Step 1: Identify The Problem

Recently, my friend Kent Hutchison inspired me with his simple breakdown of how to achieve a goal from a leadership retreat he hosted up at SFA.

(Axe ‘em, Jacks!)

While I’m no stranger to goal-setting, I do have a tendency to overcomplicate things in life (hi. It’s me. I’m the chronic overthinker, it’s me.) - especially when I haven’t fully defined the left-right limits yet - so his guidance couldn’t have come at a better time.

In my new role, I get to discover, document, and develop departmental processes (try saying that 5 times fast!), and was just thinking that I should probably organize my journey thus far into some sort of Powerpoint so that I can eventually present it to my team - along with our sister departments so they understand how their actions flow into and out of ours, and how we can work together smoother.

I know it sounds SO obvious, but the first step in this fundamental plan is to:

**Identify The Problem**

(you'd be amazed how many people simply start "fixing" things without knowing what's actually broke first!)

While I could probably list a million and one problems, all of them boiled down to one single root cause:?

Communication

(or I guess - the lack thereof?)

When standards are not present, when workflows aren’t documented in detail, when processes & procedures aren’t accessible to all…ambiguity rears its ugly head.

Sometimes, you get someone who takes ownership of the task and talks to people and turns over rocks and is curious about where it came from (and where it’s going), as well as ensures that it’s not only done well from start to finish, but that they educate others on what all they did so future results are consistent.

But many times, without any sort of communication in place, there is chaos. Delays. Hot & cold movements. Inconsistency. A lack of quality control.

You get the picture.

It’s not that the people who don’t go above and beyond are bad, stinky people.

It’s just that they don’t know what to do, let alone “what good looks like” if it hasn’t been modeled for them before - repeatedly - and in multiple learning styles (videos, how-to manuals, in-person mentoring, etc. - we all learn in different ways!).

Add in the additional challenging variable that is implementing a new ERP system this year (if anyone has experience managing D365 - I’d love to pick your brain!) and you can see why things are a little messy right now.

• It’s not that we don’t have any systems in place at all → It’s that our core info-management system has changed, and we are still in the midst of an active transition.

• It’s not that no one cares → It’s that everyone is crazy busy doing their primary jobs and there is only so much bandwidth to go ‘round without skimping on providing quality service to our clients.

• It’s not that we haven’t written anything down → It’s that we have so many new people joining that those high-level workflows simply need to be expanded to include Basics 101 to onboard those folks faster.

So yeah - I’m really excited to learn what our people do (and assess if there is any way to make it better/faster/stronger), and then communicate it out for all - new and old - to know.

Stay tuned tomorrow for: Research & Analysis!

P.S. What do you think of the distellary 's new branding? Can't wait to roll out new Brand Strategy services & hopefully some workshops next year! If you haven't liked my LinkedIn page yet, please do. ??

Or...check out the new landing page and let me know what you think!

Website: https://thedistellary.com