There are only 24 hours in a day. Everyone must play by this rule.
I’ve tried to cheat this rule every way I know how. Sleep less. Cut back hobbies. Work more.
I don’t think these strategies work. Over time, I burn out and the quality of my work diminishes. The best strategies I’ve seen come from books like “Emyth”, and “Traction”. Create systems and build those systems.
Leveraging time happens when I can build systems. A repeatable systems helps me move faster and more efficiently.
A repeatable system means my team knows exactly what I’m going to do and when I’m going to do it.
A repeatable systems means I can show someone else how to do what I’m doing, which means I can multiply myself.
McDonalds has this one idea right. Everything works better when I can write down a one best way for a process to be done, then repeat it.
In this blog post, I’m going to write down the steps I have been through when I have built a system that works.
Step 1: Reduce my larger systems to individual tasks.
In my job as an insurance producer, my job is composed of several key systems. I work a marketing system to create awareness for potential clients. I work a sales system to bring new clients through the sales cycle. I work renewals for my existing clients.
Within each of these larger systems, there are smaller systems that need to be repeated constantly.
To market a new client, I have to scrub lists. I have to send letters. I have to make cold calls.
It can look like this:
Macro: My job
Large Systems: Marketing Process
Smaller System: Building Lists
Individual Task: Uploading Tasks into a CRM
I have to narrow down my focus until I have identified a single task within a single system.
Step 2: Write down how to accomplish a task
At this stage, I am a technician. I am analyzing my processes.
Let me take scrubbing a list as an example.
To scrub a list, I go through a process:
I import a list from a lead source. I look at the information available from multiple data sources to look for the following:
1. Key people
2. Contact information
3. The type of operation
4. Revenue
5. Number of employees
6. Number of vehicles
I import all this data into my CRM system.
Step 3: Use it and Fix It
Everything sounds good on paper. It’s only until you start using the system and identifying all the ways that a system doesn’t work.
With scrubbing lists, I’ve identified lots of issues. It’s hard to find a source of information that will include contact information for key prospects. The one that seems to have it costs a lot more than I can afford. Sometimes, I can get all the data I want, but it’s across multiple data sources. Pieces of the information may be available on the customer’s website, on Insurance Xdate, or on LinkedIn. My job is then to assimilate that information.
For the time being, I have figured out one task in this system. I know how identify target customers in Insurance Xdate, export a list into excel, and my marketing team can upload the list into Salesforce. This has become a repeatable process.
Step 4: Have someone else try to use it. Then Fix it
At this step, my job is to be a manager and mentor of another person. I have to change accordingly.
Every process I develop and write down makes perfect sense in my brain. When other people try to learn what I’m doing, then it gets very confusing.
This is when I see how repeatable the process is.
Other individuals may not understand what an ideal prospect looks like, so they have a hard time screening them. They might not have access to the data sources available to me. I may have more visibility into contacts on LinkedIn because I’ve built my network. They may not understand what the organizational chart looks like in a target client.
I imagine that this is what it’s like building a rocket ship. They write the drawings down on paper. Based on the math and measurements, everything should work. Then there is a shortage of materials. Or the engine doesn’t work properly. Or leaks develop under time and pressure.
The same thing happens when building an organizational system. The only I’ve found to fix it is to write down all the flaws in the system, develop a plan to fix them, and then check them off one at a time.
The result is that someone should be able to master that task themselves. When this is done, I have someone that can do the task for me.
Step 5: Have that person teach someone else, and coach them on how to coach other people.
At this stage, I become a department leader.
At this stage, the process should be refined. I wrote it down and tested it for myself. I have taught it to someone else. I’ve had to work out the flaws in the process based on how that person views the world. I have some level of confidence in the process.
Now my job is to supervise as one person teaches another person how to do the task.
From my perspective, there are a couple of ways the process falls apart at this point:
1. The teacher isn’t well-equipped to teach
2. The learner isn’t the right person to learn
3. The process still needs to be refined.
If I trust my process, then the flaws in the system are personalities. This is a subject far bigger than I can address in this blog post. Identifying this issue has inspired a lot of my learning.
Step 6: Teach other people how to build systems for themselves
This is when I become the leader of an organization.
There are departments with numerous underlying systems in each of them.
Personalities are interacting with each of the systems.
My job is to teach another person the ways to accomplish steps 1-5 on this list. I have to teach a person how to be a technician, manager, and department leader.
If I said I’ve mastered these 6 steps, I’d be lying to you. I’ve seen glimpses of it. I have many tasks I no longer do for myself. There are processes I no longer manage. There are departments I no longer interact with daily.
I plan to continue to execute these 6 steps as many times as I can. This is what allows me to spend time on my most valuable tasks and bring the most value to the organization.
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