How to create Simple Logical and Repeatable Systems in your business

“So your secret weapon when it comes to creating How Tos will be…”

If the mention of the word systems has brought you out in hives, fear not!?

By the time you’ve read this post you’ll be seeing systems in a different, brighter, much friendlier light. And seeing the creation of systems in your business as, well, …simple!

Of course you have systems in your business already. Everything you do is a system.

The key to consistency comes when those systems, those ways of working, are simple logical and repeatable. And when there?is only one simple, logical and repeatable way to do every task. ?

One right way.?Your right way.

There’s only one way to cook french fries in McDonald’s. Everybody knows the one right way, and everyone does it this way. No exceptions. In fact no one would dream of doing it differently.

There’s one right way to do every task at McDonald’s - it’s just the way things get done, and it’s these ‘systems’ that give McDonald’s their amazing consistency; make them so reliable; make them so scaleable.

So here’s the million dollar question:

'Is there one right way to do every task in your business?'

?And if that’s a ‘No’ then how do you get to the point where there is??

The How To Guide

The tools you need to create systems are very straightforward - they’re called ‘How To Guides’, or simply ‘How Tos’, and they come in several forms:

The paper-based How To?

This is the sort of guide that many people think of when someone tells them to document their processes.?It’s a step-by step guide to completing a task - step 1 do this, step 2 do this, and so on.

It’s a laborious task creating a How To document, it takes time to think through exactly how you do a task, to capture every detail, and explain why it needs to be done this way (which is a crucial part of the process).?Worse still, paper-based documents, even when they’re stored online, are difficult to learn from, as there is no visual support.

So while this form of How To is clearly better than nothing - it’s not going to make the difference you’re looking for.

The Infographic

One step up, and often used for more practical tasks, is the infographic.?This combines images of the actions to take, with wording for any detail that can’t be shown in an image, or to clarify a particular point. Impactful and easy to follow.

The checklist

The checklist isn’t often considered to be a How To, but it works well as a summary of How Tos that must be followed in order to complete a bigger task, with tick boxes to ensure that nothing gets missed. ?

A good example of this would be a checklist for opening or closing a store/ shop/office.

While all of the above are very useful in their own way, and there will be times when only one of the above is relevant, the best version of the How To is everyone’s ‘go to’ in normal every day life.

Think about it.?When you want to learn how to do something new, where is your first port of call?

Google, or YouTube, right? ?

You want to find a video that shows you how to do whatever it is you want to do - boil the perfect egg, wire a plug, create an animated powerpoint presentation, or whatever. ?

It’s the simplest, clearest and most effective way to get your point across; it’s visual, so you can see what’s going on, and best of all, your team member can pause, rewind and go over the ‘lesson’ as often as they need to, until they are confident they’re doing it right.

So your secret weapon when it comes to creating How Tos will be…

The How To video

Now before you start thinking, ‘No way, I’m not going in front of the camera’, or, ‘I hate hearing the sound of my voice on a recording’, two things:

First - you don’t have to go in front of the camera, ever, if you don’t want to.?The idea is that you use screen-recording software (I recommend Loom) to record the task, as you perform it.?You simply talk to the screen telling your team member exactly what they will do, and why it’s important that they do it this way.

Second - you will not be the person creating all of the How Tos.?As far as possible you will involve your team, getting the people who do each individual task to the high standard you expect, to record the How Tos for you.

How To videos work well for ‘offline’ tasks too.?We’ve had clients create How To videos for dressing bridal suites, setting the building alarm, building a burger, drawing a cartoon, using a machine - you name it, you can create a How To video for it.

Trust me - How To videos will change your life, upgrade the effectiveness of your team training 1000%.

So…

Do one thing:

Choose one task that you currently perform (check it’s simple logical and repeatable) then create a How To video for it.

NB Creating simple logical and repeatable systems is key to your Team Development System and is step 4 of a 9 step roadmap that we lead our clients along, to build the business-critical systems that will make your business scale-ready, and free you from the day to day of your operation.?

To learn more about the 9 steps that will deliver that independent team that doesn’t need you around to work well, book a call with me via this link:?

https://www.scalereadysystems.com/scheduling-page1612545375650