The answer to this question is, it depends. One of the critical elements for building a successful workflow is to obtain the buy in of all stakeholders.
Take administrative workflows internal to your company as an example. This type of workflow establishes the way you administer the business and often has a direct bearing on employees at every level. The participants would logically include owners, executives, managers and staff. The exact composition of the planning group will vary according to the type of workflow being created. When you gather ideas and input from people at every level who will be tasked with implementing, managing, reporting and analyzing the business, you often get better results based on a wider range of perspectives, desires and experiences.
The other type of workflow is operational. These are the cornerstones for how you plan, create and deliver the products and services that form the basis for your business. Because every business is unique, staff members may not always be a logical choice for inclusion in the planning process. On the other hand, production personnel and service delivery employees should almost be automatically considered for inclusion in the planning process. Vendors and subcontractors can come into play in some situations, especially if they have a critical role in your ultimate success. But there is another group that is often completely overlooked – your customers and clients. If you spend extensive time, energy and money on creating a workflow, only to find that the end result doesn’t resonate with them, you have wasted your resources.
This is not to say that all participants should have equal status. Far from it. Workflow planning is part art and part science. As such, you have to decide how to weigh the relative value of the input you receive from each group of participants. There is no manual that can make that decision for you, but as you gain experience with the best practices of workflow planning, you will discover the mixes that work best for you for each type of plan. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the composition of the planning group. You may find that you want two classes of participants – planners and advisors. That automatically implies a hierarchy of relative importance that gives participants a sense of how their role will function.
No matter how you decide to proceed, be mindful that getting the correct mix of participants is essential to your long-term success. Be open-minded and you will uncover nuggets of valuable information from sources you may have overlooked in the past. You just might also build better, long-lasting relationships in the process.