Many experts advise business owners to "document every process" and to "just hire someone to do the work." However, this is often easier said than done.
The real objective should be to make yourself the least important person in your business.
While this may not be the initial goal for a founder, it quickly becomes an elusive horizon that many business owners pursue tirelessly, often leading to exhaustion and burnout.
The perpetual aim of working ON the business, rather than being trapped IN IT, always seems out of reach.
The journey begins with you, and, unfortunately, you are the bottleneck. The quality of your business output depends solely on your energy levels each day, and your business can only grow as large as your physical and mental capacity allows.
With experience building systems and processes for over 1,000 businesses across 100+ industries, Systems and Teams understands that relying on highly skilled people makes it impossible to scale.
Such people are at a premium in the marketplace and quite often are the “problem solvers” in many businesses. If your business is dependent on yourself or any highly skilled A-player, you may have the golden handcuffs.
You need to create the very best systems for which good team members can be leveraged to produce extraordinary results.
The question you need to keep asking yourself is how can you provide your customers with the service they want systematically rather than having it attached to whoever is personally attending to them that day.
To put it another way, how can you shift your business to where your results are systems-dependent rather than people-dependent?
You want to build your business on systems, not people you rent. You own systems. You can duplicate, clone, speed up, or slow down systems. Systems are predictable; people are not so much.
That is not to say that people are unimportant.
They are the ones that bring the systems to life. People make it possible for things that are designed to work to produce the intent of results. And just to confirm, a checklist is not a process. An employee handbook is not a system. And short “Loom” videos are not processes or systems.
These can leave a lot of room for assumption and interpretation. If there is room for assumption or interpretation in a process, then your team is going to try and fill that void by making it up as they go along. The result is that in many organisations, people do their jobs however they want, resulting in massive inconsistencies and inefficiencies being embedded into the team.
It has been said that great companies are not built by extraordinary people but by ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
And for ordinary people to do extraordinary things, a system is absolutely necessary in order to compensate for the disparity and natural variation between skills that people have, the experiences they've encountered, and the skills your business needs. In this context, the systems become the tools your people use.
The typical owner of a business prefers highly skilled individuals because they believe it makes the owner’s job easier. You hire a few A-players, a few experts, and you can simply leave the work to them—right? Unfortunately, no.
Besides the inconsistencies in finding and hiring these people, the predictability of their bandwidth as A-players depends on how much slack they need to carry from other less-ideal members on the team.
The result is that as the business stumbles forward and grows, this kind of thinking makes the business dependent on the team’s energy, whims, moods, and memory. Imagine betting on someone else’s memory when it comes to the likelihood that you’ll reach your goals and business dreams.
If they’re in the right mood, the job gets done. If they’re not, it doesn’t. The same goes for the owner.
Emails get answered as fast as you can type them. New customers get signed up when you go out to make money. Corrections only get made when you spot the problems yourself. This is why many business owners are constantly searching for the answer to how to motivate the team. To put them in the right mood to do good work.
It is literally impossible to produce a consistent result in a business that depends on extraordinary people. And no well-rested, happy, cash-heavy business owner tries to.
Because every extraordinary owner knows that when you intentionally design your systems and process to be operated by anyone—even Grandma—then you have a money-making machine that can generate predictable results for your customers—regardless of who is at the helm that day.
Our goal is to eliminate room for assumption and interpretation to ensure that anyone can complete tasks efficiently, regardless of their expertise.
This approach enables your business to duplicate A-Players, clone creativity, and even duplicate decision-making processes without the need for constant micromanagement.
A checklist isn’t a process. Employee handbooks aren’t user-friendly. Team training is contextual and depends on the team's memory to apply it correctly. Screenshots, Loom recordings, and videos are great visual triggers but lack depth and detail. Many companies assume that all the above count as a process and then get angry at their team when they are unable to deliver the correct result.
While all of these elements are good starting points and some can contribute towards what we here at Systems and Teams deem a usable process, they are not, in fact, a process and they do not contribute to your business system.
Processes that allow for assumptions or subjectivity are often error-prone. For instance, instructions such as "make sure it looks good" lack clear, measurable criteria for success, leading to inconsistent outcomes. This ambiguity results in varied interpretations and potential mistakes.
A process isn't merely a checklist or a single document; it must include all necessary components to be effective. These components include triggers, quality control stops, loops, schedules, variable inputs, and decision trees. Without these elements, processes are incomplete and likely to fail.
Instead, we must build a user-friendly process that removes room for assumption and interpretation. This ensures that employees, contractors, and part-time team members of all skill levels can access the process how they choose to and apply the knowledge within the process to complete the job at hand.
Business owners who are experts often believe that their training and craftsmanship build a good business and then a strong team. However, at some point in every business journey, the owner must shift from craftsman to "programmer" and begin building systems. They must begin programming their business rather than just operating it. Getting better at delivering the service is not how businesses scale or grow.
Instead, we must focus on consistently delivering a high-quality service every time, to every customer, despite unknown variables and skill gaps between team members. This truth typically rubs experts or craftsmen who have spent decades honing their product or service the wrong way. The business focus shifts from delivering the best service on a limited scale to delivering the best service every day.
This suggests that before we begin building processes, we must first understand the process we are building. There must be a core ingredient of skill that the process replicates. Otherwise, how will the process contain the standard knowledge to achieve perfection when introduced into a team? Because of this, we encounter a fundamental rule here at Systems and Teams: Understand Before You Systemize.
Process and system design in businesses typically fail due to a lack of understanding. Many businesses attempt to create processes by brainstorming solutions without truly understanding the existing workflows, unique variables, and without prioritizing which process or system to build first. Or if they do understand them, they build them in a vacuum or using an example data point of a job, customer, or client. Many business owners attempt a fool’s errand by building the most urgent, most important process first.
Understand before you systemise - the golden rule for process design.
Carlos Ghosn’s turnaround of Nissan is an excellent example of this philosophy. When he took over, Nissan was struggling, and many believed the company was beyond saving. However, Ghosn didn't start by making arbitrary decisions or implementing changes without proper insight. Instead, he walked the factory floors, observed the day-to-day operations, and engaged directly with the workers. By immersing himself in the environment, he gained a deep understanding of the existing processes and identified specific issues that needed to be addressed. He understood before he systemised. This hands-on approach allowed him to see the inefficiencies and bottlenecks that were not apparent from a distance.
The Perfect Process Method™ aims to create robust, error-free processes by eliminating subjectivity, assumptions, and room for interpretation. This method is designed to ensure that every aspect of a process is thoroughly understood and documented, resulting in a consistent and reliable workflow. The core philosophy behind this method is that a well-defined process leaves no room for ambiguity, thereby reducing the likelihood of errors and enhancing overall efficiency.
The first step we undertake with clients is to optimize the leadership team or themselves, then to optimize the team, followed by the optimization of the business. This data will generate a starting point for which process and system should be created first to embark on the journey of hyper-systemization.
In our experience the processes that should be built first are not the most urgent or the most important. The science behind this is clear: if we begin with those, the company begins to lag and struggle to complete and implement those processes. Instead, we use our proprietary method at Systems and Teams™ to leverage data collected from the leadership, the team, and the business itself to identify which processes will bring maximum leverage and a fast ROI for the business.
Once we've collected that data and have proof of concept in the process, meaning that the business indeed understands the process before we write it, then we can begin. If the business does not have this understanding, either because it is a new, unexplored development or service, or because the A-player who used to run this process has now quit, then the business is essentially making it up as they go along. This will cause the business to encounter many unknowns when planning, writing, and executing the process. There must be an understanding of the process before we systemize it; there must be a proof of concept, and then we can replicate it with ease.
At that point, we capture the process steps in a written data format. The first step in this method is to write out each step of the process in detail. By clearly defining all necessary actions, businesses ensure that every aspect of the process is accounted for and that team members have precise instructions to follow. This detailed documentation serves as the foundation for building a reliable and repeatable process.
Once the detailed steps are written, the next step is to record a video walkthrough of the process. This video should follow the written steps exactly, providing a visual and auditory guide that team members can reference repeatedly. The video component is crucial because it demonstrates the process in action, making it easier for team members to understand and follow. It also serves as a training tool that can be used to onboard new employees or refresh existing team members' knowledge.
The third component of the Perfect Process Method™ involves capturing screenshots of key action points from the video. These screenshots highlight critical areas and provide visual cues that help ensure clarity and eliminate any potential confusion. By visually marking important steps that are taken from the video, businesses can further reduce the chances of errors and make it easier for team members to follow the process correctly.
Once that data is collected in the three modalities, we can plug the information into either our Single Task Assignment™ framework, our Before And After Process™ framework, our Isolated Input Process™ Framework, or the classic Decision Tree Process™ framework. This ensures flawless execution of the task by any team member. Even those who have been very anti-process in the past will find themselves flying through the process with ease.
Using our above frameworks, it also becomes easier to update and refine processes over time, as changes can be made consistently across all documentation formats.
Consistency is achieved as every team member follows the same steps, reducing variability and errors. Efficiency is improved because, while creating a perfect process takes time upfront, it saves time in the long run by preventing mistakes and reducing the need for constant oversight. Additionally, using our Perfect Process Method™ alongside our four process frameworks makes everything easily scalable and replicable.
At Systems and Teams, we equip you with the tools, strategies, and support to drive transformative change and seamlessly integrate these improvements into your daily operations. Like a finely tuned engine, your business requires regular attention to perform at its best. By adopting the Perfect Process Method™, you can consistently identify and eliminate hidden friction points, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This approach ensures your business runs smoothly and efficiently, setting the stage for sustained success and scalability.
Utilize a data-driven approach to identify which systems to build first, prioritizing those with the highest impact on speed to recurring success. This method typically yields immediate improvements in efficiency, resulting in long-lasting benefits.
Equip your business with a comprehensive toolkit to build and systemise every aspect of your business, optimize efficiency, and streamline operations without spending a fortune or unnecessary resources.
Unlock the power of flawless system building with our Perfect Process Method. Create error-free processes that ensure every team member, regardless of experience or skill level, can perform at their best.
Access the four essential process frameworks that enable you to design and build any process in minutes, not days, transforming how you scale and grow your business.
Copy and paste the hands-on, practical steps to implement the Perfect Process Method, used by over 100 different industries since 2018. This will enable anyone on your team to build any process at any time.
Empower your team to independently create and manage their own systems, reducing your oversight, speeding up development, and boosting staff engagement and consistency across your organization.
Transform your existing training into streamlined, actionable systems to enhance operational efficiency across your organization. While training is contextual and relies on memory, processes ensure tasks are completed and applied consistently.
Streamline your business operations and transform your service delivery into a production line with our pre-built methods. Enable scalable growth paths for your team and reduce your own workload effectively.
Utilize an industry-agnostic method to refine your systems, spot errors early, and optimize processes to save time and resources. This approach ensures efficiency in building your company, regardless of complexity or training required.
Unlock innovation by replicating successful creative processes through systems, eliminating unpredictability and maximising efficiency in your creative team.
Extract the genius that an A-Player can bring to your business and install it into a system for others to follow. By systemising their expertise, it enables you to replicate their success and mitigate risks.
Build security into your systems and integrate robust security measures to safeguard confidential information and ensure data privacy.
Replicate any decision-making process with isolated weights and inputs, enabling any team to make informed, high-quality decisions even in the founder's absence. Tested by over 1,000 businesses, this method allows you to remove yourself from the equation seamlessly.
Perfect your system and process competence to ensure that every team member uses each process correctly and completes their daily and project work on time without rework. This approach increases profitability and customer satisfaction.
Automate any business software, tool, or information flow between different teams, clients, customers, applications, or projects. Cut down labor costs by up to 60% within weeks. Achieve effective automation without over-reliance, maintaining its value and efficiency.
Six Areas For Business Freedom
Instead of spending years putting out fires and figuring it all out alone, we’ll save you time, money, and stress by helping you shift from 'business operator' to 'business owner.'
Explore the six core systems that reduce friction and drive growth — no specific order needed.
Optimize your operations, services, and team for greater efficiency, productivity, and happiness. Reclaim an average of 4-6 hours per week per employee / founder.
Foster accountability and transparency across teams by reducing meetings, emails, and time on Slack. Cultivate ownership and a team-wide commitment by making information and skills accessible to all.
Eliminate assumptions and ambiguity. Our Perfect Process Method™ replicates the effectiveness of A-players, duplicates decision makers, and clones creativity.
Streamline your hiring process by reducing time spent on applications and interviews. With our systems-first approach, focus on attracting the right person for the right system, rather than role-first hiring.
Begin to run your business like an operator and an investor. Develop dashboards, operational systems, and KPI levers that enable your business to function with clock-like predictability.
Integrate our top-performing sales systems to easily boost revenue per employee with less effort. This integration also provides increased visibility to identify and address sales problems before they escalate.
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