Beware: Small things can add up to big time suckers…

When I work with clients, one thing I focus on is process. How is data managed within the organization? What steps are followed? What technology is used? Where does staff spend their time?

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that what often seems like a small thing can turn out to be a big time sucker. A process that seems simple enough, repeated many times per day, can really add up.

For example, one association I worked with has a corporate membership category. With any given corporate member, anywhere from five to 50 people may be associated with the member. When these members drop membership, all of the associated individuals have to have their membership benefits removed.

Each individual record only takes about one minute to update, which doesn’t seem like a lot, until you consider that some companies may have 50 individual records to update. So what started out as a “one minute process” now is heading toward one hour. What looked like a small process has ballooned into a big one.

In this particular example, the association was smart enough to recognize the problem and used their software to create a process that would automate the removal of benefits from each individual record.

So look around your organization. What “little” processes might be adding up to become big time suckers? And what can you do to change that?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Article Posted: Seven Things You Should Do in Your AMS

Given how advanced and thorough the modern association management software (AMS) system has become, there are many opportunities for your organization to leverage it. Here are seven ways I believe every association should be using their AMS. Click here to read the rest of the article . Of course, if you’re already on my  announcements list , you would have received notice of this new article right in your email box. Not signed up yet?  Click here to sign up . Go to the article
Read more

10 Common Mistakes Biblical Counselors Sometimes Make, Part 8

Image
A Word from Bob: You’re reading Part 8 of a 10-part blog series on 10 Common Mistakes Biblical Counselors Sometimes Make . Mistake #1: We Elevate Data Collection Above Soul Connection . Mistake #2: We Share God’s Eternal Story Before We Listen Well and Wisely to Our Friend’s Earthly Story . Mistake #3: We Talk at Counselees Rather Than Exploring Scriptures with Counselees . Mistake #4: We Practice Half-Biblical Counseling If We Address Sin but Neglect Suffering . Mistake #5: We Fail to Follow the Trinity’s Model of Comforting Care . Mistake #6: We Tend to View People One-Dimensionally . Mistake #7: We Devalue Emotions Rather Than Seeing Emotions as God’s Idea . Mistake #8: We Minimize the Complexity of the Soul-Body Interconnection Because we are soul physicians and soul care-givers, our tendency is to focus on matters of the soul. Most biblical counselors are not trained in the medical field, so we wisely avoid offering medical guidance. Yet, that appropr
Read more