Pillar 1: Documenting your best practices

So your team knows exactly what needs to be done when, by whom and how

Crisis times in Prague

It was autumn 2008. I was working in Prague, Czech Republic, for a large corporate service provider, as team leader of two administrative teams.

One day, the “big chief”, our department head, called me into his office. With a serious look on his face, he told me: “Alex, we have a problem. The client of Team B is threatening to cancel their contract. They are fed up with Mark, the current team leader, and demand a change, now. Can you take over the leadership of Team B, immediately?”

Sure, why not, I thought. I was only working two full-time jobs at the time, so why not add a third one? I was still young, energized, and excited to take on any challenge, so I responded: “Of course, bring it on!”

I was quite aware of the mess I was getting myself in to. During my coffee machine conversations I had been well informed about Team B’s dire situation. Simultaneously, I felt confident that this mess could be sorted, step by step, with patience, common sense, and a curious mind.

When I went up to the team, informed them about my new role, and asked them what’s going on, I discovered the situation wasn’t very pretty indeed. A small team of five young employees found themselves challenged and pressured beyond what is humanly acceptable. I felt for them. None of this was their fault, yet they found themselves battling a tsunami of confusing bureaucracy, day-in-day-out:

• A backlog of 200 unprocessed emails (most of which were complaints about work being delayed or done incorrectly)

• Angry and frustrated clients on the phone

• Big questions about key processes to which nobody had the answer

While they work seriously hard and gave it their all, still they saw their workload increase daily, with no light at the end of the tunnel, and no budget to add workforce.

Where to start, when an operational team is overwhelmed like this, stress-levels are high, and resources are limited?

Applying the 80-20 rule: fixing the greatest energy leaks first

Besides the operational challenge, there was a social challenge too. As I was only 23 at the time, it was natural that my new team wasn’t too sure that I could help them solve this as the new team leader.

So, where to start?

I had discovered pretty fast in my career is that almost every issue can be solved with a constructive, honest, open conversation. So let’s start by asking those who know: the people doing the actual work every day.

I decided to have a 1-1 moment with each of the team members. Most of them behind their pc, at their workplace, because they felt that every minute counts, and even a coffee break would bring them more stress than relaxation. I asked each of them a few simple questions:

• Which process is most time- and energy draining for you right now?

• Can you explain what the issue is?

• Do you see potential resolutions to the situation?

• Is there anything else I can do for you to make your work easier and more pleasant?

I carefully took notes, and a list of priorities emerged. It turns out that two processes especially weren’t flowing well. They were not well defined, the client had different expectations than our team, and did not provide the information our team needed to do our job. To add to it, the client started filing complaints about the issues, which only added to the workload.

Next, I picked up the phone to call the client. I introduced myself and explained my intention to closely cooperate and one by one solve the issues that cost us both the most time and energy. I asked for his cooperation: explained that it will take close collaboration, time and patience. He agreed: as long as progress would be visible, he would be there for it. He explained that he felt very disappointed by the previous team leader and was hoping for drastic improvement.

Together we set up what we called our shared “action log”: a simple spreadsheet in which we listed all issues that needed to be solved. For each issue we noted the title, a description, an estimate of the severity and frequency (score 1-10), the agreed next actions, and the name(s) of the responsible person – usually him or me.

We established two fixed moments per week in which we would call, analyze the issues (starting with those which scored highest), finding the root cause, and designing both corrective and preventative actions.

We used the SICRA method for these analyses, really getting to the root of each issue and preventing it would ever happen again.

In a later article, I will explain SICRA in detail – a simple, yet powerful tool for turning complaints into compliments.

Incremental progress

One by one, we fixed the energy leaks. It required me to dive deep into the standard operating procedures. It quickly became clear there were gaps in certain process descriptions. Instructions were missing about handing over work, for example who should provide which information to whom at certain key steps in the process.

Step by step, we closed the gaps. I adjusted the process description and relevant checklists, informed the team and the client, and monitored the next days and weeks how it was going (usually very well).

The beauty is that this, energetically, created new momentum in the team. Each small improvement gave the team fresh energy, hope and mind space. Even when they were still overloaded, the situation was better than before, and we all felt it. After a few weeks, they could breathe again. The general vibe improved, people were able to smile again and make jokes. The way to getting back on top of things had emerged. Belief in a brighter future returned.

The client’s tone had also turned around 180 degrees. The frustrated, angry person had changed into a cooperative partner. He too felt that new momentum had returned.

A few months in the team had stabilized: back on top of their emails, having built a good relationship with the key clients who filed all those complaints, and scoring green on most of their KPIs. Soon thereafter, the team even became an inspiration to other teams. As the issues had caused us to diligently review most of the processes, Team B now even outperformed the more mature, other teams in the department, and became an example in several case studies.

Why this applies to your organization too

While this story concerns an administrative service provider, the lessons apply to any business or organization. Whether you are running a restaurant or hotel, a consulting group or a PR agency, an IT company or a waste disposal operation, a package delivery service or a paintball gun rental company: your organization, by definition, consists of:

• Processes with recurring action steps (transactions) which need to be performed over and over

• Clients who provide inputs and expect outputs

• Team members who need clear instructions and supporting tooling and documentation to do their best work

The great similarity of seemingly different organizations becomes even clearer when we look at the high-level set of processes that are in place. While they may look and feel different, depending on specific context and culture, in essence, similar recurring activities take place inside every organization:

• Marketing: continuous communicative efforts to connect with potential clients, members and users

• Sales: continuously reeling in individual clients, members and users

• Fulfilment: continuously providing the agreed product or service

• Administration: continuously taking care of the finances and taxes

In each of these areas, the quality and output of the work being done will be greater when the best practices are documented, the right tooling is provided, and the teams are committed to perform consistently and continuously improve the way things are done.

Principles at play: how to increase the quality of your operation

I hope this story illustrates three principles which every founder, CEO, COO and team leader should be aware of:

• The 80-20 rule (a.k.a. the Pareto principle)

• Clarity is key

• Checklists breed quality

I’ll be briefly describing each of these and how they apply inside an organization. Simultaneously I’m inviting you to, while reading this, reflect on your own organization and your own team, asking yourself: to which extent are we currently living and acting by this principle?

The 80-20 rule

Almost everywhere in the world and in organizations, we observe that 20% of the inputs cause 80% of the result. A few operational processes add up to 80% of the time spent. 20% of the sales people achieve 80% of the total sales value. And so on.

So, when you have limited time and attention to get things done, and you know you will not be able to accomplish it all, it pays to continually ask yourself (and those around you):

“Which one or two things make, by far, the biggest difference here?”

Clarity is key

The word “clarity” does not fully describe what I am aiming for here. The Dutch word “duidelijkheid”, or the German “deutlichkeit” is much stronger. It aims at the importance of having very concrete information about what needs to be done.

In an excellent organization, there is no space for ambiguity or confusion. To establish excellent teamwork, the what, why and how need to be crystal clear for everyone involved.

If you are aiming for high quality, make “deutlichkeit” a priority.

Checklists breed quality

Checklists aren’t the most sexy and exciting topic. Unless… you love quality.

Atul Gawande, for his book The Checklist Manifesto, researched the impact of checklists on the quality of outputs. He found out that they have a positive impact on the quality of work delivered in virtually every professional setting: from administration-related tasks to doctors performing surgery.

Because the human mind, nowadays, can only remember 4 things without impacting its short-term memory. (This used to be 7, before the internet emerged, enabling the continuous hijacking of our attention.)

When there are more than a few steps to be taken care of in a process, there is always the chance that one or two things are forgotten. Even the most experienced team member can get distracted for a moment and accidentally skip a key step in a process he or she has performed a thousand times before.

Fixing this, doing rework, and explaining it to the client, costs so much energy that getting-it-right-the-first-time generally always pays off.

Excellent teams understand the value of checklists and have the discipline to use them. Make them easily accessible (e.g. printed out and pinned at the desk), explain the importance, and hold the team member accountable for the quality of their work delivered.

Process documentation: making the best practice your standard

This is a key step for every ambitious organization. Most successful entrepreneurs I meet, when their organization starts to grow, get tired and frustrated by the infinite stream of questions from their team. The “How should I do this. How do I solve that…?” start consuming the founder and keeps him/her from the truly important, high leverage activities (such as growing the brand, building the team, and establishing partnerships).

The lesson: at some point in the growth of an organization, usually rather sooner than later, the founder or the main knowledge holder, needs to externalize their knowledge, and get it on to paper. Out of their head, into a place where everybody can access it, understand it, and apply it.

This is the only way for the team to do the work as good or better than. Once this information is captured in a structured and organized way, others can do the work, and incremental improvements can be made to make each process a little smoother, faster, more elegant, day by day, week by week.

The cornerstone types of documentation I recommend every organization puts in place include:

• An operational handbook with detailed process descriptions. Simple steps every human should be able to follow.

• A checklist for each key process, ensuring that all critical steps are covered. This helps the more experienced team members - who will not read the detailed manual for every transaction they perform – remember every relevant action.

• A project list with needs and ideas for process improvements.

Once these are in place, your organization is more mature, and really wants to go the extra mile, consider adding:

• High-level flowcharts for each end-to-end process, showing the steps, decision moments, involved parties and available tooling and documentation for each flow.

• A skills matrix, outlining the available versus needed skills and maturity levels within the team.

• A RACI matrix, clarifying who is the responsible, accountable, consulted and informed person(s) for each recurring activity.

• A control plan, enabling proactive quality checks for each process.

• A failure mode and effect analysis (risk analysis), proactively identifying, analyzing, and mitigating your operational risks

Note that I only cover process documentation here. Another critical element, data collection and dashboards will be covered in a future article.

Action point: building new positive momentum in your team

Most likely, after reading this article, you have identified one or more areas of improvement for your organization.

Which of these, do you believe, will make the greatest impact on your team’s performance and the quality of work delivered?

Perhaps, reading this is your reason to now (finally?) sit down with your team members to ask them:

• Which work activities are most time consuming / frustrating / energy draining?

• If I could solve one thing for you to make your work easier, what would you wish for?

Take notes, make a shortlist of three to five desired improvements, and hang it on your desk.

Chances are that taking care of these things will be an better investment of your time than you can imagine right now.

With love,

Alexander

P.S. Are you feeling called to really go for it and transform your business into a well-oiled machine? Get in touch via my website www.alexanderkeehnen.com.