Desire Paths: The Secret Blueprint to Operational Excellence

Have you ever seen those little dirt trails across an otherwise pristine lawn or park?

Those are called "desire paths," informal shortcuts created when people naturally choose efficiency and convenience over formal pathways. In your organization, these trails manifest as unofficial shortcuts employees invent to make their jobs easier and more intuitive. Rather than viewing these as problems, these desire paths offer powerful insights into operational excellence.

Recognizing Desire Paths

To harness these informal processes, you must first acknowledge their existence. Look around your office, digital workspace, and team interactions. Examples of desire paths include:

• Employees using quick notes instead of your CRM.
• Team members directly messaging colleagues via Slack or WhatsApp instead of using official ticketing systems.
• Manual reporting done via spreadsheets despite having formal reporting tools available.

Honoring Informal Shortcuts

Once recognized, it's crucial to respect and validate these paths. Employees aren’t sidestepping processes maliciously—they're innovating for efficiency. Here's how to honor these shortcuts effectively:

• Acknowledge them openly in team meetings.
• Highlight the benefits these shortcuts provide.
• Involve employees who created the shortcuts in formalizing these processes.
• Automating Desire Paths

The real efficiency comes when these desire paths are automated. Automation can streamline these shortcuts, saving significant time and reducing frustration. Here's how:

1. Document the Shortcut: Clearly define and document the informal process.
2. Identify the Right Tools: Determine the technology that best aligns with the shortcut, such as Zapier, Google Workspace, HubSpot workflows, or Slack integrations.
3. Build the Automation: Implement automation by linking existing systems or creating new workflows.
4. Test and Refine: Initially roll out the automation to a small group, refine it based on feedback, and then scale it up.

Examples of Automating Desire Paths

• Automating CRM entry directly from Slack messages.
• Using Zapier to automatically populate reports from frequently updated spreadsheets.
• Integrating task reminders directly from emails into your project management software.

Continuous Improvement

Automating desire paths is an ongoing process. Regularly check in with your teams:

• Is the automation working as intended?
• Have new desire paths emerged?
• How can current processes be further streamlined?

Regular audits and team feedback loops will ensure your systems continually evolve, mirroring how your team naturally operates.

Conclusion

By identifying, validating, and automating desire paths, you unlock operational excellence, enhance employee satisfaction, and create systems truly aligned with human behavior. Embrace these natural shortcuts—they’re your blueprint for sustainable efficiency.