If you have excel (who doesn’t?) get FlowBreeze. It installs itself within excel and allows you to make flow charts very easily. 30 days free trial and $30 introductory price. Works simply and easily – just as advertised. What a concept, and it’s still in beta, but I haven’t found any problems with it.

Why?

You’d be amazed how much clearer things are when you flow chart them. And how differently you’re employees actually do things compared to how you think they do them. This is usually a bonus.

Here’s one I put together in about 6 minutes. Gray shapes represent information. Other colors represent different workers. One thing that was obvious to me is that the only event NOT triggered by another envent is the waiter taking the drink order. Not a problem in most restaurants, but in other work flows you should know what triggers every event – even if it’s “Check this every day at 9AM”

Takeaways:

• Get this program (and as always I have no financial relationship with the sellers)
• Use it to be enlightened