McDonald's Bathrooms

"I did backpacking for 4 years in the middle east and Asia...
after 4 years I learned that the most amazing 2 words in traveling are:

McDonalds Bathrooms"

I read the Flying Solo website on a regular basis.  The forum on there had this interesting post today thanks to "Gabriel" sharing one of the gems of wisdom from his experience.  

But why?

Why does a McDonald's bathroom look like a shining light in a confusing and culturally diverse world.  Because, say what you like about McDonalds, you know what you are going to get (basically) before you walk in the door.  In the heat, hustle and bustle of a foreign culture, you sometimes need something familiar.  This is the essence of processes.  It's not about exceptional service but about consistent service, regardless of the department the service is coming from, the person it is coming from or, for soloists, the task you are doing.  If providing your main service or product with care yet the invoicing or payment is careless, you've sent a mixed message.  Keep it consistent, and consistent with who you are as an organisation.

Keep the Wheels Turning

This week has reminded me why processes are so important to micro businesses.  You see, we had ill children.  Now, this was just a minor inconvenience as it was the typical winter flu.  However, when running your own business, a serious illness or accident has a major impact on your income stream.

Of course, insurance is available to cover your income.  This could give you a six month grace period which is an excellent buffer.  Remember though, what happens at the end of this period?  How much of your business would you have left after six months?  Think about this seriously.  Some of you may work on large projects and this would mean missing out on one project but being able to take on the next long-term project that comes along.  If you are working in retail or in hourly or daily consulting, you will not have much of a business to come back to after this period.

Processes, can be a type of insurance as well.  Having solid processes in place makes it a lot easier to hand work over to someone else, either a manager, subcontractor or another small business owner in the industry.  With up to date records and easy to use systems for daily routines, you could have the business still moving along in ways such as:

1. Contracting out the work and scale right back to the administration work if you are still capable of a few hours a week.  This would keep business afloat and may be able to supplement the insurance payments depending on your policy.

2. Certain businesses may lend themselves to bringing in a manager.  Retail, tourism, food and beverage, are examples of industries that may lend themselves to hiring temporary or more permanent management.  Yes, you might have a certain style that you believe is hard to replicate.  However, processes can provide that personal touch to your business that carries on without you present.

3. Handing your business over to a "competitor" could be counter-intuitive.  However, many people in specialised consulting will often be familiar, if not friends, with others in the same industry.  If one or a few other consultants can take on some or all of your clients in an agreed way, this can keep things going for both you and the client.  Alternatively, this could be the ideal time for someone you know to move from employed to self-employed and help you out.

In the end, having processes gives you flexibility to be innovative in keeping your business alive without you present for some time.  Protecting your income means not only insuring it continues through illness, but insuring you have an income-producing business when you return.

Bye-bye Business

Do you know where you are going?  If you own a business then one of the most powerful things you can possibly have is an exit strategy.  Why?  How you want to get out of your business determines a lot about how you setup business, what choices you make and how you run your business day-to-day.

Have you thought about how you are getting out of your business?  It's a very serious question that you need to give thought to.  You need to look at the stakeholders in your business to see whether the exit strategy works for them as well.  I'm not just talking about another director or co-owner, it could be your family who is the stakeholder in you and your business.  You might find that you and your spouse have very different ideas of when you want to get out of your business.  Maybe they are looking for a relaxing retirement and you are looking to work well into your 70s.  If you haven't talked about getting out... now is the time you need to do this.

How can you use this knowledge to your best advantage?  Short answer: Everywhere!  Your business structure, your growth strategy, your image, your marketing, your client base both now and in the future, the list goes on.  In fact, between the entry and exit strategies are the systems and workflows that create your business and uphold the exit strategy you have set.  Remember this is not a "one size fits all" situation.  If you want to sell your business in the near future, you are going to have a radically different take on growth compared to if you would like to slowly reduce your hours till you are working part-time in 5 years.

But it's not just when you setup a business do you need an exit strategy.  You'll go through many exit strategies in your business.  In fact, for every entry strategy, there should be an exit strategy.  An entry strategy to a new market may need an exit strategy such as franchising, selling the business or even employing and growth can be an exit strategy as you take your business from one stage to the next.  Exit strategies are almost big picture goals but often cater for the down-side that a pure goal does not cater for.  See this as practical and inspiring.  Often small business owners have found the greatest growth in the biggest challenges.

So, if you haven't thought about how you'll say bye-bye to your business, it's time to talk to the stakeholders and align your exit strategy.  By doing this, you set the framework in which your business systems can operate to move you ever closer to that big goodbye!

Be Careful What You Say: Social constructs in workflow

If you have ever tried to implement a workflow into your organisation, you'll know that the key is people.  It's very "yin and yang" in that they can react to new procedures in both good and bad ways.  In fact, process needs people so that it can actually be used.  A process that lacks people is an automation.  You'll mostly find that process mapping involves the interaction of people, information and equipment.

This means that the social construct surrounding the concepts and language within the workflow will determine the success of its acceptance and its workability.  You see, social construct gives us meaning to what is said.  Think about a workflow in which you want Admin Staff to book meeting rooms.  You probably already have an innate sense of who is considered "Admin Staff" within your organisation or department.  Let's turn this around.  Think of someone who is new to your organisation.  They may not know who is part of "Admin Staff".  Or even another department could  have different "Admin Staff".  Think through these crucial terms.

You don't have to make your processes over complicated.  You can fix these issues in numerous ways, for example:

1. Provide a glossary of terms as part of your operations manual or your workflow (in the business rules section).
2. Relay this information as part of induction - particularly a cultural induction into the work place
3. Place this information into charts, missions or policies.  In the above example of the Admin Staff, this could be presented in an organisation chart.

By being careful with what you say in your workflows and process maps, you will be able to define the true meanings of social constructs created within your organisational culture.  You can make it crystal clear who is who, what is what and how it all comes together to create better process that meets everyones' needs regardless of department or how long they have been in the organisation.

The Backburner

It's 2am, you've woken up and sat straight up in bed.  You've never felt this awake before, you have the most brilliant idea that is going to revolutionise your industry.  Eureka!  You look at the time and smile, settle back down and go back to sleep.

Next morning comes around.  You wake up, but not as awake as you were at 2am.  Then you remember, your innovative idea.  But the problem is, you don't quite remember.  And you are questioning if it really was as great as you thought it was.  You just don't know because you really don't remember the details all that well, just some vague outline of what it might have been about.

This happened to me all too many times.  Then I'd start to write them down because I was sick of forgetting the details.  I'd read in them in the morning and often found these ideas were reasonably sound.  However, the timing might not have been right or I didn't know the right people.  Then when the opportunity arose to use the idea, or I was looking for a new concept to pursue, the paper I had written it on was long since gone.

This led me to create a document called The Backburner.  This document contains short dot-points on ideas that I have from time to time.  When something comes to mind, or comes across my desk, it is noted in The Backburner - filed away for future reference.  I create this document for each new job and date each idea and reference it if it's not my own.  

This way, we can collect information for future processes.  We can make suggestions to clients further down the track, and we can capture what people say and credit those people for their suggestions.  This creates a holistic approach to not only BPM and the art of workflow and process mapping, it helps with any endeavour that needs an injection of innovative thinking.  The Backburner becomes your well of good ideas.

Authentic Customer Service: The process that produces warm fuzzies

We are fairly astute these days.  We can smell phony from a mile away.  One step away from what a company says compared to what they do is one step too many.  So how do companies create authentic customer service?  How do they produce that warm fuzzy feeling in clients and stakeholders?

I had the pleasure of meeting Chris Thomas a few years ago.  He was instrumental in the customer service strategy at Westnet, a well known Australian Internet Service Provider.  Westnet had taken a different tact with their customer service compared to their competitors.  If they said they would ring you back, then they rang you back when they said they would.  They didn't close a support request until you, the client, said it could be closed.  This experience was not unique, I had heard the same story again and again with friends and family.  I had even experienced their service first hand as a client.  When it came to doing what the staff said they would do, it was done.

Now, they just hired the same people that you and I hire for customer-facing roles.  Of course you look for a certain type of person that is friendly and has the ability to build rapport.  However, without processes that are backed by the company, good intentions is mostly what you get with this strategy.  And blame isn't solely with the staff, who are often trying their best to fulfill more than they can due to time constraints.  Processes and company buy-in to those processes is essential to give great and authentic customer service across all customer-facing staff.

What Chris said about getting management investment was eye-opening.  Instigating processes needed complete backing and this was hard slog.  The bottom line is... you are implementing processes that require more time and effort, and thus, more staff.  This is on the same number of clients and income.  You have to have a true believer leading this, and you need the measurements in place to show that the numbers work.  You have to give the numbers time to work too.  It's a leap of faith that everyone takes, but it has paid off for Westnet, in both awards and with real dollars and cents (they were purchased by a competitor because of their customer service standards).

So, what were the measurements that Chris and his team used.  In gaining feedback, there was one question they asked their clients that really mattered.  One question on which executives pay was based.  If you want to know about this one question, it's time to read the Harvard Business Review article from the December 2003 issue - "The one number you need to grow" by Frederick Reichheld.

So, today's lesson?  Have processes, humanise your processes, connect them from the top down for authenticity, and measure the results.  Why else would you have goals?  Authentic customer service is about knowing were you are going and how well you are growing.

I am the apple

Do you remember that Beatles Song, 'I am the Walrus'?  This song is the epitome of intellectual property and having "made it".  Lennon wrote it somewhere between an acid trip and a joke on himself.  He heard that they had started analysing Beatles lyrics in school and thought he'd throw some utter rubbish into a song and send them all chasing after the euphemistic white rabbit.  But you know it's true, you know you have made it when your IP is part of the subject matter at school or university. 

Hmmm... what has this got to do with process mapping, or with business for that matter?  Let me tell you a little story.  About 3 years ago I went looking for some insight into well run call centres.  Three of us went to visit centres from different industries and we talked to the managers about how they made it work.  This was very insightful, but the one that really stayed with me was a manager of a major call centre in the medical industry.  He pulled out file after file, graph after graph.  He had completely designed his own way of running a call centre.  Processes, procedures, measures and manuals.  He had created a complete methodology that he could carry from job to job.  

This caught my attention - that light-bulb moment happened.  What was before me was tried and tested Personal Intellectual Property.  Yes, the PIP.  He had got to the core of what worked and what could be replicated.  He'd spent years building a wealth of knowledge.  It just made sense to me.  You create and become known for what you have quietly been using and refining for years.  

I saw a future where employees will be hired on the basis of their PIP, to some extent it was already happening at board level, at executive level.  It wasn't being explicitly acknowledged as IP.  Building processes, procedures, measures and manuals for your expert area can become your PIP, what you are known for.  You can be the apple.