What I Notice #03
Automating a bad process can simply give you a faster bad process.
By Sam Vazquez — Operational Intelligence & Transformation Advisor
The observation
Automation does not evaluate a workflow; it encodes it. Every unnecessary step, redundant approval and awkward handoff is preserved faithfully, and now with a dependency attached.
Why it happens
Automation projects are usually scoped against the current process because that is what can be documented and approved quickly.
Questioning the process requires a different conversation with different people, so the technical path wins by default.
What it may be costing
- Savings smaller than the business case predicted, because the waste was in the design.
- A process that is now harder to change because changing it means changing a build.
- Confidence spent on a project that did not move the outcome.
What I would look at
- 01Before automating, map the workflow as it truly runs, including the workarounds.
- 02Delete every step that changes no decision and no outcome.
- 03Automate what remains only if it is still high-volume and predictable afterwards.
One question for the leader
Would a well-informed person design this workflow the same way today?
Want another set of eyes on it?
You don’t have to know what’s broken before you call me. Finding it is part of what you hire me to do.