Impressions - October/November 2015 - 59

Since the work in
our industry is performed by people,
how each person
works will define
effective workflow.
the week. Establishing clear expectations
resolves these conflicts. These only work
when everyone is treated fairly.
What to Do: Small Shops - If you
own a one-person shop, it's all about how
you manage your day. You can set rules
just like in larger companies to help you
manage your time. Since you wear many
hats during the day, try setting small goals
where you stay on task and completely focused for designated time periods - 30
minutes or an hour.
Use an egg timer. This will keep you
focused and away from checking email or
playing with the cat instead of working on
more productive activities. Write a to-do
list, work on higher priority tasks first and
completely accomplish them before moving on to the next one. You are your own
manager, so make it a game and see how
you do.
What to Do: Medium Shops - These
shops tend to struggle with leadership issues. There may not always be someone in
charge, or the shop owner may play favorites with some of the crew. These types of
shops also have a "check-with-me" culture,
meaning only one person in the company
knows how to perform a critical task or
make a decision.
These types of behaviors can create
workflow bottlenecks, unnecessary drama
and friction. Want a better culture? Start
with writing an employee handbook that
impressionsmag.com

clearly defines all of the expectations for
the staff. Hold people accountable by having scheduled employee reviews. Part of
the discussion has to be focused on following these rules.
What to Do: Large Shops - For larger
shops, rules and procedures are commonplace. Larger shops can improve
their cultures by implementing a crosstraining program to build a better-trained
staff. When more staff is trained in other
departments, the easier it is for people
to help make decisions that could affect
things downstream.
Work gets handled faster when people
have the experience and repetition in
doing it. So it makes sense that if I know
why something has to happen a certain way, I'll ensure it's set up correctly.
Empowering the staff allows for quicker
workflow, as more people are trusted and
trained to make decisions.
(Editor's Note: A followup to this article,
to be published in the January 2016 issue,
will address the people, space, skills and communication challenges that can bottleneck
workflow and how to solve these issues.)
Marshall Atkinson is the COO of
Visual Impressions Inc., and Ink to the
People, Milwaukee. He also is a PromoKitchen chef. For more information or to
comment on this article, email Marshall at
matkinson4804@gmail.com.

Suggested

Reading

Like this article? Read these and
other screen-printing articles at
impressionsmag.com:
* "Improve Profits with an
In-House Shop Tune-Up"
* "Make Changes to Keep Digital
Workflow Profits Flowing"
* "Avoid Workflow Problems
Caused by the Front Office"
October/November 2015 | Impressions

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