Collaborative Approaches to Redesigning Workflow

Redesigning a team’s workflow is a strategic way to improve efficiency, strengthen collaboration, and enhance morale—especially when your team is downsizing, growing, adapting to new challenges, or responding to organizational change. Done thoughtfully and periodically, workflow redesign ensures that tasks flow smoothly, responsibilities are clear, and every team member can work at their best.

The aim is not just to make processes faster, but to create a system that is sustainable, scalable, and adaptable, while freeing your team to focus on high-value work. Effective workflow redesign often leads to:

• Improved efficiency: Reducing redundant steps and unnecessary complexity.
• Better communication: Clarifying handoffs, expectations, and responsibilities.
• Higher engagement and morale: Empowering team members with clarity, ownership, and meaningful contributions.
• Scalability: Creating workflows that grow with the team without adding strain.
• Adaptability: Ensuring processes can evolve as priorities, technology, and team structures change.

Using Whole Brain® Thinking, a guide to workflow could look like this:

Here’s a clear, step-by-step approach to redesigning workflow that teams can follow:

1. Assess the Current State
   • Map existing workflows, roles, and responsibilities.
   • Identify pain points, bottlenecks, duplication, or gaps.
   • Gather input from all, those closest to the work can provide the most insight.

2. Vision & Direction
   • Clarify what the redesigned workflow should achieve (e.g., faster project delivery, better collaboration, fewer errors).
   • Align these objectives with broader organizational goals.

3. Engage the team in co-creation
   • Facilitate workshops or discussions to generate ideas for improvement.
   • Encourage feedback and ensure diverse perspectives are considered, fostering buy-in from the start.
4. Evaluate what to let go of
   • Identify tasks or processes that are redundant, outdated, or low impact.
   • Decide what can be eliminated, simplified, or delegated.
   • Use the “More of / Less of / Continue” framework:
     • More of: Tasks or practices that add high value & energize the team.
     • Less of: Work that drains time, adds little value, or could be automated.
     • Continue: Practices that work well and should remain.

5. Design the new workflow (requires all 4 quadrants)
   • Define clear steps, responsibilities, and decision points.
   • Integrate tools, technology, or automation where it adds value.
   • Consider creating visual workflow diagrams for clarity.

6. Test and iterate
   • Pilot the new workflow with a subset of the team or on a single project.
   • Collect feedback, identify friction points, and adjust before full rollout.

7. Implement and Communicate
   • Roll out the redesigned workflow with clear instructions and training.
   • Communicate the rationale, benefits, and expectations to ensure alignment.

8. Monitor, Measure, and Refine
   • Track key metrics (e.g., time savings, error reduction, team satisfaction).
   • Conduct periodic check-ins to identify areas for further improvement.
   • Treat the workflow as a living system that evolves with the team and organizational needs.

Key Takeaways: When workflow redesign is approached with structure, collaboration, and a mindset of continuous improvement, teams gain far more than operational efficiency. A well-designed workflow creates clarity of purpose, enhances communication and accountability, and ensures that every team member understands how their contributions drive success.