Change? You Can't Handle The Change!

One of the things that stood out to me in this transition
was the power of effective systems. I was surprised to see
live footage of the movers at the White House moving Bush
out and the Obama family in while they were at the
inauguration festivities. Not only were their personal
belongings being changed, the running of a whole
country is being handed over to a new administration.
Imagine the thousands of details and the systems necessary
to handle such a transition smoothly.

The other change that took place very rapidly was the White
House website. At exactly 12:01 p.m. the new site went
live.

Could you hand over the running of your company for the
next 4 years? How about 4 days, 4 hours? If not, you need
to take a look at the systems in your company.

1. Make a list of the areas within your company
2. Under each area make a list of what processes you have
challenges with
3. Brainstorm with your team to create a system to handle
each challenge

Start with your higher impact areas first. On a recent
coaching call, a client complained about the way his
employees were quoting prices to his customers. Each
person would react to the same scenario in a different
manner, which resulted in sales at a lower margin than
necessary and quotes changing depending on which
person was at the computer when customers called.
These problems were costing him lots of money and
aggravating clients. The solution was to make a list
of the common scenarios and create a plan for how
it should be handled each time.

Systems are crucial to business growth and need to be
addressed as you grow so that you can handle hiring new
employees with smooth transitions. Having good systems is
also necessary if your goal is to be able to sell your
business or just have a business that runs without you.