The Art of Design

I have been reading a book (presentationzen by Garr Reynolds) to help me more effectively design and deliver messages when presenting. I have seen a marked improvement. As I work more with the concepts in the book, I realize that these design techniques apply to many other aspects of life. The author says as much. One of those area is process design.



"Simplicity is powerful and leads to greater clarity, yet it is neither simple nor easy to achieve... Simplicity can be obtained through the careful reduction of the nonessential."



As I thought about this concept, I saw that it is a more elegant expression of "Lean" prinicples and Value Add anaylsis. So often, when I work on a process it is complex and cluttered. The clutter, which comes in many forms (like "extra" not needed information, functional lines, etc.) get in the way. The clutter can take your focus way from the true intent of the process; make execution less effective. It is about flow and intent. As a business process designer, I need to place the right action, at the right place, with the right infromation. I need to understand the greater purpose for what the business is trying to accomplish. It is not about boxes and arrows. It is as much intuitive as it is systematic.

Elegance. What a different objective when designing yet another business process...