Panos Daras
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- Oct 10, 2022
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Thank you so much for this post! I was trying to pitch up this exact idea to my previous manager, a CFO of a startup coming from a big corpo as his previous job, but he just would not get it! He woud always ask me, being an ex-FP&A manager guy, what is the data to support it? How do we measure the impact of this work, beforehand? Finance people can be the kings and queens of action fakers (me included). 2 years forward creating process maps, videos and swimlanes, is an integral part of improving the department I now work for as a project manager.I've seen "making systems" and delegating mentioned throughout the forum a few times now (@Antifragile , @Kak , @mikecarlooch , @BizyDad, @MTF , and more) but I haven't stumbled on any recent easy approachable guides to it. It seems like some people are really hesitant because it looks harder than it could be. But it must be done. At one point in every business life cycle, there will come a time that the owner can no longer do everything and must start delegating more things than just simple tasks or labors.
There are probably unlimited ways of doing this. My goal is to show you just how easy this part could be as long as you follow my own system on it! Remember, the quality of your system has more to do with the result than the quality of your employee. I have had very low skill, technologically illiterate, employees do relatively complicated things on computers pretty much flawlessly. Tune in till the end to see other applications outside of just employees and contractors!
I will include examples from experiences that @fastlane_dad and I dealt with on a follow up post as this one has got pretty long.
Prelude:
When thinking about which systems to automate first, I think about 3 factors.
I would then sort my priorities based on these answers. Everything can be automated, but this is just the thought process I would use to figure out the order to go in
- Which of my processes are super simple and only take a few steps to do?
- Which of my processes take me the most amount of time?
- Which of my processes are least consequential to the core of the business if there are small mistakes?
- If something is super simple and only takes a few steps, then it may be a good idea to get this off your plate first. It will get you thinking in the right direction and expose you to just how freeing delegating can feel. An example of this is if you have been sending out postcards in the mail, you can now get someone else to do this. All they have to do is open the boxes, put the stamp on, put it in a new box for the mail man. You don't need a guide to teach you how to delegate this. But maybe it's the kick in the butt you needed to actually do it.
- The more time a process takes the more value (free time) you will get by taking it off your hands. Time intensive processes are prioritized
- You should start with the parts of the business that matter the least if something was messed up. If your $5 widget gets sent to the wrong address every once in a while, its not preferable but it's not a big deal either. You just send a new one out. But if a mistake or oversight could mean that you are now out of stock from your product for the next 2 months and are losing $1000s a day in sales... I would delegate that last.
Part 1:
Make sure you have done the task yourself and have become comfortable with it. Notice what part of the processes stay the same and which part of the processes are variable.
Part 2:
Do the task yourself and write down every single step. I really mean every single one. When you hit a part that is variable, address it by saying "consult X sheet for examples". At the end of this part you should have a sheet that is so exact that a programmed machine will get all the steps right other than the variable parts that you reference.
Part 3:
Now you have to create the references for the variable portion. If you have done a task over and over, you will start noticing a pattern. You want to be able to give an example sheet for 80%+ of all possibilities. This could mean questions/answers. It could mean common scenarios and what to do in those scenarios.
Part 4:
You need to spend 1:1 time with your employee going over things. If this is an in person employee then you sit down with them. If this is online, it will depend on the task, but you should figure out a way to talk with them live and maybe share screens or something of the sort. Lets say it is with an in person employee and the task is on the computer. I will sit down with them with the instructions directly in front of us. First I would explain what they are going to be doing in a very general way. I will show them the variable sheet and have them read it. For example if it is a questions/answer sheet, have a discussion with them on whether they understand the questions and whether the answers make sense.
I will now proceed to do the task, but completely base off the instructions and not memory. That means I will point to the step on the sheet before doing the step in real life. Depending on how complicated the procedure is I may do it a few times.
Then I will have the employee do it in front of me. The next part is one of the most important parts and the part that I think gets skipped the most out of laziness. You need to watch the employee do it over and over again. The first times, give them room to breathe and allow them to explore. Don't just step in when they are having trouble. Them doing their own trouble shooting will solidify their learning. Also keep in mind that it is nerve racking to have your boss breathing over your shoulder while you are doing something new. So relax. The only time you should leave is after you have seen that they are getting the processes without stumbling over the easy parts and can do the whole thing SEVERAL TIMES without your input. Don't shortcut this step. Wasting your precious time here today, will pay off in dividends over the next days.
This is also a learning opportunity for yourself. See where they keep stumbling and think about what you could have added to prevent the stumbling. Did you forget to say that Button x is on the other side of the screen of Button y? It may sound dumb to be so thorough when you are there and could just show them, but it's not. You'll see! They will pick up the task today and then come in after a long weekend and it's as if their brain did a hard reset. Luckily, they can just consult the sheet and don't have to bother you! Or they may be in the middle of the task and their brain throw up a blue screen of death? No problems, consult the sheet! Be patient and understand that your business may be the number one thing on YOUR mind, but they are just an employee that is likely thinking about their "actual" life back home. Thats OK as we have accounted for that.
Part 5:
Don't leave just yet! Make sure they know that you are there if they need anything. If they aren't sure about something, no matter how little or dumb, to come to you. Depending on the processes (like customer service), there will always be variables that you did not list on your example sheet. Tell them to come to you with it and you will help them. Depending on your scenario and the task itself, they should either come to you whenever it comes up or they should leave all the unknowns till a specific time of the day and come to you with all of them.
When they do come to you, it is very important to be welcoming and to not just answer the question but also explain your reasoning behind it. If 80% of variables can be covered in an example sheet, the remaining 19.9% can eventually be learned by the employee just by seeing the example and understanding the guiding principles of your decision in the answer. We have all read how they program ai computers by throwing more and more examples at them. That's exactly your expectation here.
Pro tip: You should start noticing patterns in the way you answered these variables. You should start distilling these patterns to principles. Eventually you should have a set of guiding principles that can be attached to the training sheet that will shortcut future learning and possibly even other systems.
Part 6:
Thats it! A few things to keep in mind
- Make sure to update the sheet as you run across stumbling blocks by your employee.
- Don't be afraid to ask them if they understand why you decided to deal with Variable X a certain way. Don't just tell them. Remember, they are thinking about whether they did the laundry at home. Make sure they can articulate your reasoning back to you. P
- Eventually you will outsource everything. Including this process itself! We gave instructions on creating systems to our businesses manager and had him do it to some of his tasks to hand it off to employees underneath him.
- As you grow, don't limit this process to only delegating duties. Occasionally have your employees create step by step processes for every single thing they do. So when Becky gets sick, David can fill in on a rudimentary level and the business keeps chugging along with minimal input from you. Or what about when David quits? You now have a training manual that will get your new employee up to speed immediately.
- The less you have to rely on the employee that you can automate on your end, the better. For example, we had an employee that had to randomly choose a prize for a contest we ran. Leaving it to the employee ended up bogging the processes down and would also result in far from random results. I built an html page in 10 minutes that randomly selected a number and showed which prize to give. So much better. Non-programming solutions are easy too. Just google random number generator and have them click that , with a reference sheet that pins numbers to product. Again....Your employees are thinking about whether they left their stove on at home or if Sandy will want to hang out that night. The least amount of decisions they have to make the better.
Postscript:
You may have noticed I italicized a few words here and there. They were all breadcrumbs for the ultimate form of a successful system. All these steps can be applied to creating computer automated systems. I only know basic levels of programming but between my knowledge, google fu, and macro's and have automated things that others thought you definitely needed humans to do. You can automate an ASTOUNDING amount of things and you should think about hiring someone to create a program/macro/script.
It's really this simple. Once you create the instructions sheet, the most important part is following your employee through the steps and watching them do it on their own. So don't be scared to dive right in. Modify the process as needed to account for different needs. Just don't shortcut dwelling on the details.
Notes on hiring:
Many online tasks can be delegated over the internet, which puts lets stress on you taking the plunge and getting your first employee. However, it may be time to hire your first employee if you have many real life tasks that need to be done or if you have a lot to delegate. I'm sure there are great threads and how-to's already on this from more qualified people. I'll only briefly touch on it since it is pertinent to my guide. Don't be nervous about hiring someone just to let them down or finding out it wasn't the right time for you and having to let them go. I know this is a big stumbling block for many people. If you are nervous about it, just be completely up front with them. Tell them the plan is to hire them for years to come, but that you are a startup so it is always possible that situations can change. I recommend paying relatively well compared to others in your market, but that is a personal business choice. Plenty of people are happy to jump aboard as long as you are up front with your requirements and you treat them right. Keep in mind that when allocating time, I would expect my low skill employees to do things at no more than 1/4 the speed that I do things. (Atleast at first)
What do you guys think? Are you ready to delegate some of your tedious tasks now? What about the complicated ones? I would love to hear stories of complicated tasks that were delegated and any creative solutions you had.
