The One Habit Changing Our Business. How To Create Systems And Processes Fast That Won't Fail.

How can you create systems fast and then delegate them effectively?

You might be thinking that you don't have any time to do this because you've got so many other things that you have to do in running your business, but I'll show you a shortcut. It's so important to have these systems in place, because it's actually going to multiply your time. Also, if there's a person in your office who's doing a task and it's in their head and you don't have a system written down and they leave or they get sick, then you're going to be scrambling to do it yourself anyways, or spending valuable time training the next person.

A great system will allow you to essentially pull someone off the street, show them the system, and then they'll be able to do it by just following the process. This results in less training costs and less errors in your business.

This systems method comes from Ari Meisel. It’s a way to create your systems and processes that will be bulletproof from the start. This method also allows you to improve, and then fix, each step in the process if something changes or something breaks without having to spend a lot of time fixing it.

First off, choose the task that you want to turn into a system or process

Choose the thing that either you do frequently each week or someone on your team is doing frequently. For this example, let’s say that it's your scheduling process for existing clients. You want this to be systemized so that if you didn't want to do it anymore, or if the person doing it takes off, you could find the next hire, show them the process, and then have them do it 100 percent right the first time.

Step One: Record a Video

Start with a video recording of you, or the person who usually does the scheduling, walking through the process, outlining the steps that they take. Now, most people make the mistake of saying this recording is the system or the process. And they put it into a process manual with a link to the video for future people to watch. But that can be a mistake because 10 to 20 percent of the video is just ‘umm’ and ‘uhh’ and pauses and waiting for the screen to load. They're really long videos.

Also, it's hard to update a video process as well because once something does change or doesn't work, you actually have to record the whole thing again.

Step Two: Type it Up

Once the video is recorded, give it to another person, not you (or the person who recorded the video). This new person should to watch the recording and type up each step of the process to create a written checklist. The checklist is better than video. You're going to find that there's going to be parts of the system where people will get stuck right in the beginning, or something will change or break. With a checklist, it's much easier to pinpoint where the break is and then fix it quickly.

Step Three: Check the Checklist

Finally, give the checklist to a third person to follow the written instructions and see if there's any breaks or hang-ups in that checklist. Then you fix the breaks by updating the checklist.

 Now you should have a system that's complete with the goal of being able to pull someone off the street and then give them the checklist and the process and they'll be able to complete it.

When talking about systems and processes, sometimes the question of delegation comes up. This is going to make delegation easier, but I'm also going to share a way to delegate faster and more effectively in future posts, so stay tuned.