‘Flow’ evolves as a completed task is handed over to the next stage, or person, automatically, with no error, in an entirely predictable manner.
When seeking to build flow into a system, there needs to be a lot of detailed and logical thought put into the individual actions that need to take place in order to complete the activity, stage, and whole job.
There needs to be a list of the individual actions that are required, that are checked off.
Nothing too adventurous here.
If you boarded a plane and saw that the pilot was running through his preflight checks from memory, rather than a clipboard held by the copilot, you would be justified to feel nervous. In the case of a light plane, the pilot will use a clipboard himself, and physically check items off the list. This post will have been edited several times, but it is only the use of the ‘speak’ tool that will root out the small inevitable errors of grammar, syntax, and spelling that I make. Even then, some sneak through.
We all miss things, our mind sees what it wants to see because it makes assumptions about what should be there, and just ‘sees’ it.
The easiest way to write out a sequence of actions in sufficient detail for it to be a contributor to the creation of ‘Flow’, is to assume you are writing them for your grandmother who has advancing Alzheimer’s, and for whom every action has to be articulated in detail and in sequence. This should deliver a simple, logical flow, that is easily communicated and used.
A caution: Never assume because a process has been articulated in this way, and seems to work well, that there is no room for further revision and improvement.
Improvement can only occur in a stable environment, and documenting the flow is a key step in the ongoing challenge of improvement.
