Don’t worry! I have a system!

My husband and I have a recurring joke about “systems.”? (Some could argue that quotes should be around “joke.”)? Whenever one of us forgets something, we reassure the other that we have a “system.”? This was inspired by relatives who insisted they knew what medication to take and when, because they had a "system."? What this system was and how it was organized was never clear.? And unless the system was meant to ensure medication was taken sporadically and in the wrong order, it didn’t appear to work.

If you listen for it, you’ll hear people talk about their “systems” a lot. (I’m using “system” here to mean related processes that are regularly repeated.? This is akin to traditionally defined systems like a CRM but in this context it's more about behavior and process than technology.) Often these are convoluted ways to remember processes or schedules that have evolved over time.? They often begin as a very simple and easy to remember process:

"When I create a new account record, I request a credit check."

But as new processes are added, a system of rules is created:

"When I create a new account record, I request a credit check, unless the account’s annual revenue is over X amount, in which case I send it to our enterprise team.? If below X amount, and in industries A, B, or C, assign the account to our inside sales team.? Unless it’s in Canada.? All new accounts in Canada are assigned on a round robin basis, unless already assigned to someone with activity in the past 90 days."

At some point our system ceased to be something that helped us in our job and instead became one more list of exceptions we need to remember.? We don’t revisit it, we simply add new steps to it, which makes it harder and harder to remember.? For some reason we get locked in to our system and forget that since we were the ones who created it, we can make it again.? And make it better.

Look to the silverware drawer

My philosophy is that systems aren’t necessarily about saving us time, they’re about saving us thought. A good system should be intuitive and transferable to reduce the mental load on you or your team.? These are both key for scalability.?

• Intuitive: How many times have you run into a multi-tabbed excel sheet where the first tab is labeled "How to Use"? If you have to reference the "How to Use" tab every time, your system isn't intuitive.
• Transferable: Have you ever needed to call someone on their vacation because they were the only ones with access to perform a business critical function? Then your system isn't transferable.

To be clear, there are lots of things that can't be intuitive and transferable, either because of their complexity or due to security constraints. There will always be systems that can't be optimized further. But we often default to assuming a system is locked in and can't be changed or improved. My Spidey-sense always tingles whenever I hear some version of, “Go ask Jaime.? They have a whole system for that.”? This usually means you’ve got a person, not a system.

Think about your silverware drawer.? As a society we’ve pretty much agreed on a system for silverware.? I can go to my friends’ kitchens and I’ll most likely find a drawer that has all the silverware, separated and grouped together.? Putting away silverware is a little tedious because I need to make sure the forks go with the forks, the big spoons with the big spoons, the knives with – I assume you know how this goes.? It would be much quicker if I simply dumped all the silverware in a drawer, right?? Yes, it would!? But how much extra time would I spend looking for a fork when I needed one? The silverware system balances the efficiency of putting the forks away with the effort to retrieve a fork when you need one. When you need a fork, it takes no extra thought whatsoever to get what you need.? Your brain has that much more room to think about more important things than where the forks are.

This is true of business processes and systems as well. For example, a CRM system as a whole is about entering and retrieving information. When CRM's get clunky it's often because we've over optimized for one of those at the expense of the other. In the hypothetical new account example above, the user has to put a lot of time and effort into entering the data so that it's more easily categorized and retrieved. This is like having one drawer for forks, one for knives, etc. Very easy when you want to grab a fork, but way too onerous when you're putting away all your silverware. And your users are constantly putting away silverware.

Creating a new account is a fairly simple example of system bloat. Now imagine someone has to create several new accounts and get an approval for a discount and follow up on an invoice error -- in other words, doing all the work that makes up their job. Very quickly we end up in a place where people are spending more time navigating systems than actually managing accounts, selling, marketing, etc. We need to be vigilant about every process to make sure we're not trapping people in overcomplicated or redundant systems.

To really squeeze all of the juice out of this analogy, when we moved into our new house, the silverware drawer moved three times before we found the right place.? It was next to the sink, then next to the oven, etc.? We didn’t put all the silverware in one drawer and then live with that decision for the rest of our lives.? We revisited the system when we found it wasn’t intuitive.

We can do that at work too!? If you find yourself going through a series of if/then statements whenever you perform an action in your CRM, your “system” might be due for an update.

A note about security blankets

Sometimes our system is intentionally complicated and manual because it gives us a sense of security that each step is being performed. This is okay in the short term. I'm a generally cautious person and like to keep the training wheels on for a while. If you're creating a new system for tracking renewal revenue, feel free to keep that in your manual sheet for a few months until you sort out all the kinks. My concern is for systems that have existed within a business for years and have grown more complicated by the accretion of rules and process steps. We should always be on the lookout for these. Speaking from experience here, if you're the kind of person who likes the feeling of completion you get from performing steps in a process, you're going to love finding ways to make your systems more efficient. It's like those super satisfying power washing videos. Power wash your systems!