Remember earlier in this series all about creating systems that create freedom, when I was sharing a conversation I had with my accountability partner, and how she’s the one who led me to actually creating this series?
I want to circle back to that conversation, because another thing she asked me when we were chatting was:
Do I need to check up on my systems once they’re in place?
The answer is YES.
We’ve covered A LOT when it comes to creating systems and processes for your business.
We’ve not only talked about the difference between the two, but we’ve also covered each of the 3 Steps to actually creating a system or process: Taking inventory, Writing out the steps, and Determining efficiencies, along with an entire post dedicated to how to hire a team to help.
But what happens once you have these systems and processes in place?
What’s the “maintenance” side of the equation, so that you’re not only leveraging your systems and processes to the fullest, but also recognizing when one of them might be broken?
Identifying processes that aren’t working
Every time you create a system or process, you should be documenting it: a single source you can go to in order to say “okay, this is the process I use for X.”
Asana, SweetProcess and even Google Drive are all great resources for documenting systems and processes.
Once a month (or at any interval you deem appropriate for your business, but I recommend at least once a month), you should be going to that single source where all of your systems or processes live and reviewing them.
Ask yourself questions like:
- How is this process running?
- Who is responsible for this process? (If it’s someone else, then you should be encouraging and empowering them to always be thinking of new / better ways to handle the process since they’re the one doing it.)
- Are there tools or resources I’ve discovered since creating it that might make it more efficient?
- What are some things that could make this process better?
And as an overarching general rule: if you ever set something up and feel like you’re working harder to accomplish it than before you had a process, then it’s broken.
If you go through your list and find that everything is running smoothly, and no updates or changes are necessary, then awesome!
But if you do find there is a system or process that appears to be “broken”, here’s how you can go about fixing it.
Fixing a broken process
Step 1
First and foremost, you want to try and pinpoint as specifically as possible what exactly is broken. Is it a single step? The first half of the process? The entire thing?
Step 2
Once you’ve identified what’s actually broken, evaluate why that particular way of doing it didn’t work. That way, you’ll know what NOT to do moving forward.
Step 3
Brainstorm different ways of handling that part (or whole) of the process. Perhaps a different tool or resource is needed? If so, some research or asking others who you know handle a similar process in their business could do the trick.
Or maybe the automation just isn’t working – things are slipping through the cracks. Perhaps it’s really not something that should be automated? If not, then figure out how you can either delegate that step, or batch it to make it most efficient.
Continuous improvement
Everything we do here at EOFire is based on continuous improvement. We’ve never put something out there that was 110% perfect, because we know there is always room for growth and improvement.
This is how you should view your systems and processes.
You will always be continuously improving them as you learn about new tools and resources, and as you learn better ways of doing things through the mastermind groups you’re a part of, communities you engage in, and so on.
Always be open to learning new ways of doing something, because sometimes adopting a new way of doing something can prove to be the most efficient (and a way you never would have thought of yourself).
