Freedom Through Systems™

When it comes to getting your team to actually follow procedures, we’ve covered a lot of actionable items in recent weeks. None are more important than these.

One – Make It Important To YOU

Good systems will deliver the personal freedom, agency growth and personal wealth you want. So, how can it not be important!

Success is not a project. Your systems run agency is not a project. It’s a permanent, superior way of doing business.

That means, day in and day out, being and staying systemized must be a way of life for you and your team.

That only happens if YOU make it important.

Two – Make It Important To THEM

You can’t be the only one committed to systemizing your agency. You also have to make it important to your team.

How? Hold them accountable.

Make it part of everybody’s job. And I mean everybody.

Start with job or position descriptions. Add these items to EVERY position …

• “You are responsible for complying with agency processes and procedures and utilizing documented procedures when available.”

• “You are responsible for keeping documented procedures up to date with reality.”

• “You are responsible for actively identifying and communicating ideas for improving agency processes and procedures.”

EVERYBODY is responsible for being systemized. EVERYBODY is responsible for improving systems. You simply make it part of everybody’s job.

And EVALUATE them on these factors as part of their performance and salary reviews. Do they follow the procedures?  Do they contribute to keeping them up to date and improving them?

If not, they’re doing only part of the job. In your systemized agency it’s not enough to only do the work. It’s also everyone’s job to tend the systems.

If someone’s not willing to do that, they’re intentionally interfering with your business goals. It’s that simple. Need I say more?

© Copyright, 2010 by Sweet Spot Marketing, Inc. and Joseph J. Hagan, Jr. All rights reserved.

We’re winding down on how to get your team to actually follow procedures, and here are two important aspects that go together.

Open feedback and immediate updates.

Part of Systems Improvement Thinking and Action recognizes that our world changes. Obvious, right?

Change may come from the outside – new carrier rules, software changes, etc – and it may come from your own business and operational decisions.

Whatever the cause, your systems also need to change to keep up with, or to capitalize on, those changes. But that’s not something that magically happens.

The first step is to create an open feedback culture with your team. Make it everyone’s responsibility to participate in improving the agency’s systems.

Encourage on-the-fly discussions and impromptu meetings to discuss – without delay – problems with, and ideas for improving, a system, workflow, process or procedure.

Include “systems improvement ideas” as a permanent agenda item in your team meetings. Always remind your team one of their top responsibilities is systems improvement.

Generate discussion and make decisions as fast as you can. Keep your machine nimble and quick when it comes to doing things better than before.

When your team is always talking about your systems and procedures, they’ll naturally follow them. It’ll be part of their culture.

Then, cut out the red tape and update your documentation immediately. Otherwise, you’ll be headed straight back to the chaos of conflicting memories and training nightmares.

This may be hard to swallow … but when updating the system is more important than doing the work, your total personal freedom is in sight. Why?

Because when you update your systems you solve a problem forever. When you let your systems go, you revisit your problems again and again and again.

And when your documentation can no longer be trusted, your team will stop following procedures … again.

© Copyright, 2010 by Sweet Spot Marketing, Inc. and Joseph J. Hagan, Jr. All rights reserved.

We’ve been talking about getting your team to follow procedures. Let’s look at a couple of ways to have immediate impact.

The first is called a Tasks Checklist – or what I also like to call an Accountability Checklist.

The Tasks Checklist is a list of all the non-reactive tasks for which someone is responsible. These are the things that have no external trigger to prompt someone to do them. Someone has to remember.

The Tasks Checklist lists those tasks and includes a sign-off space where the responsible team member initials to indicate that they’ve completed each task. That’s accountability.

When you combine the Tasks Checklist with documented procedures for each task, you’re starting to create an integrated system of documentation and accountability.

If you utilize a good Intranet for your documentation – as discussed last time – you can directly link the Tasks Checklist to each procedure.

In this way, your team member knows not only what’s supposed to be done, but the documented procedures are but a click away.

The second impactful item is the Process Checklist. While the Tasks Checklist is a list of many tasks, the Process Checklist details the steps of a single process.

And like the Tasks Checklist, the Process Checklist is an interactive tool … not just reference material, like a procedure.

Use a Process Checklist when you want to ensure important steps of a process don’t get missed, and to make sure everyone performs a process in the same manner.

Process Checklists also create accountability for performing a process the way it was designed – for maximum client experience and efficiency.

Plus, Process Checklists are an excellent way to separate the duties of a complex process and pass responsibility for a process from one person to another.

You can set up your Process Checklist not only as a true checklist, but also to capture key information needed by the next team member in the work flow.

If you’d like examples of these checklists, send me an email. Use them to make your procedures a real part of everyday life in your agency. Your team will follow them.

© Copyright, 2010 by Sweet Spot Marketing, Inc. and Joseph J. Hagan, Jr. All rights reserved.

We continue our journey to get your team to actually follow procedures.

And easily accessible documentation is another critical piece of the puzzle.

If your team can’t get to your procedures, process summaries, etc easily, they’ll quickly lose interest in trying to find them.

What’s the solution?

Think web-browser based. Think Intranet – a website that only allows your team to access it.

A browser-based solution has many advantages.

• Set the Intranet as your browsers’ home page and force your team to see it every time they open their browser … constant reinforcement.
• Create links to agency approved websites and centralize this information.
• Cross-referencing related documents is a snap with hyperlinks – which, when it’s designed well, makes it very easy for your team to find what they need.
• And virtually everybody understands the basic skills of clicking around on a website, so user training is minimal.

There are lots of ways to set up an Intranet, and lots of people who will sell you a pre-fab solution. Here are some things to consider when evaluating.

• The layout and user interface must be easy to learn.
• Make sure it includes a good search engine to speed finding information.
• And it must be EASY to update … to add new procedures and correct existing ones. Otherwise, you won’t keep it up to date.

If you’re interested in low-cost – as in f*r*e*e – check out Google Sites.

Google Sites is not an Intranet per se. It’s an online application that allows you to create a basic website with no coding skills at all.

You can restrict access to your users only.

I’ve created a half-dozen Intranets for my coaching clients using Google Sites, including documentation templates, checklist templates and documentation of the basic skills necessary to use it well.

Email me if you’re interested in setting one up. mailto:JoeH@FreedomThroughSystems.com

Talk to you soon,

© Copyright, 2010 by Sweet Spot Marketing, Inc. and Joseph J. Hagan, Jr. All rights reserved.

We’re talking about getting our team to actually follow procedures, and here’s another piece of the puzzle.

So far, we’ve identified always explaining “the why” of your processes and being consistent in your reasoning to generate team buy-in. Plus …

Test your processes thoroughly before implementation, because frequently flawed processes cause loss of faith in everything you’re doing.

And now … take the time to fully train your team on a new process. Seems simple enough, but sometimes gets skipped and causes problems.

First, after involving some staff in the codesign and testing phases, training time is your next opportunity to get feedback from others.

No matter how well you’ve tested, when you train others – and invite their questions and feedback – you may identify changes needed immediately.

Use that feedback to tweak your process, update your documentation and do some quick training again. Roll it out when you have a good process.

Second, quality training time also increases team buy-in. It gives them the opportunity to put their seal of approval on a process. And when that happens …

… they are less likely to forget or ignore the procedure later.

Third, face-to-face time gives you the opportunity to continually remind your team of the importance of your systems mindset and business approach … and build your systems culture.

Plus a little training time allows you to be confident they actually “get it”. It’s frustrating to find that people aren’t following a procedure…

… because don’t understand it. Eliminate that excuse with training and feedback.

A final word … you don’t have to get crazy with training time. Some processes are really simple and can be done on the fly in a few quick minutes.

Other, more complex, workflows should be given the time necessary for successful implementation of the process.

Regardless of complexity, take the time to train your team to make sure your procedures are actually followed.

© Copyright, 2010 by Sweet Spot Marketing, Inc. and Joseph J. Hagan, Jr. All rights reserved.

Can you believe it? In just a few days 2009 comes to a close, and a new decade begins.

Do we call this the “10’s”? Seems like just yesterday it was the “90’s”!

I have a quick tip for you to close out the year, but I also want to say Thank You!

Thanks for subscribing to Inside Secrets of a Systems-Run Agency. I appreciate the opportunity to share with you each week.

I’m grateful for so much – my wife Donna, wonderful family and friends, my coaching clients, my home and shelter – I could go on and on. And I will in my heart, but won’t bore you with the list!

No matter what 2009 was like for you, there is always something to be grateful for. It could be as simple as knowing you have family and friends who love you.

It could be the home that provides you shelter. The bed that provides you comfort. Hot running water is one of my favorites! Just think what life would be like without it.

It could be your business that continues to allow you to attract money into your life.

There is so much to be grateful for. Don’t take it for granted. Find the parts that you can appreciate.

I encourage you to make your own gratitude list. Writing it down is a great exercise. Allow gratitude to fill your heart.

And take that wonderful feeling into your plans for 2010.

Now, a quick tip to close out the year:

Role playing is a tremendous training tool … especially for prospect and client interactions. And when you role play, you should try to emulate the real situation as closely as possible.

Chances are most of your client interactions are on the phone, and when you’re on the phone you can’t see the client.

So, when you role play your sales and service interactions, make sure you turn away from each other! Match reality by only having words and the tone of voice to work with.

This will identify areas needing improvement during training and make your team training much more effective.

Have a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2010!

© Copyright, 2009 by Sweet Spot Marketing, Inc. and Joseph J. Hagan, Jr. All rights reserved.