Effective Systems, Effective Businesses

By Workplace Efficiency Expert, Selwyn Herring

Deputy CEO of Recruitment Systems, Selwyn Herring shows how extraordinary business systems lead to significant business growth.

Conscious awareness
Systems exist in every business. The critical question to ask is whether the systems that exist are intentional or merely the way things have "always" been done?  Until time is taken to understand how existing systems operate, you cannot expect to fully appreciate the issues that need to be taken into account for any planned improvements.

Measurable improvement
Once you understand how the existing systems operate you can start to measure their performance. The simple act of obtaining timely and accurate data from existing systems can very often highlight some of the key issues requiring attention. Only by measuring current system performance can we quantify improvements in the future.

"If you can't measure it you cannot improve it".

Repeatable outcomes
When thinking in terms of system improvement we are essentially identifying desired repeatable outcomes. Quality is largely perceived in response to the consistency of the outcome.

What does this mean? Not everyone would perceive McDonalds as a provider of the highest quality food. The perceived quality of the food at McDonalds comes from their ability to produce a consistent product anywhere in the world.  This gives customers the confidence of knowing that they will get exactly what they have come to expect.
If repetition is the mother of skill then systems are the father of consistency.

Start with the end in mind
Once the desired repeatable outcomes have been determined, it is time to focus on measuring system performance in such a way that provides the greatest insight into what is actually going on within the process.

If you are unsure what to measure, refer to the flow chart of your process and usually the measurement points are the links between any two boxes. It is worth noting that the required data should be a natural output of the system and therefore built into the design. Collating the data should not become an extra task in itself.

Focus is key
Whilst many systems operate internally, the overall focus must be external with the customer clearly in mind. Many companies implement new systems to make their life easier but in doing so they frustrate the customer.

A common frustration has been the move away from immediate human contact on the telephone. We've all experienced the automated answering systems that offer long lists of options that seem as if they were designed purely to raise blood pressure of the caller. In many instances the numerical lottery is then rewarded with a further wait explaining that everyone is already on the phone so they weren't in a position to deal with our call anyway.
For all the good implementations of these systems are you might as well ask callers to press the square root of -1 to speak to a human being. Think long and hard about the effect your seemingly efficient systems will have on the people who drive your revenue.

Major business asset
Extraordinary systems make a business more predictable and easier for customers to do business with. Like great employees, the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little "extra". Extra time & thought applied to business systems can make a business extraordinary. Your team and your systems are two of the most important assets of your business and yet many business owners only ever mention staff as their most important asset. However, if we think about it logically, at the end of each business day the staff of any business walks out and there is no cast iron guarantee that they will walk back in the next day.  Systems are the back bone of any successful business and when it comes to an ultimate business sale can make a huge difference to the value commanded.

Job satisfaction
There is a common misconception that employees don't like a systemised approach to tasks believing that it removes their ability to make individual decisions. The opposite has been found to be true. Employees come to work wanting to do a great job and yet poor systems only lead to an inability to do a great job and countless hours of frustration and re-work.

Simple well thought through systems provide the ability for mundane tasks to be completed quickly and to a consistently high standard. Therefore team members gain greater job satisfaction because they know when they are doing a great job and it frees up their innate creativity to apply to new ideas for the business & ways in which systems and customer service can be further improved.

Going back to the McDonalds example. How is it that McDonalds can take the misspent youth of any country and get them to produce a perfect burger every time when their own parents cannot get them to tidy their bedrooms? The answer is systems. McDonalds offers open days once a year. If you get the chance why not go along and see the astounding level of systemisation in that particular business.

Manage systems not people
Another misconception is that systems are hard to manage. The truth is they are much easier to manage than people and in fact well ordered systems lead to far fewer personnel issues and a much more motivated and focused team of people within the business.

Control charts
The simplest way to manage a system is to recognise that any given system left to natural influences will operate between certain tolerance levels. Charting the outputs that are being measured allows these levels to be identified and monitored. There is no point jumping up and down and getting all excited about natural variances within a system.

The secret is to understand the difference between common and special causes within a system and respond in the correct way when both are observed. System can then be improved by narrowing down the variances as the Japanese have done so successfully under the original guidance of Dr W Edwards Deming. Accept that there is "noise" within in any system and keep your eyes peeled for real signals that what is being measured is continuing to improve or decline. A well structured set of accurate control charts should allow a business to be managed from a high level in very little time each week.

Can I?
Any company that has a desire to perform better can make dramatic improvements to their business by improving the quality of their systems. This does assume that there is a genuine understanding of the importance of systems and a top down commitment to make it happen.
It doesn't just end with a customer focused appraisal, some tweaks and measuring output to create some Excel charts.

The Japanese truly understand the requirement to constantly reappraise each system to better understand how ongoing improvements can be made. The word they use is "CANI" which stands for "Constant and Never Ending Improvement" - a lesson for life as well as our passion for extraordinary systems that form the customer focused back bone of every successful growing business. Systems underpin the way you choose to do business.

About the Author - Selwyn Herring
Selwyn Herring was the founder and CEO of Synaptic Systems - a highly successful UK software business. As well as holding the position of Deputy CEO at Recruitment Systems, Selwyn also runs a meeting planning software company Matchpeg which makes online collaboration tools to make businesses more efficient.