Systematization Process - Phase 6: Making it Happen
Posted by James Cooper
Making Business Systematization Initiatives Stick
How to ensure that your efforts to systematize your business (so that it is more self sustaining and automated to be less reliant on you) don't fade...
Phase 6, the last phase of the mimosaPLANETTMSystematization Process is; Making it Happen. This is completely about making sure that this systematization process is not just a one or two week initiative. It is about putting in place a structure that will see it through to completion of a first run through the entire process and place value on business development in perpetuity. This is where I have seen countless business owners get frustrated. Learn how to keep the momentum going, momentum that leads to critical mass, critical mass that supports change and produces results...
What are the strategies used in this Phase?
The Making it Happen phase is all to do with taking action or activity... but the key point to remember is activity must be justified, it must be worthwhile... activity for activity sake leads you and your team to doing pointless tasks or doing the tasks that are unimportant first and leaving the truly important tasks that aren't urgent never to be completed. To make sure activity and busyness is worthwhile we must do two vital things .... Record & Report! We must highlight the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each area (and/or role) in your business. If you and your team then know what it is that truly matters, and these KPIs are recorded and reported on, you and your team will instantly find your activity and behavior (the decisions and actions) you take on a daily basis will instantly be more effective.
Once you and your team have a good understanding of what is important (the KPIs), then you can set a course of action to improve them, ‘action' points or ‘doing' points if you like. Below are the basic strategies I recommend that will yield fast results in the short term and... continued growth & automation (business systematization so you as the business owners aren't needed as much) in the long term. This long term (by long-term why not 6mths or 12mths instead of 5 years, what's stopping you?) automation goal comes about only if a regular schedule is adhered to, too many business owners will set weekly development meetings, they happen once or twice then two people are away the next week so it doesn't happen, then the week after "we are busy and have no time"... or some other lame excuse (admittedly, excuses that I've in the past used). The point is when something is set as just part of the routine, like dinner ... it always happens!!! While we are on meetings...the second point to make is; meetings don't work! Huh, meetings are crap time wasters... well they are for most people unless you and everyone in that meeting leaves with a clear list of decisions, and actions points to be achieved by who & by when.... Oh, then it's vital they actually do them and are held to account at the next meeting. Here are those strategies in phase 6;
6) MAKING IT HAPPEN
The Basics
- Weekly Role Based KPI Dashboard (Activity and Results)
- Weekly Team Business Development Meetings (Not WIP (Work In Progress) Meetings)
- Monthly KPI Reports (Executive KPIs, Marketing KPIs, Sales KPIs, Operations KPIs, Finance KPIs, HR KPIs)
- Monthly Directors Meetings (KPI Target vs Actual review, Actions as a Result of)
More ...
- Quarterly KPI Reports & Individual Evaluations
- Quarterly 2 Page "DOING" Plan (KPI Targets, Strategy Selection)
- Yearly Plan (Directions, Goal, KPI Targets, Quarterly Milestones, Initiatives/Projects)
For KPI examples see Record & Report
It's that simple...
It's too easy to over complicate things, so keep it simple...
"Everyone, here's a visual representation of our team, it's called an organizational chart.... Bob this is you, and these are the two points that are important in your role, they are called key performance indicators or KPIs, they let you and everyone else know if you are doing a good job, a crappy job, or an excellent job . If we focus on making sure you all improve your specific KPIs we can all have a lot more fun. Here's an example of one of Bob's KPIs.... This is what we are going to do to improve results in this area...."
There are much better methods to ‘train' people, than telling, but the above statement is the basic message you want to get across. Better training methods include asking specific questions to get them to come up with the answer rather than just telling them... which doesn't get your team to use their own brain.... Oh, this is a huge point, if you tell your team how to do everything, how can you EVER expect your business to be systematized?! To automate your business so that it runs without you, you must setup systems and empower your team to make decisions by trusting them, mistakes cost way less than you might think to fix.
This week's Action Points...
The key is one; your belief and resolve, and two; the schedule.... I talk with clients weekly at the same time, we finish with a list of action points... we move forward. Set a schedule for your internal report completion and for meetings... then stick with it!
