Discover
Map the real process
Sat with the staff who perform the work and documented what actually happens, including every workaround. The real process had nine handoffs against the procedure's five steps.
Process Improvement
Removing the Friction From Intake.
A referral process with nine handoffs, three places the same data was entered, and a two-week wait before a client heard anything. Mapping the real process showed why.
Representative Engagement
This is a representative engagement — an illustrative profile showing how this CAMPBELL engagement works, what it produces, and the kind of change it creates. It is composed to demonstrate our methodology and does not describe a specific client or report a specific organization’s results.
The Situation
What Was Actually Happening.
Clients referred to the organization waited an average of two weeks between referral and first contact. Staff knew the wait was too long; nobody could say exactly where the time went.
The written intake procedure described a five-step process. Staff described something considerably more involved, with workarounds they had developed to compensate for a form that did not capture what eligibility review actually needed.
The same client information was entered into the referral log, the case management system, and a program-specific spreadsheet. An auditor had raised documentation consistency in each of the last two reviews.
The CAMPBELL Organizational Performance Diagnostic™Dimensions where this engagement found the problem
Strategy & DirectionGovernance & DecisionsPeople & CapacityPrograms / ServicesOperations & ProcessPerformance & DataSustainability & Scale
Our Approach
How We Worked It.
Every CAMPBELL engagement is delivered through the CAMPBELL 6D Method™ — Discover, Define, Design, Deliver, Demonstrate, Drive. Each step below is tagged with the phase it belongs to.
Define
Find the constraint
Traced where work waited. The bottleneck was a single eligibility approver who reviewed every referral regardless of complexity, and who had other full-time responsibilities.
Design
Design out the waste
Removed three unnecessary handoffs, set risk-based approval thresholds so routine referrals no longer required the same review as complex ones, and made the case management system the authoritative record so data was entered once.
Design
Rebuild the intake form
Redesigned it to capture what eligibility review actually needed, which eliminated the follow-up contacts that had been adding days.
Deliver
Strengthen controls
Documented separation of duties and approval thresholds, and set a records retention standard that addressed the audit observations.
Drive
Make it stick
Named a process owner, set cycle time and error rate as standing measures, and scheduled an annual review.
The CAMPBELL Model™Where this engagement sat in our problem-solving framework
ClarifyAssessMapPrioritizeBuildExecuteLinkLearn
Process work is the clearest application of Map in the CAMPBELL Model™. The documented process and the performed process are almost never the same, and the gap between them is where the root cause lives.
Deliverables
What the Organization Received.
- Current-state process map with constraints and waste identified
- Future-state process design
- Redesigned intake and eligibility forms
- Risk-based approval thresholds
- Documented standard operating procedure
- Internal control and records retention standards
- Process owner assignment and performance measures
The Outcome
What Changed.
Illustrative of the change this engagement is designed to produce.
The wait shortened substantially
Removing handoffs and routing routine referrals around the single approver cut the delay between referral and first contact from weeks to days.
Data entered once
Designating one authoritative system eliminated duplicate entry and the discrepancies it produced.
Audit observations addressed
Documented separation of duties, approval thresholds, and retention standards resolved the findings that had recurred in prior reviews.
A process that holds
A named owner, two standing measures, and a review date meant degradation would be visible rather than gradual and unnoticed.
Free Consultation
Does this sound like your organization?
If you recognised your own situation here, let’s talk about it. A consultation is free, carries no obligation, and starts where every CAMPBELL engagement starts — with finding out what is actually wrong.