What Is Business Process Consulting?

What is business process consulting and why do we as business owners and entrepreneurs need it?

Business processes in place especially for new fledgling companies constantly need to be reevaluated and optimized.

As new business owners we often cannot discern the “forest from the trees” and we need an objective fresh set of eyes.

Business process consulting seeks to research and analyze the inefficiencies of current processes and systems a business has in place.

Once these flawed processes are identified, business process consulting seeks to make recommendations toward sequentially eliminating those flawed processes and practices with an eye to improving the overall efficiency of how the business runs.

A business process consultant is an unbiased external 3^rd party professional that offers a business a fresh set of eyes to improve the way the business operates.

They are most often hired only on an as-needed basis.

There are affiliate links within this post. What this  means is that if you decide to purchase anything through one of my links, I'll be rewarded with a small commission at absolutely no extra cost to you. This small commission helps me run and maintain my website.

Focuses on Processes not Outcomes in “What is Business Process Consulting”  

Life is lived in the present, not the future, and happiness is a process, not a place.

Far too many fall into the trap of rating themselves and their performances solely on their outcomes. I must confess I used to be one of them.

This is flawed thinking and is a major challenge we as business owners must all overcome.

This concept equally holds true in our personal lives.

Happiness and satisfaction in one’s work is often very illusory.

What we think should make us happy will leads to our inevitable discontentment over and over again.

It’s time to change our thinking to bring greater contentment and happiness into our daily lives.

This is the very reason we need business process consulting.

Knowing “What is Business Process Consulting” Creates Improvements  

Since business process consulting strives to identify more efficient ways to help a company run its processes, in doing so it is always seeking ways to eliminate those inefficiencies so work can flow more smoothly and efficiently.

• Bottlenecks where work piles up in one area
• Resources that are used inefficiently
• Time that is used inefficiently
• Processes that are redundant and can be eliminated
• Processes that can be automated
• Identifying incidences of errors that call for redoing parts of the process
• Revealing physical layouts that increase time in completing the task
• Identifying areas where there is poor internal communication
• Identifying areas where a lack of accountability affect productivity

The business process consultant will report to upper management making his/her recommendations for improvement.

In most cases, a trial run will be setup to test before implementing the new process.

We Judge Ourselves on Outcomes

Think about it. We constantly are judging ourselves and assigning our value to the world based on our outcomes.

We judge ourselves based on the place in the world we occupy, how many referrals we are getting, the commissions we earn monthly, how much traffic we are driving to our websites, how high we are ranking in the SERPs, did we win our pool match, etc. and so on and so on.

By default we tend to be results-focused, forward-looking, and goal-pursuing. Why?

Because we’re hard wired to be discontent with the present while striving for a better future.

This is certainly understandable.

Results are much easier to measure and evaluate than processes. Since we know others judge us based on results, we tend to care way too much what others think.

However, the fact is if we focus our attention and effort less on the results we’re hoping for and more on the processes and techniques we plan to use, we will learn faster, become more successful, and be far happier with our outcomes.

A Path to Greater Happiness

In the long run things rarely turn out the way we expect them to.

If your happiness is strictly predicated by your success, and if your success is strictly predicated on a specific outcome, you are setting yourself up for a great likelihood of frustration and disappointment.

Instead let go of the need for any particular outcome, and you will increase your chances for success and contentment.

It’s fine to set goals and desire a certain outcome; just don’t make your happiness contingent on it. Stem your happiness from knowing that you gave every attempt your best effort.

This is truly a path to greater happiness.

And ironically more consistent successes.

John Wooden Teaches Us What is Business Process Consulting

Here is a great lesson in valuing processes over outcomes that we can learn from one of our most successful sports coaches.

The greatest and most winning college basketball coach in history, John Wooden never told his players they had to win. Not once.

What he told his players everyday was to be the best they can be. And the rest would take care of itself. Everyday.

Here are some great John Wooden quotes that apply:

“If there’s anything you could point out where I was a little different, it was the fact that I never mentioned winning.”- J. Wooden

“You can lose when you outscore somebody in a game. And you can win when you’re outscored.”- J. Wooden

“Just do the best you can. No one can do more than that.”- J. Wooden

“Never try to be better than someone else. Learn from others, and try to be the best you can be. Success is the by-product of that preparation.”- J. Wooden

John Wooden was all about processes, not outcomes. The outcomes were simply the byproducts of the processes he employed.

8 Steps to Take to Focus on Processes

Focusing on processes can be a very “difficult process” for anyone hard-wired on results, but with consistent practice this new mindset can be achieved to a point where we can thrive.

Here are 8 Steps to take to focus on processes over outcomes

• Focus on the process with diligence and effortful study, then let the outcome take care of itself.

• Bring awareness to your performance, either during or immediately after it, so you can learn to identify when bad results follow good processes, and vice-versa.

• Don’t pursue the rewards directly, trust that they will come.

• Rate yourself based on the effort, not the outcome.

• Determine what your best effort would look like, and then unleash it.

• Stop worrying about what others will think of your performance.

• Don’t only try to win today, try to become a winner.

• Be happier when your best effort results in defeat than when a weak effort results in victory.

Just as in our own personal lives, focusing on constantly improving the most important processes in our businesses will produce greater efficiencies in our business.

Improving such efficiencies help us to deeply engage directly with our customers in the present.

Such engagement will only lead to knowing our customer’s needs better, resulting in a better customer experience, better customer-vendor relationships, more cost-effective driven solutions, greater company profitability, and greater company successes.

Conclusion: What is Business Process Consulting? 

So now you know what is business process consulting.

The more we as business owners and entrepreneurs focus on process over outcome, the more successful our businesses will become.

Furthermore, there’s no greater measure for success than attractiveness and confidence.

So next time you ask "What is Business Process Consulting", know that you have initiated your first step toward creating a more successful business.