Speaker 1: Today, we're talking about how to define a workflow process. Well, often when you manage a new initiative or a new project, you have to define a new process for getting the work done. Well, that's easier said than done sometimes. If you look at a new initiative or a new project, there are multiple players involved, so you may have a project manager or multiple project managers. You have different team members. Many times you have designers, partners, customers, contractors, and even suppliers. And with that, some of the challenges that occur are you're dealing with legacy processes, maybe things that were done in the past, so sometimes people kind of hold on to the way it used to be. And then you have different processes, so especially if these are third parties or maybe vendors, they have their own process, so trying to get everybody talking in the same language or doing things the same way is difficult. And then sometimes some of these players have no processes at all. And then some people have their processes designed according to the tool, which makes it difficult at times to get the results. So when we're designing a workflow process, we want to start with the end in mind. So what does that mean? We take a look at how we operate now versus how we want to operate in the future. And so we need to look at what do we need to do new or differently. So some of the things we want to look at are defining what the processes, workflows, and systems look like, best practices, checklist, what questions do we need to be asking, what partners do we need to have on board, and what does our leadership team need to look like. So today, in today's whiteboard session, I want to focus on the workflow. So let's start by looking at what a workflow really is. It's the definition, execution, and automation of business processes where task information and documents are passed from one person to another according to a set of procedural rules. And the work can be done by one or more people, and it transforms materials, information, or services. Basically, we're looking at how does the workflow. So let's talk about how we define one. So this is at a very high level, but the three main steps are, first of all, create a workflow diagram. So it's literally a diagram of how that work passes from one person to another or from one group to another. And of course, you can imagine that can get at a very detailed level. But the important thing to remember is to involve the people who are doing the work So it's realistic. And then, second of all, once you get the diagram completed, you want to socialize that with the entire team and make sure there's buy-in, make sure there's no gaps, and make sure, again, it's realistic. You want everyone to sign off on the process and adopt it and implement it across the project or initiative. And then on the third one, watch, match the workflow process to tool functionality. And here, we want to let the process drive the tool. But again, sometimes people say, well, that's not in the real world because a lot of times the tool is selected by or already used by a corporation. But with that, we want to use common sense. We also want, you can see how important project management tools are. And with that, by using the tools, we want to automate as much as possible. So therefore, the people doing the work can do what they do best, and that's the work. And then, so what's the benefits of all of this? It really improves productivity, it reduces errors, it removes stress, and keeps things consistent among the initiative or the project. So if you need a tool that can help you with your workflow process, then sign up for our software now at projectmanager.com.