Ep 17 - How to Implement Processes When You Are Not a "Process Person"

Power Up Your Team Podcast

You have brought your business idea from concept to reality, build a robust service and a strong client pipeline. You are past being a one person show and have a small team of collaborators either as full-time employees or free lancers.

You enjoy working with your team. You can create, ideate and bring new ideas to market quickly. Your revenue is climbing constantly and you can see the fruits of your labor. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about. Collaboration is fun!

But suddenly you realize that your team has gotten too big to work without any structure in form of processes, procedures or job aids.

And just a thought of sitting down and drawing a process map tanks your mood.

Welcome to episode 17 of Power Up Your Team podcast where we talk about how you can implement processes without losing your entrepreneurial stride. The show notes can be found online at PowerUpYourTeam.com/17

Process and structure can come with a bad taste that of bureaucracy. Just the thought of it takes the swing out of your stride. Maybe that’s precisely what you escaped when you left your corporate career.

As entrepreneur you want to create, ideate and be with customers . The last thing you ever want to do is to write procedures or create process maps that describe the standard and repeatable tasks within your organization.

Here’s the point: Just because it’s your business, doesn’t mean you have to figure that out by yourself. You just have to stay present in the work. So, what does that mean?

Set context to make process documentation easy

Instead of documenting processes and procedures yourself, focus on setting the context so that others can do that for you.

1. Identify the 5 – 7 key customer facing process steps at a very high level

a. Example for a lending business:

Marketing – Sales – Underwriting – Documentation - Servicing – Collections – Closure

b. Example for a consulting firm:

Marketing – Sales – Scoping – Execution – Closure

There is no right or wrong. It’s all about the high-level work context you are setting for yourself and your team. Think about an airplane that’s flying at different altitudes. This is the 30,000 feet view. A work instruction would be the 1000-feet level. Alternatively, take the analogy of a map and think about a country map versus a local street map.

2. Identify the key critical internal process steps

Typical internal processes include HR, Finance and Accounting work. They often run independently of you customer facing activities.

Prioritize which processes need documentation

Typically, in a growing business not all processes need to be documented at the same time. Processes where collaboration and coordination are required need attention first. Despite all good efforts, this is where things can fall through the cracks.

Sometimes there are important intersections between internal and customer facing processes. For instance, when customer payments come due after completing certain client engagement milestones. They are important to document as well.

Read the complete transcript at www.PowerUpYourTeam.com/17