What does it mean that process redesign?

Changing how work flows through the organization changes outcomes. Process redesign modifies the sequence, timing, dependencies, and handoffs through which work moves from initiation to completion. Well-designed processes produce consistent outcomes efficiently. Poorly designed processes produce inconsistent outcomes wastefully — not because the people within them are careless but because the process itself creates bottlenecks, errors, delays, and rework. Process redesign is the most tangible form of systemic change: unlike incentives or information flows, processes can be directly observed, mapped, and modified.

Example: A legal services firm, Clearview, took an average of twelve weeks to produce a standard contract. The process involved seven handoffs between paralegals, junior attorneys, senior attorneys, and the client. Each handoff introduced a delay (waiting for the next person to begin) and a risk (information lost in translation between handoff points). A process redesign eliminated four of the seven handoffs by creating a cross-functional contract team — a paralegal and an attorney working together from intake to delivery, with client communication handled directly by the team rather than relayed through an account manager. The redesigned process produced contracts in four weeks — not because anyone worked faster but because the process eliminated eight to ten days of queue time (work sitting in someone's inbox waiting to be picked up) and two to three days of rework caused by information lost in handoffs. The same people, working at the same pace, produced three times the output — because the process was no longer consuming most of the elapsed time with waiting and rework.

Try this: Map the end-to-end process for one type of work your team produces. Document every step from initiation to completion, including: (1) Active time — how long does each step take when someone is actively working on it? (2) Queue time — how long does the work sit waiting between steps? (3) Handoffs — where does the work move from one person or team to another? What information is transferred at each handoff? What information is lost? (4) Decision points — where does the process branch? What determines which branch is taken? (5) Rework loops — where does work return to a previous step for correction? How often? Calculate the process efficiency ratio: active time divided by total elapsed time. In most organizations, this ratio is below 20% — meaning more than 80% of elapsed time is spent waiting, not working. Each wait point is a process redesign opportunity.