The Advantages of Systematising
Several things happen when you do systematise your business operations:
- You don’t have to perform the process.
- It empowers your team members to take on more responsibility.
- You automatically develop what we call ‘the way we do it here.’
Creating ‘the way we do it here’ means developing systems, processes, documentation and team member training to ensure your business runs smoothly, consistently, and most importantly, without you. Creating ‘the way we do it here’ also makes your business worth more, because when at some point, you decide to sell the business, you’re handing over a business worth many times more than when you started. Simply, because you thought about and developed the systems that allow the business to function successfully without you. And as long as you decide to stay involved in the business in some way, you know that it can function independently of you. It’s not your life. You’ve developed a business that you’re a part of…yet you’re still apart from it.
Walt Disney tells the story of being asked by a child if he drew all the Mickey Mouse cartoons. “I had to admit that I don’t draw anymore,” said Disney. “Then do you think up all the jokes and stuff?” asked the child. “No, I don’t do that either,” admitted Disney. Finally, the child looked at him and said, “Mr. Disney, just what do you do?” “Well, sometimes I think of myself as a little bee,” Disney explained. “I go from one area of the studio to another and gather pollen and sort of stimulate everybody. I guess that’s the job I do.”
Good thinking Walt. The legacy (the bits of pollen if you will) that Disney left behind still exists today - and will for a long time to come. He created systems and processes that resulted in an indelible ‘way we do things here’ that includes empowered team members sharing a truly unique culture and passion for what they do - and millions of happy customers who come back again and again to get that same magic feeling.
These days the way we do business can be just as important as what we do. As customers become better educated and more discerning, they often expect more in terms of customer service - the way they are treated and how the product or service is delivered. Given that, it’s important to review the processes – those actions that make up your business – and implement strategies and systems to improve them.
This could range from picking up the phone no later than the second ring (which shows you’re attentive to their needs); using ‘awesome service’ to show customers how special they are to you; improving the sales process; better educating your team members on the products and services you offer and more importantly the benefits to the customer of each; going the extra mile when it comes to serving them; improving the speed of delivery and more.
Involve Your Team
You must sit down with your team and think about what you could be doing differently to improve the way you do business. It empowers team members and lets them feel that they are a proactive (rather than reactive) part of the improvement. In addition, the team members working on the front lines can come up with a wealth of creative ideas to systematise the processes they perform on a daily basis. Let’s look at a simple activity your team can use to start examining your current processes and systematising them.
Using a whiteboard, draw a large square in the middle. On the left-hand side of the square, draw three arrows hitting the box. On the right-hand side of the box, draw one arrow coming off the box. Call the arrows on the left-hand side ‘inputs’ and the one on the right-hand side ‘outputs.’
Now get your team to think of any process in the business that might be able to be systematised. For example:
- Answering the phone (inputs = incoming calls and outputs = orders)
- Greeting customers (inputs = arriving customers and outputs = purchases)
- Customer complaints (inputs = customer complain and output = resolution)
- Quality assurance (inputs = product or service and output = 99.99% accuracy)
Now in the square, write the word ‘System,’ and explain that the only way to get more outputs is to develop an effective system in the box.
Taking the phone as an example, it could be that an input is when a customer calls and asks “What’s the price of XYZ?” The current ‘system’ you have in this case could be a team member simply giving the price in response. The customer then says “O.K., I’ll call you back,” and there is no output. The only way to change that situation is to change the system - how the team member handles the call to generate an order or sale.
Now take your team through the list of processes you’ve chosen. Determine the inputs, outputs, and current activities that occur in your business, and how you can improve them (to obtain the desired outcome) by developing a system for each.
Summary
This exercise helps your entire team recognise that the only way to change/improve a situation is to change the system - or the way in which it is currently handled.
When you start to look at your business in this way - as a series of processes that you can build effective systems around, it can produce dramatically positive results, for you and your business.
If this makes sense to you, start working ON right now with the Action Plan we’ve provided for you.