Most organisations have processes. Very few have designed them. The difference is fundamental. A process that exists is one that accumulated through practice, precedent, and pragmatic adjustment over years — people found ways to get work done, routines solidified, handoffs became habitual, and the result was declared “the process.” A process that has been designed is one where someone asked: what information needs to flow where, what decisions need to be made at what points, what coordination between functions needs to happen and through what mechanisms, and what signals should this process generate so the organisation knows whether it is working?
The workshop draws a critical distinction between Continuous Improvement and Business Evolution. Continuous Improvement operates within existing process architecture — optimising what exists, reducing waste, improving stability. Business Evolution creates new process architecture — building coordination mechanisms where none existed, connecting what was disconnected, designing integration across functions that previously operated independently. Both are necessary. Most organisations can only do the first because they have never been taught the second. This workshop teaches both, and teaches participants to recognise which type of work each situation demands.
The six sessions follow the SPFRDC sequence and are designed so that participants apply the methods between sessions in their own organisations, building real process design capability through practice rather than through theory alone
Process Design is the discipline of asking those questions and acting on the answers. It sits above process improvement, which optimises a process that already exists, and below organisational architecture, which designs the system within which all processes operate. It is the middle layer that most organisations skip entirely — jumping from individual process improvement at the gemba to strategic initiatives at the top, without ever addressing the cross-functional coordination architecture that determines whether either level of work produces results that compound.
This workshop develops the capability to see, map, and redesign the processes through which an organisation actually coordinates its work. It uses the Total Lean Supply Chain framework to make visible the four types of information that flow through any process — design information, planning information, quality information, and learning information — and asks where each type flows well, where it degrades, and where it is absent entirely. Most process problems that appear to be execution failures are actually information flow failures: the right information did not reach the right person at the right time in a form they could act on. Process Design makes this visible and gives leaders the tools to redesign it.
Course Content
This is an Online Workshop Delivered in May and November 2026 (days and dates vary depending on location – reach out for schedule in your part of the world) – unless otherwise requested
session
1
Strategy — Why Process Design, Not Just Process Improvement
The strategic case for treating processes as designed systems rather than accumulated habits. The distinction between value flow and information flow — why Value Stream Mapping captures one dimension while the information architecture that shapes performance remains invisible. Introduction to the TLSC framework and the four information types. The CI/BE distinction: when to improve within existing architecture and when to build new architecture.
session
2
Planning — Mapping Your Process Architecture
Building your first TLSC segment. Identifying the cross-functional boundaries where coordination either succeeds or fails. Mapping where each of the four information types flows, where it degrades, and where it is absent. Designing the Critical Success Factors that sit at integration points between functions. KPI tree construction that traces from cross-functional process outcomes to the information flows that produce them.
session
3
Follow-up — The Routines That Make Processes Work
The governance rhythms that sustain process design — daily, weekly, and monthly cadences for reviewing whether information is flowing as designed. Visual management as process architecture — FMDS boards that show information flow health, not just operational metrics. The diagnostic discipline: when a process fails, asking where the information failed before asking where the execution failed.
session
4
Results Analysis — Reading What Your Processes Tell You
Analysing process performance through the information flow lens. The Reflection Matrix applied to process design — where is the architecture working and where is it not? Factor analysis: distinguishing process failures caused by resource limitations, management system gaps, policy constraints, and external disruption. Using results analysis to identify whether a process needs improvement within its current architecture or redesign of the architecture itself.
session
5
Discovery — Redesigning Cross-Functional Integration
The advanced work of process design: building coordination mechanisms that do not yet exist. Using the Design Structure Matrix to reveal coupling between functions and identify where integration architecture is needed. Set-Based thinking applied to process design — holding multiple design options for how coordination could work, testing them, and converging by evidence. How the Process Design Council governs which cross-functional redesign work the organisation undertakes.
session
6
Capability Development — Building Process Design Capability in Your Organisation
Installing the Process Design Council as the governance structure that takes ongoing responsibility for the organisation’s process architecture. Developing the secretariat function. Building process design capability in others through the OJD principle — learning by doing process design work, not by studying process design theory. Embedding the CI/BE distinction so the organisation knows when to improve and when to redesign, and has the governance architecture to do both deliberately.