What you will leave with
A current-state workflow with an owner and a visible problem.
Understand
The idea behind the work
A workflow is the actual route from a trigger to an output someone uses. Include the quiet steps: finding the latest source, reconciling conflicting versions, waiting for approval and correcting a draft. A neat diagram that omits this effort cannot explain whether an AI change helps.
Describe the current process before proposing a future one. For each step, name the input, action, owner, output and recipient. Ask whether the step is necessary. Removing a redundant handoff may help more than accelerating it. Keep facts you observed separate from guesses about how other people work.
Inspect a worked example
Synthetic example: the weekly report
This is a fictional teaching example, not a client result or a claim about Joseph Carroll's past work.
This is a fictional team process for practicing workflow mapping.
The starting input
Work through it
- Map export → check dates → reconcile totals → calculate → draft → review → circulate.
- Add the previously invisible wait for the approved conversion definition.
- Mark duplicate formatting as removable and narrative drafting as a possible AI-assisted step.
The result
A map showing that definition approval is a dependency before calculation and writing.
A mistake to recognize
Replacing the entire process with ‘upload files and ask AI for insights.’
How to recover
Preserve the data checks and decision ownership; redesign only the steps whose inputs are understood.
Adapt the method
What changes in your business?
The same method can serve different settings. Data, allowed actions and operational support matter more than headcount alone.
Owner-led business or small team
Map your own steps, including the time spent locating information.
Department or growing team
Ask the people doing each step to correct the map.
Large or complex organization
Include system owners and required approval paths rather than assuming they disappear with AI.
Try it, then inspect the result
Write a current-state map
Map a repeated task in five to eight steps. Include a handoff, a wait or correction, and the final recipient. Identify the evidence you used to describe it.
Use a sample or a description you are allowed to share. Your answer stays in this browser when storage is available; export it to keep a separate copy. 0 / 6,000 characters.
To mark completion, write an answer, check the reasoning scenario and inspect every evidence statement. You can continue to another lesson at any time.
Self-reported completion does not certify competence. Open My AI Plan to review your saved work.
Sources and further practice
The lesson is Carroll Consulting's teaching synthesis. These sources support the underlying capabilities and concepts; check the current product, plan and configuration before applying them.
You can move between lessons freely. Revisit the checks whenever your answer, evidence or business context changes.