Do Your Business Processes Operate Like This?

The Mouse Trap Story
Not long ago at a meeting, a friend mentioned a childhood game. The objective was to put together a mousetrap that looked like this picture. The mouse pulls the cheese, which turns on the fan, which blows the windmill, which turns the pulley system knocking the golf ball, which eventually works through another couple of steps and drops the net to catch the mouse.

As a toy, these types of contraptions are fun. Unfortunately, this friend was thinking that if you diagramed the business processes in his workplace, they would look a lot like this. Obviously, such long, involved, convoluted processes can be both time-consuming and expensive.

Lowering Costs and Streamlining Processes
Process improvement helps businesses lower operating costs and respond to customers more quickly.

At a trade show recently, a woman listening to the mousetrap story looked down at a mouse doll we had handed her. She said, "That little mouse is smiling." And why shouldn't he be? He knows that by the time this process has worked its way to dropping the net, he can have the cheese and be long gone. If you think of the mouse as a business opportunity, what are your losses from slow processes? Or is the mouse a competitor eating your cheese? These missed opportunities are the biggest cost.

Linking People and Processes
We at James Shirley Management Consultants work with organizations to improve and streamline business processes. Those processes need people to make them work. We can help you train your employees and develop the right structure to improve performance. And we can help you with project management as well. We have the experience in managing projects and managing change. Let us help you in Linking People and Processes.