Episode 459: Tip: How set up are you for the unexpected?
You'll Learn How:
Why documented systems protect your business when staff leave / are fired unexpectedly
How to avoid losing critical business knowledge when team members move on
The importance of regular systems reviews and updates to maintain effectiveness
Why 85% of business problems stem from poor systems, not people
How proper documentation sets both current and future staff up for success
Get in touch with My Daily Business
Connect and get in touch with My Daily Business:
Hello and welcome to episode 459 of the My Daily Business podcast. If you have staff, then this is not even just like a must listen. This is just absolutely essential. Essential for you to listen to. And I'm talking from firsthand experience here.
Before I get into today's quick tip, which may well really save you, save your sanity, save you in terms of finances as well, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of these beautiful lands, which for me are the Woburung and Wunderi people of the Kulin Nation. And I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded.
I will do a longer episode on this for sure, but I am coming off the back of a really difficult fortnight wherein a couple of things came up in my business and it ended with me needing to terminate somebody who has worked in the business for some time now. I'm not going to get into the details of that out of respect for myself and my business and that person. However, it was a bit of a shock and that's, to put it lightly, it was a massive shock and it really made me stop and reassess a lot of stuff.
It really made me stop and go, wow, I am so glad that I have spent time setting up my systems in this business so that somebody else can be hired into that role and I don't have to start from scratch. We've got documentation set up. We've got things set up so somebody else can come in.
I work with people on their systems all the time. It's a huge part of what I do and advise people on. Here at My Daily Business, we also have a course, how to set up your systems in seven steps. And if you are listening to this and thinking, yeah, I should probably set up my systems a little bit better, like literally run and go and do that course. If nothing else, just go and do that course. It's very affordable, it is very easy to understand. It methodically walks you through how to set up your systems in seven steps.
One of the things that I talk about in that course and something I've mentioned a lot of times in my coaching, is this quote by W.E. Deming which said about 85% of the inefficiencies and mistakes in a business are not down to people. They are down to the systems and processes not being set up.
I work with people a lot on systems and processes, but I also work with them on staffing. And one of my clients the other day said, "Oh my God, I feel like it's like a tattoo on my head." And I'm constantly asking myself, "Are they set up for success?" That's the question that I'll ask people. When you come in and you're kind of complaining about a staff member, you want to think, are they really set up for success? And part of that, a huge part of that is that there are systems and processes in place. Those are not just in people's minds or everyone kind of understands. They are documented systems and processes.
So back to today's tip. I really want to ask you that if you are lucky enough to have staff, how complacent have you got in terms of your systems and processes? And if that staff member, for whatever reason, needed to end their working relationship with you or you needed to do that with them and you wanted them to exit the business immediately, what sort of systems and processes are in place for somebody else to come into the business and understand what needs to be done?
Even if you're like, "Yeah, yeah, we've got our systems, we outsource that, or we got a consultant in and we've done all of this," how often are you reviewing those systems? How often are you making sure that any kind of links to Google Docs or anything else is updated? Are you still linking to something from 2022 instead of 2024? Are you updating your Dropbox folder file names? Is everything in place so that somebody could almost walk in and take over that role?
Now, as I said, this has been a really big change in my business, but it's something that, even though it's sad, it's disappointing, it is okay because we have the systems and processes in place. And I think this is something that when you're going through any kind of change like this, it can be unsettling, it can be destabilizing. You can feel all sorts of things, particularly if you've been quite close with that staff member.
Running a small business, it's so much of you as the person who's the founder of it, and especially when you've got a very small team, you inevitably end up kind of sharing parts of your life and it becomes a relationship. And so when that ends, it can be really hard. And what you don't want to do is add to that hardness, that difficulty by also then having to start from scratch with your systems or having to then spend a lot of time or money or resource to start documenting things that could have been documented all the way along.
If you are listening to this and you don't have staff yet, but you are thinking about taking staff on, try to document, document, document, so that when that person comes in, they are really set up for success. They have the systems in place, they have the processes, they have all the information at their hand and that's going to really help them. But also they may then come to you and have suggestions on how to better that system and process. And that is fantastic as well.
Too often, and this happens in huge businesses and corporates that I've worked at as well, businesses get complacent with their systems and processes, or instead of having somebody who's come in to work in a particular role, that person then is interested in other things and that's great, but those things are then not documented. So that when that person leaves that information, that knowledge, that wisdom within the business, the structure, the understanding of how to do something, why they do it, how to analyse the performance, et cetera, all leaves with that person.
That is not what you want to have. Because even the absolute best relationships in the world, people will leave. It is not their business. They are never going to love it the same way that you love it. And so I guess you want to be ready for that outcome, even if it's years down the track. And also by being ready and putting these systems and processes in place, you're actually making just a more efficient business overall. And everyone understands what they're doing, what their role is, how they fit into the business. And that can only ever be a good thing.
So that is it for today. It's really thinking about, have you been complacent with your systems and processes? If your staff were to leave tomorrow for whatever reason, how ready are you, how set up are you for somebody else to come in? Or would that be like a bomb going off in your business and you're like, "Oh, my goodness, I'd be absolutely lost without them." And yes, for sure, some staff are so incredible that you are lost without them. But everyone has the ability to leave your business and many times they will.
And there may be something else that comes up for you where you realise that it's no longer values aligned and they need to leave the business. And you want to be making sure that you have that choice over whether that actually can happen because you've got your systems and processes set up.
So that is it for today. Just really reflecting on where you're at in terms of your staff, if you have them, where you're at in terms of potential staff coming up in the future and really doing an honest appraisal of your own systems and processes so that you understand how to keep that business going, regardless of who is coming and going in terms of your staff.
As I said, we do have a course on this and you can find that systems course over at mydailybusiness.com/courses. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye.
