. Some customers know that you’ll be sending them marketing emails once they provide an email address, and they don’t want to hear from you.
That’s okay. If they don’t want to hear from you, you don’t actually want to reach them because they aren’t your ideal audience.
While there’s no easy way to avoid purposeful typos, avoiding accidental errors is possible with drop-down choices instead of blank comment boxes. You can also confirm people’s information when you speak with them.
It’s important to clean up your database frequently, purging contacts with out-of-date or inaccurate information, and merging contacts with multiple profiles. This allows you to focus on reaching the people who could be your next customer or client and take care of those who already are.
3. Using Customer Data Quickly and Appropriately
If you’ve ever received an email two years after doing business with someone, it’s probably come as a shock. Chances are, they don’t update their database in a timely fashion so they completely missed the window to build rapport with you after that first interaction.
Don’t make this mistake. Once you receive information, greet them in some manner and then touch base with them on a regular schedule to nurture the contact. You’ll also want to keep their information to yourself.
Tips for Building a Database Marketing Strategy
Without a strategy, you’ve just got a whole lot of pointless data. Put your database to work for you by creating a sound strategy from the very beginning. Here’s how:
1. Identify who you want to reach.
Who is it that you’d like to do business with and what do they look like on paper? This can include demographics like age and gender, marital status, income level, and location. It might also include psychographics such as their interests, activities, and opinions.
Create an ideal customer profile or persona and then use this to determine what information you need to capture for your database.
2. Make it a team effort.
While it may have “marketing” in the title, database marketing can be influenced by multiple departments in your organization. The marketing, sales, and customer service or support departments all have contact with potential and existing customers. Look for feedback from them to build the most effective database.
3. Use the right tools.
There are countless database marketing software options out there to meet your needs. Do some research, ask for recommendations, and find one that suits your business best. Once you’ve chosen a solution, provide your employees with the training they need to utilize it fully.
4. Gather customer data.
Now that you know how you’re collecting data, it’s time to decide what you need and get started. The options are endless, however here are a few things to consider:

Demographic Data – This includes gender, age, marital status, parental status, health, and financial status.

Psychographic Data – This includes interests, actions, and opinions. What do they value? What type of lifestyle do they lead?

Acquisition Data – Through what channel did they enter?

Technographic and Activity Data – How do they connect with your brand? Is it through a desktop or mobile device? Android or iOS? Do they use your website, social media pages, or a mobile app to interact with your brand?

Transaction and Correspondence Data – How often do they purchase from you and what do they buy? Have they reached out outside of a sales situation for assistance of any kind?

5. Keep your data clean and safe.
As we mentioned before, it’s very easy for data to become outdated and useless. Review it frequently and back it up so if something happens to your database, your entire customer history is not lost.
6. Don’t be creepy.
You can find out a lot about people on the internet. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Respect your customer’s privacy and don’t collect or brandish information on them that won’t help serve the end goal of earning the customer and serving them better.
Examples of Database Marketing
Database marketing can be used in a number of ways and really depends on your needs and goals. Here are just a few of the ways you can incorporate database marketing into your business.
Provide amazing customer support.
Acquiring customers is important, but if you can’t keep them, you’re just spinning your wheels. Your customer service team should have access to your customer database. This allows them to review a customer’s buying history when they call in with an issue.
Imagine knowing exactly what product they are calling about and expressing your ability to help with that product before they even launch into the problem. Your approach will be personalized and will save them time explaining.
For example: “Thanks for calling. I see that you just purchased our new state-of-the-art alarm system. I can help you get that set up today.”
Know what products and services your customer needs.
Having a chat about the weather is a great way to build rapport with a customer or potential customer. Do you know what’s an even better way? Not trying to sell them things they don’t need.
For example: Looking at a customer profile, you can see that they live in a high-rise apartment, have no pets, and have small children. You can skip trying to sell them the latest doggie door.
Identify your best customers and potential upsells.
When you understand who buys frequently and in large amounts, it becomes easier to identify options for upsells.
For example: Perhaps your customer has received a wine-of-the-month for two years now. You’ve just started a cheese-of-the-month add-on. You can target them with emails designed to introduce this new product opportunity.
There are a variety of ways to reach your existing and potential customers. A well-rounded marketing plan will include many of these. However, if you’d really like to get the most bang for your marketing buck, make sure that you include database marketing.
You’ll reach the customers you want to reach, and learn how to speak to them in a way that helps them hear what you’re saying. Your database will be the gift that keeps on giving.

Looking for inspiration for your personal trainer website? Here are 10 great personal training websites along with explanation for what makes them so effective.

As a marketer, a big part of your job is to convert qualified website visitors into leads. Simple enough.
More specifically, inbound marketing requires you to create remarkable content they’ll want to trade their contact information for. From there, those leads turn into opportunities, who turn into customers and even promoters.
Clearly, conversions are a big deal. So how can you optimize yours? By creating conversion paths optimized to most effectively convert your ideal visitors into leads.

While not all conversion paths are identical and depend on the type of business they’re for, they have a few common attributes: a landing page, a call-to-action, a content offer or end point, and a thank you page.

Landing page: A landing page is a specific page on your website designed to collect a visitor’s contact information in exchange for a resource, like a course, ebook, or other product.

Call-to-action: A call-to-action is a section on a webpage or advertisement that persuades the visitor to act or do something. These can take the form of buttons prompting website visitors to sign up, subscribe, or buy a product.

Thank you page: The thank you page shows your visitors that you appreciate them for taking a desired action. For example, a thank you page might appear after a visitor has signed up for a newsletter or filled out a form.

End point: This may be in the form of a content offer, which is any material or resource given to a visitor in exchange for their contact information, completing the conversion path. These materials could be guides, ebooks, courses or other products. For e-commerce, instead of a content offer, a conversion path may end in a purchase.

In order to convert into a lead, a visitor sees a content offer of interest to them (or product in the case of e-commerce), clicks on the call-to-action button to access that content, and is then taken to a landing page. On that landing page, the visitor can provide their information on a form in exchange for access to the offer itself. Upon submitting that form, the now-lead is taken to a thank you page where they receive the offer.
Voila! Conversion path complete.
By designing and implementing the right conversion paths, you can most effectively move website visitors through the buyer’s journey and help them become customers and promoters.
Conversion Path Example

Let’s say you’ve been lured to the landing page above after searching online for tips for preventing frizzy hair.
You’re then prompted by a CTA (pictured below) that invites sign up for their email list in exchange for 10% of their products.
You decide you’d like to try one of their satin-lined caps to fight frizz and take them up on the offer.
A thank you page pops up once you’ve filled out the form giving instructions on how to access your discount code. Once you get the code from your email, you use it to purchase one of their caps. Ta-da! The conversion path is complete.
What makes a good conversion path?
Well as you might have guessed, you need content, a call-to-action, a landing page, and a thank you page. But with so many conversion paths out there on the internet for your potential customers to explore, it’s more important than ever to create the RIGHT paths — paths that your ideal customers are drawn to and most effectively convert the right visitors into leads.
What are the steps to creating a conversion path?
Let’s explore the key items you need in your inbound toolkit to create effective conversion paths that turn casual visitors into customers.
1. Attract your target audience with context-appropriate content.
Content is the fuel that powers effective inbound strategies—and it’s what you’ll use to convert those website visitors into leads. The good news is that content is everywhere! Content is what your website pages are filled with, what goes into your emails, and what’s hosted on your blog — your website pages, emails, and blog are just vehicles to deliver that content.
Although content is in no short supply, in order for it to act as your inbound rocket fuel, you need to create the right content. As you can probably guess, the right content is optimized to appeal specifically to your buyer personas. It should focus on the challenges they’re trying to overcome and the goals they’re looking to hit. Most of all, it should be relevant and interesting to them.
But here’s the kicker — it’s not enough to just create persona-specific content. That content needs to be relevant to your persona based on where they are in the buyer’s journey.
The buyer’s journey is the active research process your personas go through leading up to making a purchase — and specific content is more relevant to your personas at different stages of that journey. This is where the “context” piece comes in: It’s not enough to just create content for your personas. You have to make sure that content is relevant to what they’re interested in and hoping to learn more about.
Most visitors to your site are still at the very beginning stages of that journey — they might not even know what your product does or how it can help them. All they may know is that they have a problem or there’s an opportunity at hand. So, the content that will most appeal to your personas when they’re first visiting your website and converting a lead will generally be high-level and educational in nature.
In order to be an effective tool in your conversion path toolkit, make sure you have remarkable content tailored to your buyer personas and where they are in the buyer’s journey.
2. Create landing pages that speak to your personas.
After you’ve developed a remarkable content offer that speaks to both who your personas are and where they are in the buyer’s journey, the next step is to leverage that piece of content to convert website visitors into leads. That’s where landing pages come in.
Landing pages are specialized website pages whose sole purpose is to collect visitors’ contact information in exchange for something of value to them. Landing pages contain forms that potential leads must fill out and submit before getting access to your remarkable content offer. And like that offer, great landing pages must also be tailored to both who your personas are and where they are in the buyer’s journey.
In order to most effectively convert website visitors into leads, your landing pages must present the benefits of your offer that are most relevant to the particular problem your persona is experiencing — and discuss the aspects of that problem that are most important to where your persona is in the buyer’s journey.
Imagine, for example, you work at a pet store and have created an ebook on raising a puppy. Someone who’s at the beginning of the buyer’s journey probably won’t be too interested in downloading your ebook if your landing page talks all about how your ebook contains the best techniques for housebreaking. Instead, an effective landing page for this persona might highlight how your ebook discusses how to choose the right dog breed for you.
Great landing pages focus on both who your personas are and where they are in the buyer’s journey.
3. Use attention-grabbing calls-to-action.
While having a remarkable content offer and great landing page are key to creating a successful conversion path, your website visitors need a way to actually access that landing page in the first place. That’s where calls-to-action come in.
Calls-to-action or CTAs, are buttons you can embed throughout your website that advertise your content offers. When a visitor clicks on one of these calls-to-action, they’ll be taken to your landing page. In effect, every call-to-action you have on your website is the beginning of a conversion path.
To create calls-to-action that get those clicks and act as key steps within your conversion paths, you must ensure that the message displayed on your call-to-action aligns with the message on your landing page — and the content itself.
Great calls-to-action should be just that: action-oriented. Since their main objective is to garner clicks and direct people to landing pages, ensure that they’re click-worthy by using actionable language and colors that help them stand out from the rest of your website.
4. Close the deal with optimized thank you pages.
If a call-to-action is the beginning of a conversion path, a thank you page marks its end. Thank you pages are the final item you need in your inbound toolkit to lead your website visitors down a conversion path to become, well, a lead.
Thank you pages are specialized website pages from which your now-leads can download the offer promised by your call-to-action and landing page. They’re also an opportunity to move people further along in the buyer’s journey, by including things like additional calls-to-action that complement the offer you’ve just provided your lead.
Improving the Mobile Conversion Path Experience
Designing for mobile is no longer optional, it’s a must. According to a 2020 report from Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA, formerly Groupe Spécial Mobile), nearly half the world’s population uses a mobile device to access the internet. By the end of 2019, 3.8 billion people were mobile internet users, an increase of 250 million users from the previous year.
With those numbers in mind, there’s a good chance visitors will access your website from their phone or tablet versus a desktop. If you want to create an effective conversion path, It’s imperative to consider the mobile user experience. Follow these steps to create a mobile conversion path that sets visitors up for success.

Start with a responsive design: A responsive design adapts to both desktop and mobile devices by rendering the display differently based on screen size. Visitors won’t have to pinch or zoom in while browsing your website via mobile, which leads to a better user experience. Additionally, having a responsive design signals to Google that your site is mobile-friendly, which will help improve your rankings in search results for mobile users.

Nix cluttered landing pages: When it comes to smaller screens, minimalism is a virtue. Having long-form, relevant content, images and video may translate well on desktop, but can be too busy for mobile devices. Avoid unnecessary text, images, and features that may make it difficult for visitors to find the information they’re looking for. Visitors can’t become leads if they can’t navigate your website. Consider the information most relevant to your audience, and leave out the rest.

Keep CTAs to a minimum: As noted above, with smaller screens you’ll want to take extra care with how that real estate is allocated. Opt for one (or a few), clear call-to-action button as the main focus that your potential customers can easily find. Keep sign-up forms short, only asking for the information you absolutely need. Avoid burying the call-to-action at the bottom of the page after several paragraphs of text. In most cases, mobile users will not scroll down to the end of the page to see it.

As people become increasingly attached to their phones, taking the mobile user experience into account will improve your chances of converting more leads.
Conversion paths are invaluable in inbound marketing as they convert website visitors into leads. When done right, an effective conversion path can move leads beyond an initial conversion, ultimately turning them into customers.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May, 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

There are many businesses out there that operate with a mindset of “Well, that’s how we’ve always done it.” Unfortunately, this type of close-minded thinking can lead to a great deal of waste.
Tasks may be unnecessary to achieve the final goal, processes may be repeated multiple times when one would be sufficient, employees may be wasting time on superfluous responsibilities, and materials may be wasted during manufacturing.
When this occurs within an organization, employee satisfaction decreases so turnover increases, quality suffers so customer satisfaction and retention is decreased, and one look at the books will likely indicate the company is hemorrhaging money.

You might think that this type of operational inefficiency only occurs in large corporations and organizations, however, it’s just as prevalent in small-to-medium-sized businesses and can be seen throughout every department.
Efficiency is the name of the game for successful businesses, and you’re about to learn one of the best ways to turn your business into a lean, mean, money-making machine.
Lean Process Improvement
What is lean process improvement?
Lean process improvement is a concept originally developed by Toyota to decrease the amount of time it took from receiving an order to delivering it. While lean process improvement is often discussed in a production environment, the concept can be applied to service, healthcare, technology, and even government.
Consider a marketing department that has multiple people working on the same project but not communicating. Rather than each handling a specific aspect of the campaign, several people tackle the same task while other activities go unhandled.
It’s not a traditional production environment, however, the team could benefit from creating an easy-to-follow process that looks at the desired end product and finds the simplest route to get there.
The whole idea behind this way of thinking is that when you look at the big picture, you can find ways to eliminate waste, whether that’s financial, physical, time, or employee energy that could be spent elsewhere. This concept may take a while to implement, and that’s okay. It’s not meant to be a short-term solution, but rather a change to the entire mindset and culture of a business.
What are the benefits of lean process improvement?
Businesses that incorporate lean process improvement see a variety of benefits from this shift. These include:

Less waste
Less inventory
Increased productivity
Better quality
Happier customers
Fewer costs
More profits

It makes perfect sense that when you remove the redundancy, streamline processes, and create less waste, your bottom line will increase. When your customers receive their product faster and with less hassle, you’ll have happier customers who return and recommend you to others. With more customers, your bottom line increases once again.
If you’d like to see this type of improvement in your organization, read on to learn lean process improvement steps.
How do I incorporate lean process improvement into my business?
You guessed it … there’s a process to lean process improvement. There’s actually a series of nine steps you’ll need to implement to create this level of efficiency in your organization. Let’s take a closer look at lean process improvement steps.

1. Review the process you want to improve.
This step is essential because if you don’t know what you need to work on, you won’t know where to focus your efforts. In order to do that, you need to talk to employees on the front line.
The biggest mistake companies make during this process is implementing changes without ever speaking to the people who do the job day in and day out. Interview your frontline workers, and ask them what’s not working well in their daily routine.
2. Identify what improvements need to be made.
Once you’ve identified what needs to be fixed, it’s time to involve your team once again. There’s a very good chance that they already know how to fix the problem and just haven’t been able to implement it because of a “That’s-how-we’ve-always-done-it” mindset.
3. Implement the suggested changes.
How will you put the changes into action? Create a plan so everyone involved understands and buys into the process. This is the best way to ensure organization-wide success.
4. Monitor how the changes are impacting your efficiency.
While it would be great if your first attempt at execution was a success, the reality is that once the process is tested in the field, it will need to be further refined. The only way to do this is through constant monitoring and reevaluating. As new issues appear, you can address them and make the necessary changes.
5. Identify what activities add value.
Throughout these steps, you’ll be assessing every single action and every aspect of your process. During this time, you must evaluate every single activity to determine whether it adds value to your process, or detracts. If an activity is deemed unnecessary, it should be removed and the process tested without it.
6. Limit risk.
Production and often business, in general, is inherently risky. This time should be used to identify any risky activities or aspects that are part of the current process and eliminate or simplify these tasks. This may involve automating an activity or simply changing the way in which it’s executed.
7. Standardize the process.
As you create and refine the process, document your progress thoroughly. This allows the process to be repeated, properly, by other employees or depending on the specific process, by other teams or departments in your organization.
8. Ensure compliance.
While lean process improvement should be a company-wide shift in culture, your industry or governing body may have specific metrics, procedures, and standardized measurements that you must adhere to. Compliance may not be sacrificed in the name of efficiency.
9. Improve the customer experience.
In determining the success of a lean process improvement plan, Marketers consider the customer experience to be “the moment of truth.” Ultimately, whatever improvements you make during production or service must trickle down to positively impact the customer.
Lean Process Improvement Tools
As you embark on this journey, there are a number of tools available to you. These tools can help you organize your thoughts, identify issues, and implement your plan. The following are just some of the tools you can look to for support.
Just like any other tool, the one you choose must be the right one for the current job. If you start out with one and don’t find that it meets your needs, consider trying another.

Why Analysis: By asking “Why?” repeatedly, you can identify the root cause of the challenges you’re experiencing.

Ishikawa Diagram: Also known as a “Fishbone diagram” or “cause-and-effect diagram”, it allows you to examine a problem from multiple angles, including measurements, materials, people, methods, machines, and environment.

Affinity Diagram: This works great in the early stages of lean implementation as it can help sort and organize large amounts of data. Identify the value you bring to the customer and then uncover problems with your existing processes.

FMEA Analysis (failure mode and effects): Catching issues before they get out of hand can help you eliminate waste and save money. This tool allows you to examine your flow and identify problems early on.

5S Dashboard: This approach can help you organize your workspace for maximum efficiency. While the original tool has five S’ based on Japanese terms, many businesses have added a 6th practice. These stand for:

Sort
Set in order
Shine
Standardize
Sustain
Safety

Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) Cycle: Create continuous improvement by repeatedly analyzing a problem, testing a hypothesis, reviewing, and then analyzing the results, and finally, putting the plan into action once it’s successful.

Lean Process Improvement Techniques
There are a number of approaches that have been created to assist in lean process improvement. Just like the tools, it’s important to find the right technique for your project and your organization. For example:
Six Sigma (DMAIC Model)
With a goal of reducing the variation in processes, Six Sigma works to increase both external and internal customer satisfaction by standardizing workflow. The DMAIC Roadmap stands for:

Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Control

Kanban
These boards allow you to visualize your workflow and use value stream mapping to break down your workflows into stages. Having a visual representation of your workflow, and all the activities that make it up, can assist you in identifying inefficiencies.
Sharing this board with your entire team allows anyone to stop the process when a problem occurs. Now, it becomes everyone’s job to find a solution.
WIP Limits
Within Kanban boards exist a concept known as WIP Limits or “Work in Progress Limits”. Every stage in a Kanban board workflow is represented by a column. WIP limits force you to stay under a maximum number of work items for each stage. This can be per person, per work stage, or for the entire project.
Having these limits in place ensures that current tasks are finished before new ones are started, and helps to complete activities faster.
Final Thoughts on Lean Process Improvement
Now that you understand how important lean process improvement is to a successful, efficient organization, it’s a good time to reiterate that this is an ongoing process. If you attempt to overhaul your entire organization overnight, you will undoubtedly fail and most likely make things worse than when you started.
Identify the biggest sources of inefficiency in your organization and target these first, one at a time, until you’ve created a well-functioning business.
Finally, remember that your most valuable assets are the employees getting their hands dirty every day. Attempting to identify problems and create solutions without getting their input is akin to driving blind when you could simply open your eyes.