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Add Structure with Processes and Procedures

Written by: Marshall W. Northcott

Article Overview: Have you hit a ceiling in your business model? Is winging it and flying by the seat of your pants no longer helping you reach your growth goals? Discover why structure is necessary and how it can produce quality results through additional individual and team accountability. Read on...

Add Structure with Processes and Procedures

When you are running a one man operation there is much less need for any sort of documented structure or systematic step by step approach to business. It is likely that you will feel your way through situations and figure out what works best but it is less likely that you will take the time to make note of what you have learned. All that information just stays locked up inside the owner's head because there isn't a need or time to write it down. Those business people who have a very analytical, paint by numbers mindset will be more likely to still go through the effort to monitor their methods, record their findings or results and make necessary adjustments to progress. When you are on your own, you can get away with more and exert less time and energy on recording or documenting information.

As any company, organization or department grows, with diversity comes a demand for systemizing and streamlining processes and procedures. With each new person who is added to the team, a new set of dynamics is also introduced. In the world of quality they refer to this as continuous quality improvement which has more to do with the way you do something rather than the product or outcome itself. The bigger the monster or business becomes, the greater the need for documenting so that you are constantly learning from mistakes and continuously improving upon your methods and business operations.

The idea is to eliminate bottlenecks that slow down your ability to deliver to internal or external customers or end users in a timely and acceptable manner. The goal is not to bog down your business operation or bury the people in extra paperwork, it is to constantly look at what you do and how you go about doing so and then ask yourself how could this improve in order to make us better at delivering results more efficiently. More simply put, "Is this the best way to perform this task based on the people we have and the current tools and technology that we have at our disposal, or do we need to make some changes to get better?" As with any sort of improvement it requires discipline and an investment of some sort, in this instance it is time. It is a mindset that puts you in a mode of continuous improvement.

Scrutinizing current business practices, recognizing gaps and shortcomings, then revisiting processes to make improvements is a major component of creating processes and procedures. Step by step methods for performing tasks are broken down into their most basic components and documented. Enhancing methods for organizing, managing and monitoring workflow is a constant demand.

The other major benefit of going through this process is simplifying the ability to train new staff and get them up to peak performance sooner. It makes it easier to explain what to do, how to do it and even makes it comfortable for you to respond to the question, "Why do we do it this way?" in a professional and courteous manner because you actually know. It's what is often referred to as idiot proofing your business.

Some people are threatened or intimidated by processes and procedures. They may feel that they are too restricting and don't allow for originality or creative thinking. There can be concerns that the processes and procedures make your business to mechanical and actually dehumanize it. This can certainly happen if people are allowed to forget that the initial goal was to actually make things better for all concerned, simplify task without cutting essential corners and ensuring the customer experience is exceptional as close to one hundred percent of the time as possible.

This concept doesn't have to be overly complicated. If you are going to go through the exercise of documenting a process with the goal of improving it, first give the process a name, then describe the process or procedure in detail, isolate the steps of the process (what is being done or should be done) and finally assign a step or priority number to each component of the process. When you are finished, state what action steps (i.e. training, internal communication or equipment purchases) must be taken to move forward and implement the improvement and then act on them.

"Management works in the system; Leadership works on the system." - Stephen R. Covey

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Article Tags: Processes and Procedures, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Representative Accountability, Standard Operating Procedures, Systems



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