Getting through a process like Cyrus the Great

Herodotus the historian records an interesting story of an ancient emperor who, when scouting a river, found it impassible.  Unfortunately for the river, it also managed to drown one of Cyrus' horses, which caused the emperor to swear that he would break the river and allow a person to cross the entire river without ever getting their knees wet.  In order to make good on this threat, he put his entire army to work making one-hundred and eighty trenches to channel the river in separate directions.  Having taken his revenge on the river, he then proceeded to conquer a kingdom called Babylon, which may have been even more impressive.

"But David," you ask, "what does this have to do with business processes?"  I'm glad you asked, theoretical questioner.  Because often times we allow our process to become stagnant and backed up because we funnel them all through one office superstar who will take on the work, but won't complain when given more tasks.  The problem is that even the best employee is limited as to what they can accomplish and soon their desk will become the dreaded "B" word, Bottleneck.  What's worse, eventually this dedicated rock star is going to take a vacation, a sick day, or heaven's forbid, find more pay for less work somewhere else.

If you have a process at the office that comes to a dead stop when one person goes MIA, then it's time to start digging trenches.  Funnel the work off to others so that no one person holds the fate of your productivity in their hands.  Not only will it keep work flowing when that person is absent, but having that relief valve when the work begins to pile up will give you a happier employee as well.