If I asked you what delivers the results in your business, I’d be interested to know your answer.

You see, when I ask a room full of business owners, the majority tend to reply with PEOPLE.

But I’d argue that in order to grow a business, you need to let the SYSTEM deliver the result – not the people.

Many businesses today are able to survive on talent and talent alone, but all they can ever do is just survive.  Don’t get me wrong, people are a vital factor in any business, BUT it is the system which will get the best out of them.

Latest research* reports that UK businesses lose two hours of employees’ time every single day to inefficient processes and unproductive activities.  Among other things, time is lost to reading unnecessary emails, looking for missing files, recreating lost documents, unscheduled interruptions and unnecessary meetings.

The study also found that meetings are taking up a quarter of your time; the average UK office worker spends around 25% of their week either in meetings or preparing for them.

Systems and Processes not only eliminate these inefficiencies; they support the business, so it can run without you. 

The System is the difference between a business which is being run haphazardly, with no direction and little more than hope to guide its sails, and a structured, planned, perfected and well-executed success model.

Systems don’t need to be complicated and costly. For example, to help you stop wasting 25% of your week on meetings alone, here’s a few simple things you can start doing right now:

• Meetings don’t need to be marathons; a 15-minute Daily Huddle will answer all you need to know, and focus your team by simply asking: What happened yesterday? What are we going to do today?
• Set meetings on the same day, at the same time and with the same agenda.
• Always start on time. A 9am start doesn’t mean you’re making a brew and chatting about last night’s Game of Thrones at 9am. It means you’re all settled and tackling the first agenda AT 9am.
• Never cancel or postpone unless there’s a real emergency.
• Embed how you run meetings into your culture – collaboration and accountability are key.

It’s likely you already have some systems and processes in place; this week schedule some time in to see what ones are working well…even better if….

BW,

Martin Norbury

The Scalability Coach | Britain’s Top 10 Adviser 2018 | Author of #1 bestseller I don’t work Fridays  | Ex-CEO of a PLC

* Professor Emma Griffin, BBC Radio 4, Clocking On