Workflows & automation
How do you find the real workflow when the process map is incomplete?
The process map shows what should happen. The inbox and spreadsheet often show how the work survives.
Published 25 September 2026
An approval chart sends requests directly to finance. In practice, a team assistant checks each one first and calls the requester for missing evidence.
Do not remove that step until its purpose is understood. It may be a useful quality check that belongs in the formal process, or evidence that the intake needs repair.
Reconstruct several recent cases
Choose ordinary, delayed and rejected cases. Ask each participant what they received, what they changed, where they waited and how they knew the next person would act. Compare timestamps and records with the official map.
Pay attention to private lists, email forwards and verbal approvals. They may be compensating for a missing status, unclear authority or a system nobody trusts.
Decide which detours to keep
Some unofficial steps protect quality; others repeat work. Document the decision each step makes before removing or automating it.
A credible future workflow is one the people doing the work recognise, with explicit routes for exceptions and corrections. A cleaner diagram alone changes nothing.