In a previous post, I discussed the way we could improve the mapping of a tool we all use frequently: email. However, the benefit of the 'good mapping' rule is best achieved by personalising it to your own work situation (actually, this applies to all of the Usable Business rules).
To do this, you need to start considering the key inputs to your work and how you need to transform these so you can do your outputs/actions. I.e. how can you better map the stuff that falls into your 'in tray' to your actions and thus process them more quickly and effortlessly...
Of course, many of the inputs we get are from other people so we now have the hard task of how to support or influence them to give us inputs that better match our outputs (such as how to encourage them to do good email Subject Lines). However, sometimes we create our own inputs and due to historical reasons these may not actually be the best format we could use to support ourselves going forward. Of course, we also need to be good citizens ourselves and think about how we input into the work of others and how we can make our inputs more useful for them (thus making use of karma; hopefully if we do unto others they might be slightly more tempted to do unto us...or something like that).
Regardless of who controls your inputs - now's the time to start thinking about them. I suggest keeping a diary for one week that catalogues all of the inputs you work with and what the output was (and perhaps how hard the transformation/mapping was). I suspect in a few days you'll start to see some easy patterns and may not have to keep this going for the whole week. This will definitely take some effort, but I think the results will be worth it. At the least, maybe you could take a half hour to try to brainstorm typical inputs/outputs - this would still be better than nothing! Your notes might be something like this:
Example 1
Task: requests to make changes to website
Input: multiple emails
Mapping: transfer to spreadsheet so can keep track of requests and assign to individuals in team
Output: actioned changes
Frequency: once a week
Example 2
Task: answer question on project deadlines
Input: email requests for project information
Mapping: open project folder for each project, search for Project Plan, open and review, save answers, email answers
Output: email reply
Frequency: once a day
and so on...
this analysis should give you an insight into opportunities to action common tasks with less effort merely by looking at the formats used for the inputs/outputs.
Taking our example 2 (request for project information), this analysis might start us thinking...
Can I make the project status always visible? An online project chart?
If not, is there a way to create an automated response taking data from the Project Plan? (we might have to ask our customers to use a standard email Subject Line, but this might not be too big a deal)
Can I find a way to automatically put project deadlines from multiple projects into one document or online form that is readily viewed? Can this be shared with customers?
Can I delegate this task (and similar) to someone? Maybe even someone external to the organisation at low-wage (outsource low level admin tasks?)
Some answers may rely on looking at purchasing online tools, some might make use of automation features of desktop software and some might simply look at how you choose to organise your files and folders. It doesn't really matter - the key is to take the big idea of 'better mapping' and explore how it relates to your specific situation and use that to generate new ideas/insights for improvement. There are no rules or simple tips here - just new ways of thinking about organisational ways of working and problems. So, feel free to explore and have some fun and experiment.
