SYSTEMology (FULL AUDIOBOOK) How To Systemize Any Business — by David Jenyns

You are listening to the audio production of Systemology: Create Time, Reduce Errors, and Scale Your Profits with Proven Business Systems by David Jenyns, published by Systemology, and read by the author. That's me! Now, since you're listening to the audiobook, I'll do my best to describe all of the images, tables, and diagrams. These are also available through our resource section at systemology.com/resources.

Forward from the desk of Michael E. Gerber, author of the E-Myth books. I am Michael E. Gerber, and it didn't take much to convince me to write the forward to David Jenyns' new book Systemology. Indeed, all he had to do was ask, because David and I go back a ways. Digging deep into each other's work, passion, and most important, his integrity. David is a trustworthy man. Why is that important? Because David is also a systems thinker, a creator of the first order, an entrepreneur who has done what I've written about not once but several times. Creating small companies, going to work on those small companies, systemizing those small companies to prepare them to grow. But, and here's the most important thing about all this, to grow without David having to remain the chief cook and bottle washer responsible for every little wrinkle and widget, every single decision waiting desperately to be made. No, David built Systemology into every single one of his new ventures from the get-go, and that's why this book is so essential for you, because in this book David explains step by step by step by step exactly how you can do the very same thing. In short, David has built a system out of Systemology to make it literally impossible for a small growing entrepreneur like you to make the mistakes almost every small business owner is doomed to make, creating a business that's totally dependent upon them, which is really all I have to say about it. I invented working on your business instead of in it almost 43 years ago with my very first E-Myth book. And here I am telling you that David Jenyns has not only done it, but he's now written the brilliant book to teach you exactly how to do it too. Read it. Relish it. But most important, do it. It's the magical elixir for what ails you.

Introduction. Because this audiobook is a little bit different from most, I thought I best prepare you. Take a deep breath in. Hold for 3 seconds. Breathe out. Slip into the moment and listen to my every word. Imagine for a moment that the number one thought leader in your industry, the Oprah if you will, calls you out of the blue and asks you to join them right away on your dream project for 3 months. Could you do it? Could your business survive without you for that long? Could you risk downing your tools and jumping on board the opportunity of a lifetime? And could you have taken it on like an apprenticeship with no pay? A little over 3 years ago, I had an experience so strange that I knew it had to be real. The kind of scenario where I knew not even the oddest late-night cheese-and-pickle-sandwich-inspired fever dream I could conjure up what was currently happening. It was 7 AM and I was looking at an email I'd received from someone called Luz Delia Gerber. I didn't recognise the full name, but I was familiar with a certain Michael E. Gerber, author of the E-Myth series of books, the original of which is generally said to be one of the best-selling business books of all time. I figured it was just a coincidence. I'd never met Michael E. Gerber, and I had no relationship with anyone who knew him. But I had to know. All the email said was, 'Call me.' So that's what I did. It was an American number, and I knew it was in the afternoon on the West Coast, so it didn't matter that it was still early morning in Melbourne, Australia. I picked up the phone, and here's how the call went.

Morning.

Good morning. This is David Jenyns just calling up from Australia. I'm actually after Luz, I think it is.

Oh my God, is this the real David?

This is the real David. How are you?

Oh, I am— I just want to cry. Just hold on one second. Oh my God, you have no idea you're picking up the phone and calling me is doing to life, to yours and mine.

That's a good thing. I, um, yes, I, I know your, uh, your message came through late last night. I don't know if you know, uh, we're based in Australia, so that's why, um, yes, yeah, okay, that's, that's good.

I just finished watching your video. Oh, fantastic, one of them. And I was just now looking for it because I wanted to send it to my husband because I've, I've been in a journey this morning I mean, I'll tell you how I met you and how I found you, and— but it's all spiritual, it's all a journey. I'm on the path, and I just knew that I had to talk to you, like, now. I just had to have a conversation with you. Well, and then I did my writing and did everything else, and I just dared to say, call me now, I'll go to wherever you are, come here, I have to I need you. I have to talk to you.

So thank you.

I'm just trying to get over the shock.

But, um, what a great way to start my day. How can I help?

Do you know Michael Gerber? Do you know the name? Do you know his work?

If you're getting the sense that I was a little stunned by all of this, you're hearing it correctly. It was surreal, and not just because Luz Delia was talking to me as if I was the universe's gift to her. I was, and still am, a huge fan of Michael E. Gerber's work. If you've read any of his books, particularly in the E-Myth series, you probably know why. If you have yet to have had the privilege, I urge you to do so—after you've listened to this book, of course. Gerber is a legend. You know the popular business adage, "Don't work in your business, work on your business"? He came up with that. He's inspired millions of business owners around the world. And now I was speaking to his wife, and she was talking to me as if I was the answer to some cosmic prayer. Luz Delia and I had a long conversation, but the bottom line was that Gerber, at the age of 80, was getting ready to launch book number 29 and the final work in his E-Myth series. For the first time, he wanted to self-publish. The previous books were all published by HarperCollins, and he wanted someone to show him how to do it. Having followed the successful launch of my previous book, Authority Content, Luz Delia had decided that I was the person to head up the project. There was just one snag. It was going to take 60+ hours of work per week for a period of about 12 weeks. For 3 months, I was going to have to eat, sleep, and breathe the E-Myth. Which meant that all of my own personal projects and business responsibilities would have to be put on hold. Oh, and did I mention? I volunteered to do the job unpaid. What would you have done if you had been in my shoes? If Gerber had approached me 2 years before he did, I would have had to have declined the opportunity. 2 years ago, there wasn't a chance that I could walk away from my business for that long. I was too enmeshed in the day-to-day operations. Without me, there was no business, and I'd also have been risking not just my livelihood, but that of all my employees. Ironically, for all my appreciation of Gerber's work, I was doing exactly what he advised against: working in my business rather than on my business. Fortunately, it wasn't 2 years ago. This opportunity came along after I'd discovered and developed Systemology, and I knew for a fact that without me around, my business was going to be just fine. Systemology was handling my business with such efficiency I knew that I could leave it for 3 months and it would barely notice my absence. If anything, it would run smoother without me looking over everyone's shoulder. I worked on Gerber's project for 3 months. I wrote thousands of emails, made hundreds of phone calls, and lined up more interviews than you can poke a stick at. It was hard work, but it was simultaneously one of the easiest projects I have ever been involved in, simply because I had only to mention Gerber's name and people would fall over themselves in their eagerness to be involved. The short version of the story was that Gerber's 29th book became his first to be ranked as an Amazon bestseller within 24 hours of its launch. To celebrate, Michael invited me and a few of my friends who had helped out with the launch to attend one of his last events called the Dreaming Room in Carlsbad, California. I was then invited to stay on to facilitate a mastermind group dedicated to the future legacy of Michael's work. To top it all off, the Gerbers asked me if I'd consider running their business. I wasn't expecting that. I literally hadn't had any connection to the Gerbers 4 months earlier, and here I was now being offered the company I declined, with some difficulty, not because it wasn't a great offer, but because I am on my own path now. That, and there's no chance that my wife would move to America away from her family. Looking back now, this experience was nothing short of magical, and while there are probably hundreds of lessons I could share with you, I wanted to draw your attention to one in particular. Serendipity happens in business all the time. When Luz Delia contacted me, she did so because of the work I had done in my previous business, my digital agency, which you'll learn a little bit more about later. She had no idea that I was also working on Systemology and how it would align so perfectly with the Gerber Legacy. The fact is, business and life are nonlinear. That is, things don't always happen in a logical order or a straight line. There is a level of randomness that can't be easily explained. Oh, how we act as if it's a linear thing. We read books about success and seek to learn the secrets of how to be the greatest at this or the master of that. But knowledge only gets you so far. Success stories, for the most part, are just that—stories, narratives that people construct to try and explain why things turned out the way they did, by stripping out all the things that didn't work. The implication is that if someone follows the same journey minus the dead ends, missteps, and failures, rapid success is all but guaranteed. In reality, everyone's journey to success no matter how much someone might try to follow someone else's model, is unique, convoluted, and to a certain extent, random. Anything but linear. Sometimes you'll get up one morning and you'll have an email from a personal hero inviting you to come and work with them because you did X, Y, and Z, and their wife just happened to spot something you put out into the world. Opportunities rarely come at the end of a steady upwards curve. Success is lumpy, and opportunity knocks when you're least expecting it. Sure, you can lay the foundations, work hard, and prepare yourself, but your most significant opportunities won't be willed into existence by simple visualisation or by following a special formula. They're going to happen when they're going to happen, and the only thing, the only thing over which you have control is whether you're ready and available to seize them. What opportunities have you missed? Think about this for a minute. Not too hard, because it might depress you, but think about it. How many opportunities have already passed you by because you've been too swamped with the heaving mass of work that your business throws at you every day? I'm not talking about having to turn down opportunities because you were too busy. I'm talking about the opportunities that you didn't even notice because you barely had time to scoff down your lunchtime sandwich, let alone rise above the noise, study the big picture, and spot the big breaks that are in your periphery. That's where I was a few years ago, and if I hadn't found the motivation to change my chaotic existence, I would have had to tell Luz Delia and Michael E. Gerber that I simply wasn't available. Just the thought of that makes me feel sad. Now, I'm not sure where your headspace is at, at the moment. Maybe you're early in your career and you're looking to ramp things up, to make your business more efficient and to build it for scale. Maybe you're getting older and you want to reduce your working hours to improve your health, or maybe you just want to spend more time with your friends and family. Or maybe you're wanting to open up a world of new and exciting opportunities. Whatever the reasons for picking up this book, understand that the primary purpose of Systemology is to create space for the business owner. To systemize the business to the point where you can step away from the day-to-day operations and know with confidence that your business will continue to perform to your standards. You might have no desire to reduce your 100-hour work week, and you don't have to, but the reality is most business owners have crazy, work-their-fingers-to-the-bone schedules, not because they want to, but because they have to. They have no other option other than letting their business fall apart. Systemology gives you the freedom to choose. You should be able to have a choice in how you run your business. In it, out of it, 10 hours a week, 100 hours a week. Instead of your business forcing you to conform to its will, you should be able to shape your business to conform to your will. It will take time and effort and challenge many of your strongest beliefs about business, but trust me, It will be worth it. All your hard work, persistence, talent, and creativity will pay off eventually. It's just impossible to predict when those magical moments are going to strike. The fact is, all the best ideas, the biggest breakthroughs, and the most tremendous opportunities come when the business owner creates space. But you must learn to engineer this space. Systems hold the key. Is this book right for you? This book isn't about getting the right mindset. It will not help you to create your company purpose, vision, or mission. It won't help you to define your values, set your goals, or create a business plan. It won't help you identify your target audience, their problems, or how to get that product to market fit. If you haven't yet addressed these foundations of business, it's best you do that before you continue listening to this book. The good news is there are already plenty of great books that address these topics. This book aims to solve a different problem, one that presents itself a little further down the line when building your business. This problem arises after the business owner lays a good foundation and has achieved some level of traction. They have built a reputation for delivering great products and services, and this earns them repeat and referral business. The business has good cash flow, and from the outside looking in, they look like a huge success. But the hidden reality is that they work extremely long hours to keep their business functioning, The problem is, most small business owners can't afford to step away from their business for more than a day or two. They've built a machine that depends on them, and now they're stuck. Worse still, this is the inverse of what they were looking to achieve when they started their business, and it's a serious problem. Unfortunately, what makes this such a hard problem to solve is that the solution Lives in their blind spot. Typically, business owners are big picture people. They're quick-thinking problem solvers who focus on solving the most urgent problems. And while these skills are great while their business is in startup mode, the strengthening of these abilities often becomes the primary reason for not making it to the next level of business growth. If this sounds like you, you've probably reached the bridge that all business owners must cross, but the majority don't. You must learn to clone yourself and your best team members so that the business can grow without single-person dependency. You must evolve from being an employee of a business you own to a true business owner, the owner of a profitable enterprise that works without you. The solution to this problem lives in the development of your business systems. That is, the non-urgent but extremely important detail-oriented task of documenting, organising, and optimising how your business functions. Rarely do business owners get excited by the idea of documenting their systems, but having a business that works without your constant oversight That's a different story. Perhaps you've read the books like The E-Myth, Traction, Scaling Up, and Built to Sell, and you're already sold on the idea of creating systems. But like most busy business owners, you've either never really gotten around to it, or you've tried to systemise your business in the past and failed. So where is the solution for you and your small business? You might have read about Six Sigma and tried to apply it to your business, but found that there was too much bureaucracy and rigidity in that methodology. Maybe you have realised that the Lean methodology was developed for mass production facilities and doesn't suit your small business. Maybe you have looked into ISO accreditation and realised It's more about ticking boxes to say that you have systems within your business than having your team actually use them. You're not alone. To date, much of the work developed around the topic of business systems has been geared towards larger businesses. This sets small businesses up to fail right from the start, because these methodologies simply weren't designed for their size. They're complicated, costly, time-consuming, and the team doesn't follow them anyway. Small business is a different beast. There's little margin for error and no room for doing activities that don't dramatically impact your bottom line. The good news is this book contains the solution. It's a revolutionary new approach to business systemization It is, quite literally, the system for systemizing your business. Of course, if you're not the business owner, that's perfectly fine too. There's a good chance that you work with one, and someone you know has passed this book along to you. If so, I'm excited for you too, since, although you might not realize it yet, you're going to play a very important role in transforming the business you work in. At what stage is your business in terms of systemisation? To start, it's important to know where you are and where you're going. It sounds obvious, but with clear understanding, you're much more likely to reach the destination. Is your business's intellectual property trapped in the brains of your best team members? Are you super dependent on these few key team members? Are the rest of your team making things up as they go? Do you have any documented systems? And if you do, does your team follow your systems, or do you find yourself constantly reminding your team to follow them? Having worked with hundreds of companies over the years, I've found that companies typically find themselves in one of four stages. Stage number 1, survival. Stage number 2, stationary. Stage number 3, scalable. Stage number 4, saleable. These are the 4 stages of business systemization, and they're shown in the book with a graphic. You may want to look at the resource section a little bit later. I'll do my best to explain it here though. The 4 stages are displayed in a pyramid where stage 1 Survival is at the base level, and then each level builds upon the previous one to where you get to the top of the pyramid where you have saleable. I have a few arrows pointing away from the pyramid that identify either what's holding you in that stage or what helps you to move through that stage. Now, it's probably easier if I just talk you through each stage so you can understand where you are and how to move through. Stage number 1: Survival. At the base of the pyramid, survival mode is where most business owners start. The business owner is in an endless loop of chasing work, getting the work, and doing the work. This creates up and down performance with lumpy results. You're still figuring out how to get that product to market fit. You spend 80% of your time in problem-solving mode, and you're hustling your way through. You've got 1 million ideas, but the ability to only execute a handful of things at any one point in time. This means that you're trying a lot of new things, but you never really get to take anything all the way through to completion. Your team, if you have one, makes things up as they go. It's not clear who's doing what and when tasks are due. There are no systems or processes, and no one really likes them anyway. In short, this isn't a great state to remain in. The business owner is quite often the bottleneck in this stage, and there's no real insight that systems are the way, and that they, the business owner, are not the best person to develop them. More on this later. Stage number 2: Stationary. In the stationary stage, the ups and the downs have been smoothed out, and you're starting to see a little bit more consistency in the business. You have a loose way of doing things, but this is still typically trapped in the heads of your best team members. You may have a few documented systems, but they're more like unorganized notes scattered all over the place. This lack of systems certainty makes your business team member dependent. You don't have the right tools or software, so the performance of the small number of systems that you do have is average at best. This lack of clarity results in a lack of team buy-in. It often feels like the business owner is simply spinning plates. They create a to-do list for one of the team members and then move on to the next. One after the other, the business owner lists out what needs to be done. Once they're all the way through the team, they have to circle back around to the first team member because it's time to assign out new tasks. This cycle never ends, and the business owner often feels like they're just running an adult daycare center. Not to mention, the business owner rarely finds time to even do their own work. Obviously, this still isn't a great place to be since the business often feels stationary. You've reached capacity, and you can't seem to break through to that next level of business. To move beyond this stage, the secret is to extract and document your core systems. Stage number 3: Scalable. Once you've got a good amount of your core business systems documented, this is where things start to get interesting. You have now proven your core business model works. You still need to extract and organize systems from all the business departments, but you're well on your way. Systems performance has improved dramatically, and you're shifting the culture within your business. Your tools are clunky, and you still have to constantly remind your team to follow your process, but you've overcome any initial resistance. Now is the time to focus on increasing your business capacity by installing human resource systems, finance systems, and management systems. You also need to develop the ability to solve business problems well before they develop into more serious problems. A funny thing happens at this stage. People often reach this point and think things are good enough. They buy into this thought that we're doing okay. We have most of our systems documented. We're a systemized business. The truth is, good enough traps you. You don't want to stop here. The biggest wins and opportunities present themselves when you move through to the final stage. You want to move your team's thinking from "we have to follow process" to "this is how we do things here." Achieve this, and the magic happens. Stage 4: Saleable. The ultimate goal within business is is to have a saleable asset, to have a business someone else would want to buy. Don't get me wrong, whether you sell or not is your choice, but when your business is saleable, you operate at a different level. You recognize your business as a collection of interdependent systems that can be engineered to deliver extraordinary outcomes. In this stage, you will have a clear way of doing business. Your operations run with the precision of a Swiss watch, and your team upholds your systems-centered company culture. No longer are you dependent on specific team members for things to work. The systems work, and the people work the system. This is a different level of business where you're able to rise above the noise and be deliberate and strategic in the work you do. You can begin to optimise your performance. Once you reach this stage, systems become your competitive advantage, and you'll look for constant and never-ending improvement. At this level, you'll achieve what I call complete business reliability. Which stage are you in? There is no right or wrong here, it just is what it is. Typically, most people who listen to this book are in the Stationary Stage with one foot in the Survival Stage. But let's think about you and where you are. Does one stage jump out at you? And what does it feel like to be in that stage? Think about where you are and where you'd like to get to. It should be everyone's goal to move their business into the Saleable Stage. I mean, who wouldn't want complete business reliability? Just imagine what that will feel like when you reach that goal. What would it mean to you, to your business, to your family, and to your life? This book provides a proven step-by-step blueprint for moving from survival to saleable. Yeah, but my business is different. A quick heads up though: no matter how effective Systemology becomes, no matter how many businesses we revolutionise, or how many raving fans we create, it's natural to wonder, "Will this work for me?" Maybe you're thinking about that right now. This is normal. There's an old and rather depressing anecdote about a fully grown elephant held in place by a tiny stake in the ground. The elephant, if she chooses to, can escape with minimal effort. The only reason she doesn't is because the same slender stake was used to hold her in place when she was just a calf. She tugged and tugged on it when she was young and just a few feet high, but experience taught her to give up. The elephant doesn't remain in captivity because it's incapable. It remains in captivity because previous attempts discouraged it. It has learned helplessness. The truth is, this happens to all of us. So what are the stakes that hold you back in business? Have you tried to systemise in the past but failed? Are you worried systems and processes will remove the creativity within your business? Do you think that you need to be the one that creates the systems in your business? Do you believe that systemisation is too time-consuming? Do you suspect that even if you do put systems in place, your team won't follow them anyway? And finally, Do you believe that you need to systemise with the efficiency of McDonald's? These are all reasonable concerns, but don't let previous failed attempts fool you into thinking that systemisation won't work for you. I believed many of these myths too, and it wasn't until I challenged my thinking that I discovered that these ideas often stemmed from outdated information, methods designed for large corporate businesses, or ideas shared by gurus who didn't practice what they preach. Trust me, as you go through the Systemology process, you'll begin to test these assumptions and reach your own conclusions. One final word before we begin, and that word is patience. What makes systemization and installing a culture of systems thinking in your business especially challenging is that the beneficial effects aren't always felt instantly. And when the impact is finally felt, the results are so far-reaching that it can be hard to quantify the positive results in one or two key metrics. The impact is felt across the entire company. Other focus areas of business may provide rapid and obvious measurable benefits. For example, when you create a new ad campaign, you know very quickly whether or not you're generating leads or burning cash. If it's the former, you know you're doing something right and you double down. If it's the latter, you tweak things and you try again. It's a simple equation. The feedback is swift and the results can easily be translated into an appropriate action. What's challenging is that installing systems doesn't always provide that kind of instant feedback. There's often a noticeable lag to the results, and it may take weeks or even months before you can see their effects. That's not to mention that the real magic occurs even further down the line when you layer the positive effects of multiple systems, with each system saving you a little time here and a little extra efficiency there, Changing your company culture takes time, but when you add up all the wins, the breakthroughs are unparalleled. Your team and clients are happier, efficiency skyrockets, and most importantly, you win back hours, days, weeks, and months of your most valuable asset: time. As cliché as it is, I'm sure we'd all agree that time is your most valuable asset. Everyone has limited supply, and once it's gone, it's gone. So beware of chasing the bright shiny objects. While the appeal of the quick win is strong, it's rarely where you see the biggest returns. You need to go slow to go fast. It's this lag time that causes most people to lose their way and why Systemology requires counterintuitive thinking. It's going to require a lot of patience and the discipline to stay the course, but you will be well rewarded for your efforts. In time, everything will come together. Certain elements of your job will either take a fraction of the time that they used to take to complete, or you will delegate your responsibilities entirely. Before you know it, your business will consistently deliver its core products and services to a very high standard without your involvement. You will have created a scalable and saleable asset. The secret is to remove the biggest bottleneck within your business: you, the business owner. How Systemology works. Systemology is a 7-step process that is designed to identify and create the critical systems within your business. You'll learn to organize them, get your team to follow them, and continue to optimize them. Here are the 7 stages we'll work through. Now, there's a graphic here and I'll do my best to explain it. I want you to imagine a cog that has 7 segments. Each segment is effectively one tooth in the cog. This is the Systemology cog and it displays the 7 stages of Systemology. Working through all 7 segments, starting at the top and going clockwise. Stage number 1 is define. Stage number 2 is assign. Stage number 3 is extract. Stage number 4 is organize. Stage number 5 is integrate. Stage number 6 is scale. And stage number 7 is optimize. Again, you can get all the graphics and the resources at systemology.com/resources. Important note: The book itself includes an action plan so that at the end of every chapter you'll know exactly what to work on next. That said, if this is the first time listening to this audio, it is suggested that you listen to the entire book first before taking any action. This ensures you understand the complete methodology. You will recognize the order of the 7 stages is important, and while it has been designed to be implemented chronologically, some of the knowledge from later chapters will actually help you implement some of the earlier chapters. For example, in the integration stage, it's all about getting your team's buy-in to your new systemized way of doing business. Obviously, some of these strategies are going to be helpful in getting people involved in the earlier stages of extraction and organization. So listen through the book first, and then on your second time around, follow the action steps and start your implementation. It's time to dive in. Step 1: Define. Define chapter summary. The first step in Systemology is to reduce the overwhelm. In this chapter, we'll take the seemingly epic task of systemizing your entire business and identify the critical few systems. You don't need hundreds of them to systemize your business. You simply need to pick one target audience, one central product or service, and to define the critical client flow, or CCF for short. The goal of this chapter is to identify the 10 to 15 systems as your starting point for your systemization journey. Who knows, it may even open up your eyes to parts of your process that you never even considered. Highlights from this chapter include how and why systemology was born, what are business systems and why they matter, How overcomplicating systems can hold you back. How to quickly and easily identify the critical few systems that drive your business. The primary myth that I wanna bust in this chapter is that you're going to need to create hundreds of systems to systemize your business. I can think of a number of moments in my life that turned out to be far more impactful than I realized at the time. But one of the most relevant to the book that you're listening to right now was when my wife and I discovered that we were pregnant. Like most parents-to-be, it had a profound impact on my outlook on, well, pretty much everything. I was going to be a father. I was going to have a son. My son was going to have a father. All of which, now that I mention it, It doesn't really seem that profound. But at the time, it was like I was discovering that the world was secretly run by shape-shifting aliens. Everything looked and felt different. The lens through which I saw the world was completely new, and from that moment on, all of my experiences, plans and dreams and hopes were from an entirely different perspective. One of the first things that I realised was that I had to change my lifestyle. Obviously, it was going to change in many ways, whether I wanted it to or not, but I had some control over how I was going to react to those changes. And the biggest part of my life that I needed to adjust was my work life. At the time, I was running a digital agency called Melbourne SEO Services. We helped businesses with their online presence through things like search engine optimization, or SEO for short. We did paid advertising and content marketing. Like most agencies, we worked with a lot of different clients in many different industries. So we depended on a high level of campaign customization. I've been working in that business for over 10 years, and at that point, I was working at least 60 to 70 hours a week. I was trapped on the hamster wheel of finding new clients, delivering for clients, maintaining relationships, and then circling back around to find new clients again. Each part of my job was critical and required my constant attention. But now, how could I possibly spend that number of hours at the office and still have time to be there for my boy? I didn't want to be one of those dads who was always too busy. Too busy to walk my son to school, too busy to watch his footy games, too busy to help him with his homework. Even if I shifted my office and worked primarily from home, the number of hours I would need to put into my business wouldn't change significantly. I'd be physically present, but mentally absent. Which, in my mind, amounts to pretty much the same thing. On top of all of that, I was incredibly stressed out most of the time. My role in the business was such that it literally couldn't work without me. I had plenty of great employees doing fantastic work, but I was the one who held it all together. It was like the business was a huge clockwork machine, and I was the cog in the middle that kept all the different elements connected and moving. I enjoyed the work, and I was, and still am, proud of what the digital agency produced for its clients. But it placed a lot of pressure on me, and frankly, I didn't want my son to grow up in a house with an absent father. It wasn't even a question. Somehow, I had to change the way in which I did business. At the time, our being pregnant didn't present itself as an opportunity to change and improve my business. It was an opportunity to find a new kind of happiness and grow a warm, loving family home where business was going to take a back seat to those priorities. But with the wonder that is hindsight, I now realise that without that motivation to significantly change my work situation, and to do so quickly, I might still be working those crazy hours, moving ever closer to a life of high blood pressure and burnout. Being pregnant became a defining moment in my life, and as it turned out, for my business too. You've heard it said that necessity is the mother of invention. Well, for me, fatherhood necessitated invention. I literally had to invent a way to build a business that worked without me. You might think that the obvious answer would be to simply sell my business, downsize it, or even start from scratch with something simpler and less time-intensive. Yet, I wasn't ready to let go of what I'd built up over the course of 10 years. And even if I did want to sell my business, I'd have a hard time doing so, No one would be keen to purchase a business that was entirely dependent on the person who's leaving. I would first need to restructure the business so it could function without me at the helm, which would solve my problem anyway. That was the ideal scenario. I keep my business and the income it provides, but I reorganize and systemize my business so that I don't need to be involved in it on a daily basis. Was such a thing even possible? If you're the critical cog in your business, you know only too well how difficult such an endeavor looks at first, second, and even third glance. When you're an entrepreneur who builds up a business from the ground up, so much of the operations relies on your specific talents that it initially seems like an impossibility that it could run without you. That was my point of view as well. What would it take for me to engineer such a paradigm shift? And exactly how long would it take to even accomplish such a feat? As it turns out, it took around 12 months. By that time, I'd systemized almost all the key elements of my business and hired a CEO to replace me at the top of the business. I'm still involved in the sense that I meet regularly with my replacement to discuss any issues and make suggestions on critical issues, and while I prefer my CEO to make almost all the key decisions, when it's absolutely necessary, I reserve the right to have the final say. My involvement with the business is about as minimal as it can possibly be, and it all happened before my son was more than a few months old. Critically, the whole operation has proved to be sustainable. I work from home, primarily on my new business venture, of which Systemology is just one element. And if one of my kids—yes, I have two of them now—wants to knock at the office door and tell me about their day, or ask me to go outside to play catch, that's absolutely fine. They often make cameo appearances in my Zoom meetings and can be heard in the background of my podcast episodes. This is the life I've shaped for myself. Like I said, the right motivation is a powerful factor. Achieving the same results in your business might take a little longer, or if you have the right incentives and a solid plan, you might be able to accomplish this a lot faster. But for now, just know that no matter how entrenched in your business you may feel yourself to be, Systemology will help you find the freedom you've been looking for, or maybe the freedom you need. So that's your first step in applying Systemology to your business. Get pregnant. Actually, no, don't do that. I mean, do it if you want to. Being a parent is endlessly rewarding, but don't get pregnant just to create motivation. For most people, I would imagine that the prospect of a better functioning business, a reduction in work and stress, and the potential to extract yourself from the operations or even sell the business is motivation enough. Your first real step is to begin to get clear on what's holding you in the business. In Michael E. Gerber's original book, The E-Myth, he explains the entrepreneurial myth. The false belief that most small business owners hold that just because they understand the technical work of a business, they can successfully run a business that does that technical work. The truth is, there's more to running a business than just doing the technical work. There are sales, marketing, financials, human resources, and management, and that's just to name a few. That's what makes business so challenging. Moreover, at every turn, the business owner is solving problems, and as a result, they end up getting really great at problem solving. The trap is that this skill of problem solving then leads to the business owner unconsciously training their team to become dependent on them. Instead of empowering their staff to solve problems, They're the knight in shining armour who always saves the day. This in turn makes them even better at problem solving and causes the team members to become even more dependent. It's a horrible cycle that's almost impossible to break. So how the heck do you remove a business owner from a business that's so dependent on them? What's the secret? The secret is systems. What is a system? A system, also known as a process, a procedure, a standard operating procedure, SOPs, work instructions, a how-to document, or workflow, all it is is a series of linear steps that when followed produces a predictable outcome. This definition works on the smallest level, where a system may be a detailed step-by-step instruction, all the way up to a high-level system that shows you how the overall project fits together. A system may be unconscious and undocumented, but it still has a series of moves that produces a result. Whether you're aware of it or not, we all have systems that we create and use in different areas of our life. We may not be aware of the existence of those systems, but that doesn't make us immune to their results. For example, if we have poor health systems, we end up eating junk food and we don't exercise. Over a period of time, you will become overweight, whether or not we knew this was going to be the outcome or not. In short, not knowing will not save you. In business, it's the same. Poor recruiting systems will lead to staffing issues. Poor financial systems will lead to cash flow issues. And poor marketing systems will cause poor lead flow. All problems within business are ultimately caused by poorly performing systems. And the first step to improving them is to become aware of their existence. Keep your systems simple. Systemology is built on the foundation of keeping things simple. We start by breaking your business down into its component parts, identifying the critical points, and then building those core components into simple systems. The key to making this work is simplicity. You're not a Fortune 500 company, you don't have hundreds of staff, and you don't win any awards for making your business more complex than it needs to be. To remind you to keep it simple, I will sometimes use the word overview to stop you from going too granular. For example, as part of Systemology, you'll create an overview system to outline the high-level steps in the delivery of your product or service. This will typically include smaller steps and components. It may be supported with a range of more detailed how-to documents. It might include more than one person, and it may have a time delay between steps. But remember to view it as an overview. So just capture the top level and keep it simple. If you're a detail-oriented person, or worse, a perfectionist, your challenge at this stage is to hold yourself in check and avoid getting too granular. My epiphany on the subject came from a good friend of mine by the name of Mike Rhodes. He's a former E-Myth coach, owns a company called WebSavvy, and is a super sharp guy. He's a lover of systems and really learnt the value of a systemised business when he sold his first business an internet cafe in New Zealand. Mike had created a manual that described in every detail how to manage the business and keep it running smoothly, so that when he eventually found a buyer, he was able to get top dollar for it. It was an easier and more profitable sell because the new owner knew that the business would still be able to operate when Mike was no longer running it. After selling up, he moved to Australia and started a new life and business. Through Mike's work as an E-Myth coach, he fell in love with the power of Google advertising and set up a business to help companies leverage this opportunity. He continued to create systems and processes for the new business, except this time he decided to go all out. He documented every aspect of his business and literally created hundreds of systems. He even created an index of all of these systems that he stuck to the wall of his office. We shared an office space for a while, and I used to look through the window and see this great big wall of systems. There were pages and pages, and each line represented a system with its own unique steps and processes. He wanted everyone to see it as a reminder that they were only a few steps away from finding the relevant system for their job. Job at hand. Sounds like a good idea, right? But in reality, it bombed. It was just too overwhelming. Employees couldn't make any sense of it, and in addition, because the business was centered around digital marketing, his systems were prone to change on almost a daily basis. And as you could imagine, keeping it up to date was an almost impossible task. This taught me and Mike a really valuable lesson about systemising a business. Don't over-document your business. Just as in many areas of life, the Pareto principle, sometimes called the 80/20 rule, applies here. This is a well-established theory by an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who found that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. For instance, many businesses, when they look closely, discover things like 80% of their leads come from 20% of their advertisements, and 80% of their sales come from 20% of their best salespeople. 80% of client complaints come from 20% of their client base. And finally, 80% of all sick days are taken by 20% of their employees. Once you're aware of this principle, you'll start to see it at work everywhere, and business systems are no exception. Just 20% of the systems you create will provide 80% of your efficiency wins. How do you identify the critical few systems? Bearing in mind that one of the primary objectives of Systemology is to have your business deliver its central product or service independent of the business owner, do you think that you could explain how the core of your business works on the back of a napkin? Do you know the minimum viable systems required to consistently bring in new business, to convert leads into clients, and then to also deliver your products and services? If not, don't worry. In Systemology, this is step number 1, and we have a process—surprise, surprise—to uncover those core systems. It's called the Critical Client Flow, and it takes about 20 minutes to complete. It identifies the critical few and provides tremendous insight. Through this process, you'll see the holes within your business, and it will help you develop laser-like focus on what needs to be systemized. To be clear, you will not need to create anything new at this stage. You're merely uncovering what you're already doing in a format that is frequently eye-opening. To understand the concept, all you need to do is to recognize that there is a path that your client and business follows to deliver your core product or service. We'll use a simple template to help you identify this flow. Head to systemology.com/resources and download the CCF template. Print it out and start at the top, and let's work through it together by filling in the blanks. I'll do my best to explain the template here. It starts off by identifying your target client and one singular product or service. Working down the left-hand side of the page, there are the headings: Attention, Inquiry, Sales, Money, Onboarding, Delivery, and Repeat. On the right-hand side of the page, there are empty boxes for you to fill in that correspond to those different stages and what you're currently doing in your business. Step number 1: Identify one primary target client and one primary product that you sell to that client. At its core, business is about solving problems, and you're rewarded for solving those problems. Therefore, the first step is to be really clear about the problem you're solving and for whom you're solving it. Yes, I know, it's true, very few businesses have a single target client, let alone a single product or service. Some, particularly those selling physical products, might even have hundreds or thousands of products. Even if you have a service-based business, you probably have a range of services you provide to a variety of different people. So systemizing every potential scenario, obviously that's gonna feel like a daunting task. That being the case, for our very first step, we're going to select just one. Regardless of how your business is structured, regardless of the industry in which it operates, pick just one target client and one product or service. Which one do you pick? Well, start by thinking about your dream clients. The ones that you enjoy working with the most, the ones who pay your advertised prices and are happy to refer friends and family. Next, pick the product that would be the best starting point for that client. Ask yourself, what is a great first purchase for that client? Which one is going to open up the door for you to continue working with them long-term? Now, I know for many, the idea of picking just one target client and one product feels like you're closing yourself off to other opportunities. However, I'm not suggesting that you stop all other lines of business. Remember, this is just an exercise, and starting with one client and one product ensures you stay focused. We can't systemize everything on day one, but we can start by systemizing your critical client flow. And if you're not yet clear on the problem your product or service solves and for whom, It's best to figure that out first. Systemology is about cloning what's already working within your business, so you need to be clear on where your sweet spot is located. Here are a couple of examples of what you're looking for. If you are a bookkeeper, your target clients might be farmers, and your primary service is an initial financial audit. If you run a digital agency, maybe you serve franchisors and your primary service is building them a new website. If you're a rock and roll music clothing store, you may target teenagers who like rock music and your primary product is a heavy metal t-shirt. Just focus on one central client and one primary product or service. Once you're clear, fill in the blanks at the top of your worksheet. Step number 2: Define your critical client flow. There are key stages your clients and business go through to deliver your core product. From how you first get the attention of your target clients, through to delivering your product to them, and hopefully turning them into repeat clients. The CCF identifies this as a series of linear events. Note: the difference between a CCF and a typical client journey is that it also focuses on the requirements of the business to deliver the product. If you already have your customer journey mapped out, that's great. No doubt it's going to help you complete the CCF, but They're not the same thing. Of course, every business is going to have a slightly different series of steps, but broadly speaking, they'll include most or all of the components below. Your job is just to fill in the blanks. Before we begin, there are just 3 rules I want you to keep in mind. Number 1: Don't overthink this. Number 2: Don't go into detail. 2 or 3 words to label each step is all you need. And number 3, only populate the CCF with the activities that you are currently doing. Let's look at each component starting from the top. Attention. How do people learn about your business? Traffic from Google? Pay-per-click ads? Podcast advertising? Direct mail? Speaking engagements? Referrals? There are literally hundreds of ways to generate new business, But as you go through the CCF, the question is, how are you currently doing it? Avoid filling in the blanks with things that you would like to be doing. Just list the primary methods of getting your prospects' attention. Moving down the template, the next is inquiry. When someone is ready to inquire about your products, how do they do it? Is it through an inbound call? Or do they submit an enquiry through the web, or both? Next, sales. Your prospect has shown some interest in your wares, and now they're primed to become a client. What happens next? Do they bring the item up to the checkout counter? Do they add items to their online shopping cart and then click the checkout button? Or do they call you up and make an appointment, Do you issue proposals? How do you close the sale? Just name the typical process, keeping in mind that this exercise is for one core product being purchased by one specific client. Don't try to describe every possible sales process. Next, money. How do you collect payment? This could be an easy step—cash or card? Or, if you're a service provider, you might invoice before the work is carried out, or afterwards, or a combination of the two. Next, onboarding. How do you get your clients started? This could be as simple as putting the goods in a bag, or it could be an in-depth onboarding process involving questionnaires and setting up projects in project management software and assigning it to an account manager. With service-based businesses, you might find it helpful to identify how new client projects are set up, as opposed to how you deliver the actual work. This ensures that nothing is missed, expectations are set, and there's a smooth transition from the sales team through to the operations team. You could probably list a whole bunch of systems here, but keep it simple. Don't list more than 1 or 2 steps. We'll build up the details later in the process. Next, delivery. How is the work completed? A physical business might just involve handing the product over, but an e-commerce operation could involve ordering stock, checking it off, packing it up, shipping it out. For a service-based operation, a bookkeeper for instance, this might include how you extract the initial data from a client client's accounting software, to how it's interpreted, and then how it's delivered to the client. Sometimes this step in particular gets people's minds racing as they think about the multitude of steps in the process. Rest assured that we're gonna capture all of these details later. For now, just keep it simple. Next, repeat or referral. Last but not least, How do you go about encouraging clients to either remain a client or come back again to make additional purchases? If you're in the business of selling coffins or some other product where they usually only make a one-time purchase, think of it in terms of referrals. How do you encourage your clients to send you new business? And that's it. You've made it to the end of the template. As you can imagine, it's going to be infinitely easier for you to work from a printed-out version of this template. So go ahead, download a copy and fill it out. I always find it easier to write out the whole process by hand using the worksheet. The goal is to break your business down into the linear steps that your clients move through when working with your business. It should consist of no more than 7 to 12 steps. There's a good chance you'll experience some aha moments as you go through this exercise, because it often highlights areas of weakness and helps to explain why certain issues appear within your business. By capturing only what it is that you're actually doing, any holes may become immediately apparent. If you have trouble creating consistent leads, for example, it's probable that you don't have multiple methods for gaining your clients' attention. If you're having cash flow issues, you may have poor invoicing systems. If you have trouble with clients who constantly follow up and micromanage you and your team, You probably have a poor onboarding sequence that fails to set the right expectations. These insights will guide you in later chapters on where to focus. But for now, we're just concentrating on how your business currently operates. It's not a problem if you have to massage the CCF to suit your situation. I know every business is a little bit different, and there's no one-size-fits-all. As long as tweaking the template doesn't involve blowing things up to more than a dozen steps, you'll be just fine. If you have ended up with more than 12 steps, have another go at creating something shorter and more concise. You could, for instance, combine some of the steps together, especially if they're being carried out by the same person or department. As an example, if you own a retail store where there isn't really a separate onboarding stage for new clients, This could be combined with the delivery step. The goal, ultimately, is to explain in simple terms how your business works from start to finish in a linear fashion. Step number 3: Share your completed CCF. You can then test your result by sharing your creation with someone outside of the business. Preferably someone who knows roughly what your business does, but isn't directly involved. If you can show them your CCF and they can understand it without you having to talk them through the steps in great detail, then you're in good shape. If they find your creation too confusing or too complex, have another go and simplify further. Here are a few sample CCFs to give you some ideas. I'll describe them here, but you can download them later so you can see the visuals. The first one I'll talk you through is the critical client flow for Melbourne SEO Services. That's the digital agency that I own. Looking at the template in the top left-hand corner, we'll focus in on the target client, which is franchisors. Then the product that I want to focus in on for this critical client flow is our authority websites. Now I'll walk you through each of the different stages. So the first one is attention, and we generated attention for that product through search engine optimization, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and some speaking engagements. The next line down was the inquiry. When someone was ready to inquire about our services, they would send us an email or they would fill out a form on the website to get us to contact them, or they'd pick up the phone and give us a call. Then the next step down was the sales stage. Now we had a few sequences in that step. We had a discovery session where we learned a little bit more about their position and their situation and what it was that they were looking to achieve. We would then issue a proposal and then we would follow them up once we'd sent that proposal over. Now, when they were ready to take that next step, we moved to the money stage. Now, we would invoice 50% of the job upfront, so we'd issue that invoice at that moment before we started work. Then the next stage would be to onboard them. Once they'd gone ahead and paid the invoice, we'd set them up inside our project management platform. Then we'd move to the delivery stage, the doing of the work, the actual building of the website. And then the final stage right at the bottom of the page was our repeat. How would we offboard a client once we'd built a website for them to find out how else we could help them? What other products and services could we offer? Now, our next example is for Medibooks. They provide bookkeeping services to medical practitioners. Again, looking at the template, the target client were doctors and the primary service was practice health checks. The way that, that business gained the attention of their target audience was through a relationship that they would build up with other accounting firms. They also exhibited in different expos and they ran Google Ads as well. Typically, the inquiries would come through their website or by someone picking up the phone and giving them a call. Then they'd progress to the next stage, the sales stage, where they would have a discovery session. They would then email the proposal, and then they would follow up with that lead until they closed the sale. Then they'd move on to the money stage. They would invoice the client, and that's what would kickstart the project. Once paid, they'd moved into the onboarding stage where they would set up the client inside their project management platform and they'd have another meeting to make sure they had everything that they needed. Then they would move into the delivery stage, which is the actual doing of the work. The report would be created and it would be delivered. Finally, they would move to the repeat stage. This was all about finding out what ongoing products and services that they could offer to the client to keep them as a long-term client. The final example of this critical client flow is for a company called Planet 13, where the target audience was teenagers who liked alternative music. And the product that they were selling, the primary one anyway, was a rock and roll-inspired band t-shirt. The way that that business got the attention of their target audience was to run magazine ads. They ran Facebook ads and they sponsored gigs. Their clients just made inquiries by walking into the store. And the sales process, it started off by asking questions and then getting those people into the change rooms and then trying to upsell them to buy other products. The next stage to collect the money, that was just at the cash register when someone pulled out their wallet and it was time to pay. There was no onboarding process. And when you think about the delivery stage, that was just about packaging up the product, putting it in a bag and giving it to the client. Now the final stage, the repeat stage, was all about getting the person onto Planet 13's database, getting their name and email so that they could continue to communicate with them and encourage them to come back. The last example might sound a little bit odd, but it's actually the CCF that I would have created if I still owned Planet 13. The rock and roll music-inspired clothing store that was one of my first business ventures. It might not fit the template perfectly. It might not have an in-depth sales system or invoicing system or even a delivery system. But there still was a system that could be documented. Before you jump in and think, "Yeah, but my business is different," let me agree, yes it is. However, every business has a critical client flow. I've never once, over the years of helping hundreds of businesses perform this exercise, found a business where I couldn't identify their CCF. Remember, one client, one product, one journey. Document that, and you have your CCF. It doesn't need to be perfect, and it doesn't need to be all-inclusive. It just needs to exist and provide some focus into how your business delivers value through to your clients. And the really exciting thing is, once you systemize this, you're well on your way to solving your target clients' problems without key person dependency. This is also the first step to dramatically increasing your capacity and ability to create a scalable money machine. Yes, there will be a range of other systems that we'll look at a little bit further down the line. But the CCF strikes right at the heart of the myth that you will need to create hundreds and hundreds of systems to build a systemised business. This is a false belief, and the fact is you will get tremendous wins by focusing on just the critical few. Would it be helpful to watch a live creation of the CCF? Watch Nick Griffiths from Medibooks an Australian-based bookkeeping firm, as he walks through the creation of his. Sometimes all it takes is seeing someone else follow the process for you to get it. Head to systemology.com/resources. Case study: Ecosystem Solutions. Gary McMahon founded Ecosystem Solutions in 2005. The small business helps a range of clients from governments and corporations to families in the highly specialised niche of ecological consulting. Demand grew very quickly. The company's success came at a steep cost to Gary though. Years of working 100 to 110 hours per week jeopardised his health, his relationship with his family, and the quality of his work. He hired staff and tried to expand to lighten the load, but he was still going at the same rate. He was the quintessential bottleneck in his business. Every tool and all the training he could find didn't help either. Nothing solved his problem. He knew he needed to do something and even had an inkling that it had something to do with systems. He just didn't know what. This is my only hope, he said as he came across Systemology. He fell in love with the promise of complete business reliability. Surely this was his golden ticket. He began implementing the steps one by one. CCF especially was a game changer, allowing him and his team to visualize the bottlenecks. He eventually used his CCF to onboard new staff and create a cohesive brand identity. Through implementing the Systemology approach, profitability increased approximately 80%. And his greatest win? A 3-week holiday with his family for the first time in his entire working life. When asked what it means to him to have a systemised business, Gary said, "Peace of mind. It's like I've lost 50 kilos and I've got a life. It's really bizarre." Today, Gary can leave for a training or a family day on any day of the week and trust that his team can handle everything while he's away, probably even better than if he did the work himself. Define action steps. Download the Critical Client Flow template from systemology.com/resources. The 3 steps covered in this template include: Step 1: Identify one primary target client and one primary product you sell to that client. Step 2: Define your critical client flow. And the final step, Step 3: Share your completed critical client flow. Step 2: Assign. Assign chapter summary. The second step in Systemology is to recognize that the knowledge of how to do a task to a great standard already exists within your team. In this chapter, you will locate the knowledge and, where possible, take the business owner out of the equation. The fact is, if you're serious about removing key person dependency, it's time to assign the responsibility of systems development to capable team members. Highlights from this chapter include: why the business owner is typically the worst person to develop systems and processes, how to quickly and easily create a systems development action plan detailing who is doing what by when, why modeling your best team members is the best kept secret to rapid systems development. The primary myth that I wanna bust in this chapter is that the business owner is the only one who can create the systems. Many business owners believe that for something to be done right, they have to do it themselves. The truth is, if you're the only person who can do a task, there's something wrong with the way your business is built, and you've fallen into a trap. You must keep pushing yourself to evolve through this trap. I still occasionally fall into the trap myself. I freely admit that I'm a recovering micromanager. In my old business, the digital agency, I learned to put good people in charge and let go. But in my newest business, it's become easy to slip back into old habits, especially when it's something that I'm really passionate about. Case in point, I was preparing a workshop for some of my clients, and I decided to check over the room that we had booked for the event. I just wanted to get a feel for the room and visualize how everything would come together. Now, when I arrived, I started to panic that the space we'd been assigned was too small for the number of people we were expecting. Bear in mind that it was a Friday, and the event was taking place the following Wednesday. The venue had told me that all the other rooms had been booked and I'd have to wait until Monday to chat with our events contact. Guess what I did? I went into full-on stress mode. I was calling different team members, I was sending emails and texts. Things aren't right, it's going to be too crowded, we're not going to have enough seats to be able to seat everybody. When I got home, my wife tried to reassure me that we'd find a way to make it work. But I'd already sent out all of the messages and I'd worked myself up. Monday morning rolled around and I got an email from the team member that was managing the event on my behalf. Even before I'd sent my panicky emails, they'd already spotted the large attendee numbers and had arranged for us to be moved into a bigger room. All the while I was getting myself all worked up, sending out emails and messages to my team and interrupting their Friday evening, when everything was already taken care of. This isn't me saying that the answer is to stop caring and paying attention to detail. This is just me sharing how often business owners can get in the way of good team members and processes, and then unnecessarily complicate things. Once you get to a point where you're no longer at the heart of the business, interfering with those daily operations is rarely a good idea. With the benefit of hindsight, what I should have done was to send one text to the person on my team who was in charge of that event, and then I could just let them handle it. In this case, they would have just let me know that it was already taken care of. Case closed. How about you? Do you believe that for things to be done right, that you need to be involved? It's okay to admit it. That's the first step to recovery. Take it from someone who's already wrestled with this idea over the years. You might not be the best person for this job. When systemising businesses, it's a common misconception that it's the business owner who will need to be the one creating the systems because they know how they want things done. One of the many problems with this type of thinking is that systems, as we all know, are really important but they're never urgent. So, like all non-urgent tasks, no one ever gets them done. The truth is, the business owner is typically the worst person to be documenting systems. Ah! Breathe a sigh of relief. That's good news for just about every small business owner on the planet. Let's break this habit right now of thinking we need to be the one doing everything ourselves. There are plenty of knowledgeable people you work with who might, at the very least, be able to start the process. So let me ask you, what would you do if you had to systemize your business without heavy involvement of the business owner? It's time to identify the key departments the key team members within those departments, and where the knowledge already resides within your business. Once we know who has the knowledge—avoiding the business owner wherever possible—it's simply a matter of capturing what they're already doing. Your business is already functioning, so we're not looking to reinvent the wheel here or craft the perfect process right from day one. We simply wanna capture what is already being done well. Huge wins can be gained by creating consistency within your team. To do this, we need to create your Departments, Responsibilities, and Team chart, DRTC. It's a little bit like creating an organization chart, except not really. If you already have an organization chart, You can use it to help, but we're actually creating something much simpler. The purpose of the CCF and the DRTC are to give you some focus and pin down who we need to work with to extract the knowledge we need. The DRTC sits nicely alongside your CCF. And as with the previous step, try not to overthink this task or get too bogged down in those details. I know I've said it before, and I can't say it enough: complexity is the enemy of systemization. You may even hear this little voice in your head trying to convince you that what you've created is too simple to work effectively. Ignore that voice. Stick to the path, and you'll get the results you're looking for. Head to systemology.com.au. Www.qld.gov.au/resources and download the Department's Responsibilities and Team Chart (DRTC) template. Now there's another graphic here, and I'll do my best to explain it. This one is a spreadsheet with 7 cells across and 14 cells down, where the headings Departments, Responsibilities, and Team are each separate headings within the first column, The other cells are empty since that's what you're going to fill in as we work through this template. I'll talk you through each of those headings now. Step number 1: Identify key departments. We begin by dividing your business into departments and listing them along the top of the worksheet. Think about how your business might be described based on the different functions that make it work. For example, marketing— that covers all of the systems related to new leads and prospects and how you generate them for your business. This is how you gain the attention of your target audience. Next, sales— this covers all of your systems related to how your prospects are then converted into your paying clients. Next, we have operations. This covers everything to do with how your product is created and then delivered for your clients. Next, finance. This covers all the aspects of the money moving in and out of your business. Then we have human resources, or HR. This covers everything to do with attracting, hiring, onboarding, and managing staff. And then lastly, management. This covers all of the systems for the strategic direction, the goal setting, and the leadership of your team. Now, don't get hung up on the details, such as whether some departments should be listed individually or combined. For example, maybe you'd like to put sales and marketing together, or maybe you'd like to create an additional department like administration or stock ordering. It really doesn't matter because we're not setting anything in stone here. Similarly, with your naming, go with whatever makes sense for your business. Some people call their operations 'client fulfilment', while others call it 'delivery'. Just go with your gut instinct, and once you have a list, write it out along the top row of this worksheet. And if you're not sure, just use the ones I've listed above. Cross-check your CCF to make sure that all the steps you've identified have a department that they would clearly fit under Here are a typical set of departments: marketing, sales, finance, operations, HR, and management. Step number 2: Assign the responsibilities of each department. At this step, we're pretty much just breaking down every stage of the CCF and then assigning it to a department. There's no rocket science here. Again, adhere closely to your CCF and list those steps in the relevant columns. For example, on your CCF, you might have identified a few methods to capture your audience's attention: SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, speaking. Just list those under the marketing column. Here's an example from my digital agency. In the next column along after marketing, I have sales. That would include the web or phone inquiry, the discovery session, the proposal, the follow-up, and your off-boarding call. The next column along would be Finance, and that would just have our invoicing. The next column along would be our Operations, which would include the responsibilities of project setup and building websites. Now the final two columns, HR and Management, at the moment there are no systems that come from the critical client flow, so they're just empty. So now we can move to step number 3: assign department heads. At this stage, you're looking for people within your team to take ownership of each department. As I said earlier, this isn't an organisational chart, and its primary purpose is to help with the systemisation of your business. That said, if you already have an organisation chart, that's great! Just use your previously assigned department heads. And if you don't have one, that's fine too. A department head is simply the person who will take ultimate responsibility when decisions around that department need to be made. List the name in the row marked 'Team'. It's perfectly fine if some people are the heads of more than one department. For very small businesses, this is a given. That said, if you find that the business owner's name is listed at the top of most or all of the departments, This could mean one of two things. Either you're desperately in need of Systemology, or you're not quite ready to systemize. For Systemology to have a marked impact on your business, you need to have at least a few team members or contractors with whom you're working with on a regular basis. This ensures this whole process doesn't fall on the shoulders of the business owner, and that you'll ultimately get some leverage from the systems you end up creating. If you're still a one-man band, it's best to focus on perfecting your messaging, getting clients, and then building a reputation for delivering great results for your clients. This will allow you to build a small team before you build out your systems. Systemology will replicate what's already working, but first you have to get some traction. Now, if you already have a team And you still find that the business owner is the head of almost all of the departments? That's okay too. We'll work on this. For now, just be aware that the goal we're working towards is to remove them from those key positions. As before, capture things as they are, not how you would like them to be. Step number 4: Identify additional knowledgeable workers. Next up, for each department, brainstorm any other what we'll call knowledgeable workers. I did the little quotes there if you could hear it. Clearly, your department heads are knowledgeable, but chances are they're also busy. So, it's good to know who else holds the knowledge within your organisation. For example, under your marketing department, you might have identified one of the critical responsibilities as handling incoming enquiries. If you have an admin person who answers the phone and directs your inbound email inquiries to the relevant person, they would be identified as a knowledgeable worker and should be listed here accordingly. Note: You don't have to list every team member here, just those with critical knowledge or expertise that is directly involved in the systems you've identified in your critical client flow. Once you've finished this task, you should have a list of team members who are going to be vital when it comes to extracting and developing developing your systems. Who knows, some of these team members could also be candidates for eventually leading a department. Step number 5: Assign critical systems to knowledgeable workers. Great, you're almost there. You now know where the most critical knowledge is stored inside your business. In this step, we're going to turn this into an action plan listing the key systems and the individuals that are best placed to help you develop those systems. This step is best explained by looking at the worksheet, and I'll share with you my pre-populated example. The graphic, it's just another spreadsheet with the headings: Department, System Name, Description, and Knowledgeable Worker. Transfer all of the key data that you've already populated into this part of the worksheet. You wanna copy over the departments, system titles, and a sentence or two that gives some detail about what you imagine the system would cover. Avoid the temptation of writing loads of details here. This will come later. You're just looking for a brief description, not more than a few sentences or so, of what the system is intended to achieve. This might be one of the hardest parts of this step, because deciding what is and what isn't critical is really difficult. If, for instance, one of the key tasks for getting attention is looking after your social media accounts, there might be dozens of different jobs connected to this, and they might all seem essential. It'll be tempting to just throw your hands up and list them all out, but this isn't going to help your cause. It's possible that eventually you will end up systemising all aspects of this task, But right now, you've gotta decide what is the 20% that makes all the difference. Remember, not systemising a job doesn't mean it's going to suddenly stop happening within your business. All of those social media tasks will keep getting completed, just as they already are now. This process simply identifies one or two critical systems that are central to those particular responsibilities. For instance, continuing with the social media example, perhaps identifying, creating, and scheduling regular posts to keep your pages active is at the core and will make a perfect system to capture. Just keep the 80/20 rule at the top of your mind here, and we'll work on those systems first. Note: In cases where you're working with a particular specialist or consultant outside of your business, and they manage that particular task, such as SEO or SEM or bookkeeping, you can work with them to create an overview system that outlines what's being done. Or perhaps they might even have some suggestions for you on what you can do to make their job easier and improve their results. The final step in the whole process is assigning the knowledgeable worker to each of those systems. This may be a department head or another team member. It very much depends on who has the key skills required to complete that task to a great standard. This is ultimately the person we'll extract the process from. So ask yourself, who does this task and who does it to a great standard? In situations where more than one person can do the task, like a sales role, look towards the team member who delivers above-average results for that task. Suggestion: where possible, avoid adding the business owner's name. Yes, I know, the business owner, they can do everything, and typically they can do it better than anyone else, or at least so the business owner thinks. But let's take them out of the picture. There will be times where this is unavoidable, but do your best. We can always loop them back in a little bit further down the line. Model the best. Part of the genius of this process is that we're going to model your new systems on the best practices of your top performers. This process is then shared with all of your team members, and in so doing, you'll dramatically improve performance across the board. Perhaps some of the biggest and quickest gains that can be made within any business come from uncovering who on your team does a particular task and gets above-average results. Then it's simply a matter of extracting what it is that they're doing and teaching other team members how to do the same. This then becomes the new standard and sets the expectation for how to best complete this task. I've seen this work countless times to great effect, particularly in sales systems. Oftentimes, your top performers are your top performers for a reason. They're presenting all of the key information, and they're answering objections in a certain way. They're following up, and they're giving prospects everything that they need to make a buying decision. They have a system, whether they recognize it or not. Now imagine how powerful it would be to capture this method and then train the rest of your staff to reach that same new level. It's easier than you think, and the breakthrough that you've been looking for might be right under your nose. Limit your scope to sharpen your focus. If it feels like I'm trying to constrict your early efforts here, then I've succeeded. What I want for you is to have a clear action plan that is limited in scope, and therefore will allow you to focus and really actually start to get things done. Planning is good, but too much preparation will prevent you from ever acting. You'll just get too bogged down in all of the details, and the overwhelm will soon follow. The systems that you've identified are central to how your business makes money, and while you might not have realized it just yet, we've totally annihilated the myth we started at the beginning of this chapter. The myth that the business owner will need to be the one who creates all the systems. The truth is, usually the knowledge, it already exists in the heads of your team members. We just need a way to extract it. I know there are gonna be some people who are listening to this who won't be able to see this process working without them being involved at every level. But sooner or later, you will let go. You will trust your team, you will let them step up, and you'll be one step closer to the freedom you've been searching for. Let Systemology guide you through. Case study: Absolute Immigration. In operation for almost two decades, Absolute Immigration assists people with immigration and visa processing. In providing a service that is so personally important to their clients, A high degree of accuracy and consistency is critical. After filling in for a few key team members as they took leave, company director Jamie Lingham discovered that his business had the appearance of 5 different organisations operating under one roof. Everyone was doing things their own way. While he knew that systemisation was key, he had tried in the past and failed. Then he found Systemology. Almost instantly, he had an aha moment that ended up changing the course of his business. Jamie realized that he wasn't the best person to be driving the initiative forward, so he went on holiday and empowered his team to map the CCF and identify the knowledgeable workers. His operations manager drove the entire process, and his team then recorded and documented those systems. The smooth-running machine that Jamie had been shooting for is now a reality, and every department is working in a consistent fashion. The robust systems keep every job on track, and the firm is now in a position to comfortably increase their workload. Jamie observed that the systems and the processes that they have in place now enable our business to move on to the next level. To scale dramatically and handle huge volumes of work, but also ensure that everybody's on the same page. Assign action steps. Download and complete the Departments, Responsibilities, and Team Chart (DRTC) template from systemology.com/resources. The 5 steps covered in this template include step Step 1: Identify key departments. Step 2: Assign the responsibilities of each department. Step 3: Assign department heads. Step 4: Identify additional knowledgeable workers. And finally, Step 5: Assign critical systems to knowledgeable workers. Step 3: Extract. Extract chapter summary. The third step in Systemology is to capture the knowledge from your team and turn it into shareable systems. In this chapter, I will quite literally share with you the system for creating systems. I know the name sounds a little bit funny, but the primary reason that people struggle to systemize their business is precisely because they don't have a system to guide them. Highlights from this chapter include: why creating systems should always be a two-person job, rock-solid strategies to get buy-in and cooperation from everyone in your business, what is a systems champion and why they're essential for building a systems-centered business, why flowcharts and screenshots suck when creating systems and processes. The primary myth that I'm gonna be busting in this chapter is that creating systems is time-consuming. Okay, so you've identified the critical systems in your business, you've assigned the key departments and the responsibilities, and you've identified where the knowledge resides. Now you need to work with those team members to create long, boring standard operating procedures that no one will ever end up reading. You know the documents I'm talking about? Epic, long, numbered lists with Roman numeral sublists, hundreds of bullet points, and millions of screenshots and flowcharts that no one can edit. Ah, haha, that just sounds painful! How the heck are you gonna find time to do this? Well, if you've followed the instructions carefully from the previous chapters, and many of these tasks have already been assigned to other team members, You could just rule with an iron fist. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Force your team members to find the time to document their jobs, and if they don't like it, you can always fire them. No, actually, don't do that. That'd be just idiotic. You know as well as I do that your best team members are every bit as busy as you are, and there's a good chance that many of them won't relish the idea of creating systems. Do you really wanna force them into doing something that they don't wanna do? Of course not, and you don't have to, because the Systemology version of creating systems is like nothing you've ever tried before. This is the step that's going to knock out the biggest myth of them all, that the actual process of creating systems is time-consuming and painful. I used to believe this myself until I found a better way, Before Systemology, back when I was looking to step out from my digital agency, I explained to my mentor that I was having a real challenge documenting my processes. Almost without a second thought, he suggested, "Why don't you just hire a consultant and get them to create them for you?" My immediate response, well, at least in my head it was, "Yeah, but I don't wanna pay some overpriced consultant to come in and create some documents for parts of my business that they know little or nothing about." But while my initial reaction was to write off the idea, I am a sucker for business shortcuts. I'm always on the lookout for ways to get the best result in the least possible moves. So the idea that I didn't have to be the one creating the systems, that was definitely one I kept on coming back to. Fast forward a few years, after doing things the hard way for way too long, I came up with a spin on the idea. I decided to produce a podcast where I would interview experts who knew how to solve problems I was having in my business. Although, I didn't plan on marketing it that way to my guests anyway. If I wanted to know how to do something, I would simply find the person who knew how to do it, and then I'd get them to share their step-by-step system on a podcast with me. The plan was to then go one step further and get my team to turn those podcasts into documented systems. Pretty cool idea, huh? And I bet you can guess who the first person I interviewed was. That's right. I sat down with a podcast expert who could teach me everything about how to produce a podcast. That very first podcast show, it covered everything from creating, editing, launching, and even marketing a podcast. I then gave that interview to my team, they turned it into a system, and that's what we still use to this day. As ideas go, it's a pretty good one, even if I say so myself. And you can listen to the podcast here, systemology.com/podcast. Now, the astute reader might have just picked up one of the secrets to this process. The first secret: creating systems is a two-person job. The Systemology method of creating and documenting systems is very similar to my podcast idea. One person shares the knowledge, the knowledgeable worker, and another documents it, your systems champion. This change, while very small in principle, is huge in terms of getting the job done. If you try to get one person to do both parts of the task, explaining it and documenting it, I can guarantee that you'll hit resistance. But if you make this a two-person job where you record what the person is already doing while they're doing it, and then you assign someone else to document the system, you absolutely change the game. You can then maximize the accuracy of the process by getting the knowledgeable worker to review and edit the created documentation. Most people, if they had a choice, much prefer to edit something that already exists rather than having to try to create something from a blank page. Get version 1 of the system done and get it done by someone else, someone who likes writing these sorts of documents, and you'll find it's infinitely easier to get the knowledgeable worker to review it. Just go on, give it a try. Like many things in business, fighting strong resistance head-on is rarely the best way forward. Play to your team's strengths and do everything in your power to make it easy for them to do their best work. Your systems champion. Continuing With this train of thought, is there anyone currently on your team who loves creating systems and processes? They might not have even consciously realized it, but you can typically spot these people because they're known for being extremely organized, detail-oriented people. They're the kind of people who enjoy creating to-do lists and organizing projects and get great satisfaction in seeing things run smoothly. It's worth identifying these people early and getting them involved in the Systemology process. Whether it's to help with the interviewing of the knowledgeable workers, creating the documentation, or overseeing the process, they will play a key role in ensuring you get the results you're looking for. You always wanna play to people's strengths. So make sure to get this book to the team members who can make this happen. I recall a great example of finding a systems champion when I did some work for a company called Portavac. What they do is they clean residential and commercial roofing gutters. One of the first things that they did was to identify their systems champion, and they did that even before we started working together. Kane was a curious, give anything a go, 20-year-old who worked in their head office. Over the course of a few months, we worked closely together in applying Systemology. He helped connect me with the right team members, attended all of my sessions with the team, and even conducted some of the recordings himself. He even, on more than one occasion, literally grabbed a camera and went out into the field to capture different parts of their business process. He then shared those recordings with our team and helped with the documentation. It produced some great results, and what I love most about it was that it ensured they had someone who understood the entire methodology inside their business, someone who could keep driving the process forward well after we finished our engagement. It really can be that simple, and I love this example because it highlights the fact that you don't need some special training beyond listening to this audiobook, to be a systems champion. The right person will just get this stuff, and they'll make your job easier. If you don't think that you have this person in your team already, that's okay for now. But the sooner you can find this person to take ownership over this project, the better. You might even consider hiring a new person for this position. I've had great success, for instance, with Return to Work: Mums and Dads. Often you can hire great, highly skilled team members who aren't able to return to full-time work, but they could work for your business in a part-time capacity. They've worked in corporate or larger companies, and they bring a wealth of knowledge. Perhaps you can find someone locally, give them a copy of this book, and then have them help you implement it within your business. This could easily start out as a 10 to 15 hour per week job that you do over 3 to 6 months, and if they prove to be a good fit for your business, you can offer them a more permanent position later. Either way, once you identify your systems champion, this is the perfect time for the business owner to step out of the process and allow their team to begin building these processes without them. Let the system's champion drive things. The second secret: the system for creating systems. If the first secret for systems extraction is that it's a two-person job, the second secret is that you need a system for creating systems. It's a bit meta. Having a system that outlines the system for documenting your systems, I get it. But if you can successfully wrap your head around this now, everything after this will run just that little bit smoother. This system template will outline the structure all of your systems will follow to ensure consistency. It will remind your team to keep things simple and make it easy for anyone to easily capture, document, and share what it is that they're doing. I'll walk you through the process here in more detail, But you can also grab an easily shareable version of this system at systemology.com/resources. Okay, you've identified your critical client flow, you've identified who in the team has the knowledge, and now you need to get it out of their heads. Let's jump right in. We'll start by documenting your first system. Step number 1: Identify the result you're looking to achieve with this system. Pick one of the identified systems from your CCF to be your guinea pig. I suggest starting with something simple so you can become familiar with the process. Alternatively, you can pick a system that solves a very specific problem that you know you're having in your business right now. For example, if you're having troubles around the delivery of your product or service, maybe you should focus in on the onboarding and delivery systems. Or, if you're having trouble selling, create a system for your sales process. Either way, stay within the bounds of the CCF and prioritise at your own discretion. For this example, we'll pick an easy-to-understand process: handling inbound enquiries via the phone or website. We'll name it something really clear but descriptive: Handling an Incoming Enquiry. Step number 2: Identify who produces the result. You've already completed this step in the previous chapter, so this is easy enough. Look at the DRTC and see who is marked as the knowledgeable worker for that system. The knowledgeable worker who knows how to do the job of which you're creating a system for. We'll extract the system from them and then aim to bring everybody else up to that standard. Step number 3: Determine the capture method. What will be the most effective way for you to capture the person who is sharing the knowledge? Most of the time, this will be recording them actually doing the task as they're doing it. You might use screen recording software, a camera, or your mobile phone. See systemology.com/resources for our current software recommendations. For an office task, I'd suggest that you use some sort of screen recording software. For an outside job that's really physical, you might get yourself a GoPro camera or something similar. For a sales task, you might just use the Dictaphone app on your phone, or a combination of these methods. Note: In situations where it's not possible to capture the actual live event happening, Have the knowledgeable worker roleplay the process or take the systems champion through the process step by step. Always look for the method that creates the least level of friction and anxiety for the team members. Step number 4: Record the task being completed. If you're lucky, your knowledgeable workers will immediately recognize the benefits of systemization and will be fully on board with the process. Otherwise, it's well worth taking the time to prepare them before conducting your recording. Start by explaining why this systemisation process is being carried out and frame it in terms of the benefit to the worker. For example, having their tasks systemised will ensure that their work can continue to be managed effectively while they're on vacation. You might say something like, "You know how every time you go on vacation and when you come back, there's a mountain of work for you to catch up on? Or worse, while you're on vacation, you still need to keep working just to keep things moving? Well, by systemizing, this will ensure that we can get other team members to manage things while you're away." You should also make it really clear that the heavy lifting, the documentation, the uploading, the tweaking, all of that stuff that they probably don't wanna do, is going to get handled by someone else. All they need to do is to carry out the task and talk someone through as they would normally do it. We'll cover some more tips on this, on how to introduce Systemology to your team, in a later chapter. Depending on the complexity of the task, it can also be helpful to ask the team member to make a few bullet points and notes before doing the recording, just outlining some of those key steps. This pre-planning gives the worker a chance to think through a task that they may have been completing on autopilot for a long time. You should also stress the point that we're not looking to have the system be perfect or fully optimized. While it's okay to make minor tweaks as you go, you want to avoid trying to completely re-engineer things. Optimizing comes later. At this stage, we're looking to keep things simple and just capture things as they're currently done. One final point to keep in mind is that not everybody is going to be comfortable being recorded, so a little preparation and setting the scene can go a long way to calm the nerves. If you have a systems champion, have them schedule times on the calendar for when these extractions are going to occur and have them conduct the team members' recordings. It's time to hit the record button and let the knowledgeable worker do their thing. Remind them to describe everything that they're doing as they're doing it, and aim to capture every detail you can. This will just make it so much easier when it comes time to do the documentation. By definition, the team member is a knowledgeable worker. They know how to complete this task, and they're able to complete it to a great standard. So don't worry about any mistakes or interruptions that happen in the recording. If you need to break off or worse restart after every stuff-up, the task is gonna take forever. If the knowledgeable worker messes up, get them to explain what went wrong and then just carry on. Mistakes can be edited out in post-production if required, but sometimes the errors can be just as instructive if it demonstrates how to recover from a mistake. Just keep rolling and capture everything as you go. In circumstances where the task might be completed in stages, or where it's not possible to go through from start to finish in one go, just capture it in pieces. Later, you can decide if it's best to combine those or keep them separate as standalone systems. The final result won't be great. The odd element might be missed, the recording might look a little bit amateurish, and/or the worker, they might have gone slower than they would usually, None of that really matters. Remember that your first version is highly unlikely to be the final definitive one. You'll get better as you go along, and every time you create a new iteration, your end result will just get that little bit better, a little bit more efficient, and a little bit more accurate. The kaizen philosophy is embedded deeply into Systemology. The idea behind constant and never-ending improvement is that nothing is ever finished or considered perfect. There's always room for improvement. You must get comfortable with this idea and just get your version number one of the system complete. Step number five: Create a new system. The first time you document a system, you're going to need to decide where you're going to store it. Ideally, you might already have some file storage system in place, or better yet, systems management software that can easily be managed, edited, and accessed by everyone in your business. We'll cover this in more detail in a later chapter, but either way, my best advice is always to go with whatever makes things easiest for your team. There is a trend for software that attempts to do a little bit of everything, and in my experience, this tends to overcomplicate things, providing a lot of bells and whistles, 99% of which you probably won't end up using anyway. Assuming you have your database in place and it's ready to use, your systems champion should now have everything that they need to create a system based on the material that's been extracted. Get them to create folders in your systems management software based on the different departments you've already identified earlier, such as sales, finance, operations, etc. The systems champion can then store the new system in the appropriate folder. This system document aims to have everything in one place so your systems champion can do their thing. Here are a few extra points of information that you might consider adding to your document. System title. This should be concise, but not at the expense of using the most appropriate and descriptive keywords. Thought should be given to the search terms that your team members might use when they're trying to locate this system in the future. Consider creating a naming convention to ensure consistency across the board. System description. Again, this should be brief but clear. It should state what the system is about and what results or outcomes are expected from following it. I would suggest not more than a couple of paragraphs here. Relevant links. Add a link to the video recording of the task being completed and any other files, templates, and required resources. Knowledgeable worker. It's a good idea to have this person noted in the system itself since typically this person becomes the primary point of contact for questions relating to the system. Team members. Identify other team members or at least one who you would like to also be able to carry out the task. These team members can act as a backup for the task if the knowledgeable worker is unavailable. This last point is an important one that starts to remove key person dependency and creates business owner freedom. Remember that all tasks and roles should have more than one team member who's able to step in and complete those duties. Having redundancy reduces team member anxiety about taking leave, provides business owner confidence, and gets you one step closer to complete business reliability. Step number 6: Create step-by-step documentation. Remember the first secret of the extraction phase is to make it a two-person job? The person with the knowledge and the system's champion. Have your system's champion watch the recording of the task being completed and get them to note down the steps carried out in a linear fashion. Literally, step 1, do this. Step 2, do that. Each step should be as detailed as it needs to be, using sub-bullets and clarification comments as required. These steps should be typed directly into the main body of the system How do you know if the level of detail is correct? There is no perfect answer here, and it's often dictated by the system itself and the skill level of the team members who will carry out the task. Low-skilled roles with high turnover of staff may require very detailed instructions when compared to tasks completed by highly skilled, long-term team members, which may require less. That said, I'm not a big believer in hiring unskilled 15-year-olds to do all the tasks in your business for minimum wage. Unless you sell hamburgers, then I'll grant you that one exception. Don't create every system for the lowest common denominator. Take Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix's advice, when he said in the Masters of Scale podcast, What we failed to understand is by dummy-proofing all of our systems, that we would end up having a system where only dummies wanted to work there. The goal is not to develop robots who mindlessly follow step-by-step instructions. We want to give smart people the instructions they need to deliver a great outcome. Keep it simple, with less detail than you think you need. Remember, you will keep evolving these systems over time, We haven't even got to the optimization stage yet. A reader with some level of knowledge should be able to read the main headings of each step, and from this information, have a good idea of what needs to be done. They should then be able to read all of the additional information described in each of the steps, and then with a little patience, a little practice, and a little guidance, they'll be able to complete the task to a great standard. In one of the later steps, we're actually going to put this to the test, but for now, the systems champion should be aware that this is the goal when creating the system. It needs to be specific, clear, and detailed enough to allow the process to be followed without any gaps. It can also be helpful to conclude the documentation with a few criteria that can be used to double-check that the task has been successfully completed. The systems champion should also be consistent in their approach. The text, the style of the writing, the layout, even details such as whether or not the number is indicated numerically—that's 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.—or alphabetically—that is spelling out the words 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. You wanna have this uniform throughout. The right person for this job will be fastidious about achieving this level of detail and consistency. Finally, the system should conclude with a supporting notes section containing the source of videos and audios, required templates and attachments, and any other relevant information. Step number 7: Review the system. Once you have your first draft, it can be sent back to the original knowledgeable worker who recorded it. They're usually the best person to judge how it's coming along. However, rather than just simply reading it, get them to follow through the steps the next time they're completing the task so that it can be compared directly to the task as they're doing it. They should be looking for errors, critical omissions, and anything that they might think sends someone off track. This feedback can be made either directly into the system or to the system's champion for them to update it. Go with whatever is easiest for the knowledgeable worker. At this stage, the system should be good for review by another set of eyes. If the department head hasn't been involved in the creation of the system until now, get them to take a look. Remember that the knowledgeable worker is focused primarily on getting a specific job done, whereas upper management can view the system from the wider point of view of how it impacts the department and other areas of the business. This is also where you may discover insight into how other areas of the business can be improved and/or where energies and resources are being wasted. Discuss any suggested tweaks and additions with the knowledgeable worker and then adjust the system with any agreed changes. Important note: avoid seeking perfection. A common mistake at this point is to completely re-engineer processes trying to get it just right. Someone may want to add a range of extra steps to improve the system, or even add a new tool or a piece of software. While minor tweaks are welcomed, and it'll often improve the system, I strongly recommend you avoid introducing major deviations from how things are currently being completed. Trust me, you'll get significant wins simply by getting consistency across all of your team members as they follow the new systems developed by your knowledgeable workers. We will look for optimization improvements further along the process, but for now, let's just capture what it is that's currently being done. You'll thank me later. Step 8. Have your team follow the system and cross-train other team members. The final step in the process for your shiny new system is to use it in the real world. The original knowledgeable worker can continue to review and tweak it over the next few cycles of that task being completed, and once they feel good about the process, they can use it to train someone else. This step is going to expose any remaining weaknesses and confusion in the documented system. Have another team member go through the task watching the original video, reading the notes, and then completing the task. They can refer back to the original knowledgeable worker, asking questions and seeking clarity where needed. This gives the knowledgeable worker or systems champion another chance to further improve the system Repeat this step as often as required until the tester is able to complete the task to a reasonable standard without any intervention or feedback required. You should also view new hires as an opportunity to review every system related to that person's role. A fresh pair of eyes will often reveal new opportunities to improve and streamline things. Flowcharts come last. I see this all the time. When people read a book on Six Sigma, they think that every system must be first flowcharted before it can be improved. Maybe this is true for multinational corporations or companies with existing detailed documentation, but for small businesses, this is overkill. Flowcharts are a graphical representation of systems depicting inputs, decision points, and outputs. The problem is that they're usually created by a systems nerd using some fancy software that only they know how to use. And because no one else can figure it out once they've created it, they're rarely, if ever, updated. Remember, you'll wanna involve multiple team members and make things as easy as possible for them. Don't set them up for failure by creating flowcharts that very quickly become out of date in the blink of an eye. An eye. Save that until the end, once your system has been in action for some time and you've been through the final optimization stage of Systemology. At least by this point, your flowcharts will be less likely to need updating. The same can be said for using too many screenshots within your systems too. Often I see systems that include screenshots for just about every step in the process, And while this might sound good for clarity, in reality, it's a nightmare to try and keep that updated. Software updates all of the time, so you set yourself up for failure. Take my advice and keep your screenshots to a minimum. Refer to the appendices 1.1 and 1.2 for a couple of examples of systems from our digital agency. I'll include a link to these so you can download them at systemology.com.au. Www.pandemic.com/resources. Just keep in mind that I have modified these for simplicity and clarity. Set yourself up for success. Great job! You're all the way through documenting your first system. Keep working through your CCF to keep you on track and commit to documenting a minimum of 2 systems per week. You might even consider prioritizing which systems you're going to create first by those that you know will solve problems you're already having within your business. This stage of Systemology, the Extraction, is easily one of the largest with regards to the volume of work. It's how the sausages get made. Commit to the process and get a solid understanding of the system for creating systems, because if you can nail this one, everything else will become much, much easier. I've used this system countless times, and it's proven to work for virtually any kind of system imaginable. If you ever feel stuck or you're not quite sure how to capture a particular process, remember to simplify. Make the system an overview system and document only the top-level steps. You can always circle back around and create more detailed instructions for each of the steps if required. This often occurs when you get to the onboarding and delivery section of your CCF. There's a very real possibility that this could get quite complex, but please resist the urge the first time around overcomplicating things. Just do whatever you need to do to get the momentum going. Ask yourself, how can I ensure I keep moving forward through the extraction phase? I know it's really easy to prioritise other jobs within your business, so how can you reward, punish, or even create some sort of level of accountability for yourself? One of the best examples of accountability I remember was from a colleague of mine who had just quit his day job to become an entrepreneur, and he started working from home. But what he didn't anticipate was just how hard it was going to be to get out of bed each morning without the pressure of having to be in the office by 9 AM. He was fine once he got up, but it was actually rolling out of bed each morning which ended up becoming a constant battle for him. So he came up with this ingenious idea. He created a self-inflicted positive constraint. He parked his car out the front of his house in a clearway zone, because then if he didn't get out of bed and move his car by 8 AM, he knew that it was going to be towed away. And this completely eliminated any temptation to stay under the doona. The price was just too high. How can you create a little positive pressure to ensure you and your team get all the steps in your CCF documented and do it within a set timeframe? Which do you think is going to work better for you? The carrot, the stick, or a combination of both? Make the commitment, do the work, and reap the rewards. Case study: Oh Crap! Oh Crap!, a compostable dog poop bag company, started in Bruce Holtgren's garage in 2014. His co-founder Henry Reeth's smart marketing strategies quickly launched the new company. Soon after the bags hit the market, sales exploded. They went from selling a total of 200,000 bags initially to 6.3 million poo bags in just over a couple of years. After one of their first large orders, Henry remembers walking into Bruce's home to find floor-to-ceiling stacks of boxes filled with stock, filling the garage, the kitchen, and even his boy's room. It was the true "we're actually doing this" moment. Oh Crap's marketing soon outpaced their capacity for output, and when order volume spiked, they had to turn off their ads. Then there was also Bruce's yearly week-long vacation, which brought the business to a complete halt. This only compounded the stress. It was time to turn this side hustle into a serious business. They brought on full-time staff, including Henry's sister, who quit her job to join the team. The start-and-stop style of business in the early days wouldn't cut it now. They had to pay wages. Henry had been involved in several successful ventures in the past, and he knew from those past failures that they needed systems. When a colleague introduced Henry to Systemology, He loved what it promised to do. Even better, the approach championed having someone other than the busy business owner create, record, and implement the systems. So, after Henry recorded the first couple of systems, he appointed an internal systems champion. Today, she keeps everyone honest with their systems, continuously recording and reevaluating essential procedures. Thanks to systems, they're able to stay ahead of the growth, not frantically clawing to stay on top. Bruce and Henry have the time and the mental space to dedicate to driving the vision, and Henry can put his marketing expertise towards more creative and expansive projects. For the first time, they have more resources than orders, and that's a great thing, because as they amp up their marketing efforts, Henry predicts that the business will double every few months thanks to their systems. Extract action steps. Using your Departments, Responsibilities, and Team Chart, the DRTC, as a guide, create a timeline and get to work extracting your systems. You can prioritize based on solving problems that you know currently exist within your business. Download and follow the System for Creating Systems template for each identified system. The template is available at systemology.com/resources. The 8 steps covered in this template include: Step 1: Identify the result you're looking to achieve with this system. Step 2: Identify who produces the result. Step 3: Determine the capture method. Step number 4: Record the task being completed. Step number 5: Create a new system. Step number 6: Create step-by-step documentation. Step number 7: Review the system. And finally, step number 8: Have your team follow the system and cross-train other team members. Identify how you will maintain momentum. Will you use rewards, punishments, or a combination of both to keep your team on track? Step 4: Organize. Organize chapter summary. The fourth step in Systemology is to organize the systems that you have captured and implement the right technology to ensure your team actually follows them. You will discover how to overcome the dreaded "but I didn't know" and lay the foundations for high performance. Highlights from this chapter include: why systems-centered businesses always get higher multiples and sell for top dollar, why software will never be the holy grail in business systemization, Why it's critical to separate your systems documentation from your project management. What most people do wrong when they try to automate their workflows. The primary myth that I want to bust in this chapter is that you're going to need to invest in expensive and complex software. Some years ago, I was a joint owner of Planet 13, a rock and roll inspired clothing store. It was a fun but incredibly hard business to be involved in. If you've ever operated a retail store, you'll know exactly what I mean. Every month, even before you make a single sale, you've gotta fork out for rent and wages. The overheads are sky high, and you need to make a truckload of sales, and that's just to reach break-even. Fortunately, I was working with some smart partners, and from day one, our goal was to do more than just selling t-shirts. We were building a business with a view to sell it as a franchise. Our first store was the prototype. It was our opportunity to create, test, and measure. We honed our business and developed a manual that detailed every step of how to run a successful store. As we grew, we opened a second store, kept improving our systems, and stepped out of working in the store. We grew some more, hired staff, moved into a head office, built out our wholesaling arm, and prepared to sell our first franchise. I remember this part of the journey vividly because this was a key part of my role. When it came time to sell the first franchise, I was selling our winning business model. I was selling our step-by-step systems, our way of doing things. They weren't stored in fancy software, no wikis or cloud-based solutions. All of our systems, they were just printed out and stored in a simple binder. We had one manual for the staff in the store and one manual for the store owner. It was simple, And it worked. And you know what was the most exciting thing? This was an asset that we created out of thin air, and one that could be sold many times over. The money is in the systems. This burned a valuable lesson into my brain. Extraordinary leverage is created anytime you create something that can be sold more than once with minimal additional work. I know, it sounds obvious when I say it, but who wouldn't want to do work once and continue to get paid for it over and over and over? I'll save the rest of the Planet 13 story for another day. I'll tell you about the shopping centre who tried to sabotage us by letting our competition open up 3 doors down from us, how we got caught up in the global financial crisis, and all the other sorted details. But for now, to cut a long story short, while Planet 13 isn't around to this day, the lessons that I learnt in the school of hard knocks, they'll stay with me for a lifetime. Now this might be outside of your comfort zone, and maybe you're not quite ready to hear it, but it's my belief that you should always be building a business with the idea that one day you're gonna sell it. If you decide to sell all of it, part of it, or not at all, obviously that's up to you, but one thing is for sure: building it with the idea of eventually selling it, it ensures that you build it on solid foundations. Systems-run businesses are always worth more. You probably already intuitively know this to be true, but there are a range of reasons for this. Most obviously, this is because systems-run businesses function without key-person dependency. They work without the business owner or any specific team member being essential to their operation. They're more efficient, more reliable, and scalable. Systems give the potential acquirer confidence that the business will continue to perform well after the sale. Your systems are the blueprint to your successfully running business, and they're worth their weight in gold. And if you store those systems in the cloud, then they're worth their storage space in gold. I personally believe that systems are the most important asset within your business. If you want to argue that the people are more important, I'll challenge your point. Reminding you that, like it or not, people come and go. No single employee at any level should be so critical to a business that they're irreplaceable. In fact, if you have someone in your business who is irreplaceable, you have a big problem. Because what happens if that person gets sick? Or someone in their family does? Or worse, what happens if they get hit by a bus? You're in trouble. Systems, on the other hand, are the only assets that will stick with you through thick and thin, that can serve your business for decades, and can even be replicated within new future ventures. They will be your library of solutions to common business problems, no matter what business you're working in or on. I know you're already sold on the idea of systems. That's why you're listening to this audio. So no doubt I'm preaching to the converted, but the reason that I'm laboring this point is to ensure that we're both on the same page. The money is in your systems. I know of one enterprising businessman who has built and sold his plumbing business 21 times to date. Each time he builds it quicker and better than the previous and sells it for higher and higher valuations. He starts by purchasing a failing plumbing business, then deploys his team, and they install his systems to turn things around. At last count, he sold his most recent company for tens of millions of dollars. That's leverage and pure genius, if you ask me. Where do you store your most valuable asset? Does your team know where to look to find your systems? Or are they scattered across your shared drives, in folders on your team members' desktops, and dumped in unorganized folders in your Dropbox account? You probably need a better plan than that, and that's what this chapter is all about. Let's take a look at how you will organize your systems and how you'll create responsibility and accountability. It's also time to break a few of the old misconceptions around what your system's manuals will look like. The ideas of printing out big, thick manuals and having them sit on your shelf to collect dust— those are obsolete. But similarly, the idea that you're going to need to create complex enterprise-level software that has built-in learning management systems using SCORM that's also flawed as well. All of these thoughts and ideas are holding you back. Start with simple. Yes, the times have moved on since my Planet 13 days, and while the tools may have changed, simplicity has remained. The fact is, if you can never master the simple, you'll never master the complex. So before looking at all of those bells and whistles, automated solutions, and checking out the new shiny objects let's agree to keep things simple. There really are only two tools that you need to get right. Number one, you need a central location where all of your business systems are stored. Getting this right gives you and your team certainty around how tasks are completed. Number two, you need a way to create accountability and hold your team to the standards you have defined. This ensures you get the performance you desire. Now, there's a chance you already have both of these covered. It might just be that you need a little tweaking to ensure that you're using the tools correctly. Without thinking about all of the tools and software that you're currently using, things like accounting and CRM and marketing automation and proposals, I just want you to focus on two tools. And what I believe that you need to build a truly successful systems-centered business. Number 1: systems management software, and number 2: project management software. Systems management software is where your systems are going to be stored so that they can be easily accessed by you and your entire team. It will become the how-to manual for everything within your business every role, every task documented and centrally stored. Then there's the project management software, sometimes referred to as task management or jobs management, which acts as an accountability and management tool. The goal of this software is to track all of your projects and ensure that every team member knows the tasks that they should be working on and when they're due. This also gets all your team communication relating to any project out of your email and into a central location. This is so important, so let me say it more clearly: stop using your email to manage your jobs. Stop your team from communicating via email. With email, tasks get forgotten, details get overlooked, and due dates get missed. And to be clear, I don't hate email. It's an amazing tool. It's just horrible for project management. When you stop and think about it for a moment, you already know this to be true. Have you ever tried to ask someone to do a task via email only to have it forgotten? Till weeks later when you ask, "Hey, did you ever end up getting XYZ done?" The other person looks at you sheepishly and says, 'Oops, sorry, I forgot about that,' or worse, they have no idea what you're talking about. This is all too common when you're trying to run projects via email. Communication is key. Fix your team communications and you'll solve 80% of your problems. Great project management software goes a long way to getting things on track. The Magic Pear. Together, these two tools—Systems Management and Project Management Software—will allow your tasks to be assigned with clear, easily accessible instructions that leave no room for confusion. Your team will be crystal clear on what needs to be done and where to look for answers if they're not sure about doing something. This will dramatically improve your team's efficiency and eliminate excuses. For micro teams, or very small businesses, there's a chance that you can get away with just the systems management software. However, as you grow past more than a few team members, you'll quickly realize that it's one thing to have systems, it's another to actually get your team to follow them. But if someone is new to a task, they'll most likely follow your systems diligently on the first few occasions. But it won't take long before they feel comfortable enough to stop referring to it. And this goes double for those knowledgeable workers who helped create the system. Moreover, it's probably a little bit unrealistic and unnecessary to ask your employees to reread an entire system every time they complete their tasks. That's where your project management software steps in. They may not always read the system, but you can insist that they check off the key steps in the process as they go along. The secret to ensuring your business develops a culture where systems are not just created, but actually used, is to introduce some level of accountability. Use project management software to create milestones or checkpoints for the tasks that your team has to check off as they go along the way. The checkpoints for a task can be templated, so once it's set up, it's a snap to duplicate. And if you use the documented steps as a guide to creating those checkpoints, the hard work has already been done. The end result is a uniformity of results that reduces errors and waste to a bare minimum. Even better for recovering micromanagers like myself, it's reassuring to know that just because you're extracting yourself from your business, it doesn't mean that you have to completely lose touch with what's going on, on the front line. When properly organised, you'll be able to use these tools to jump back into your business at any time and very quickly get up to speed, even if your attention has been elsewhere for months. A word of caution. Before I take you through the rest of this chapter, if you already have your systems management and project management software selected, and they're working for you, there's no need to switch. No piece of software is going to magically solve all of your problems, and ultimately, it really doesn't matter which tools you end up using. The key is just to have something to meet each of these two key areas. If your current software stack isn't working for you, you're going to need to weigh up your options, since there's a chance you're missing one or more of the key criteria I'm about to outline. You need to decide if it's worth the effort of moving and learning a new piece of software, or if it's just easier to find a workaround with your existing tools. Either way, for the rest of this chapter, I'm going to assume that you don't currently have a solution. I've also separated the discussion into two categories, our project management software and our systems management software, because I would advise not combining the two. It's not that they don't exist, it's that combining the two tends to come with compromises and unnecessary complexity. I'll explain more on this as we get into things. In short, just trust me, keep your systems management and your project management isolated. If you do that, you'll reduce the likelihood of needing to switch your software further down the road. You'll also set yourself up in the best possible position should you decide to sell your business at some point. A stitch in time here will save you 9. Project management software. Let's start with your project management software, since there's more of a chance that you already have something in place. Project management software is designed to cover the who does what by when aspect of task management. There is a range of non-industry-specific tools out there, including Asana, Basecamp, Trello, Podio, Teamwork PM, Monday, and many more. I think you're getting the idea. There are tons of them out there. And then there are the tools that are optimized for specific industries. Be mindful of the latter group though, because these can sometimes be over-optimized for specific tasks at the expense of important departments within your business. For example, some software packages built for trades-based businesses focus exclusively on the scheduling and the delivery side of your business. Now, while this is important, it can also be a little bit frustrating when you realize that you're going to need more than one platform to manage all the other departments within your business. That said, depending on your business, its industry, the size of your team, and what you do internally versus outsourcing, you may need one or more of these specialized platforms to function efficiently. For our purposes, Project management software should be able to sit at the top level. It should cover all departments and set clear accountability for the actual doing of any work. If you haven't yet found a project management tool, here are a few criteria that I want you to look out for. There are actually 6 points here with checkboxes next to each. There's basic task creation, subtask creation, task descriptions and links, task list templates or duplication, permission levels and project visibility, and finally intuitive and easy to use. Let me walk through each one of those. Number 1: Basic task creation. At a minimum, your chosen software should allow you to create a task, assign that task to a team member, tag other team members who need to receive updates on the progress, and set deadlines for when the task needs to be completed. To be honest, you're gonna be really hard-pressed to find a project management software that doesn't have these basic features. These are the fundamentals of good project management. But don't assume. Check that these fundamentals are in place. Number 2, subtask creation. Again, this is a pretty standard feature, but it's critical, so I wanna be sure that it's available. You need to be able to split your individual tasks into a series of subtasks based on the required steps in the documented systems that you've already created. These subtasks should also allow for assigning. It's this feature that will allow you to create true accountability in your team. Subtasks are ticked off as the team member completes the steps. This enables you to ensure that projects are progressing as planned and gives a place for comments and questions where they arise. Number 3, task descriptions and links. It's always helpful to be able to add notes and links directly into a task. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but some highly specialized software applications, they're so streamlined that they don't allow for this. I also consider this critical because one of the secrets to making your newly documented systems work is having them handy right where the team member is getting the information about the task they've been assigned. That is to say, you literally wanna post the link to the step-by-step system at the point at which the task is being assigned. This is important for two reasons. First, it helps team members who are new to a task to quickly understand the steps required And second, it clearly sets expectations. Your team will come to learn that by marking a task as complete, they are effectively agreeing that they have completed it to the standard that you've outlined in your system. This helps immensely with compliance and removes the "but I didn't know," you know, that excuse. More on that later. Number 4. Task list templates or duplication. Given that the systems you will create will typically be for tasks that are repeated often, it's a huge time saver if you can set up new tasks from a template. This feature typically works by allowing you to create a new task from a previously created template containing the standard descriptions, subtasks, and links. Then it's just a case of modifying any specifics, such as assigning it to the relevant team member and setting the deadlines. Duplicating previously created or completed tasks is also fine, as long as the standard elements remain the same and the details can be modified as required. Number 5: Permission levels and project visibility. Depending on the size of your business and the nature of your work, This might not be strictly necessary, but permission levels can be useful to limit what team members can and can't access. A department head, for instance, might have the ability to create and assign tasks, whereas a regular team member might only be able to access and comment on the tasks which they've been assigned to. There are obvious security benefits to this feature, such as preventing individual team members from seeing what other colleagues are working on, or keeping certain client details confidential. But this feature can also be used to make the software easier for your team to use. With restrictions, you can also make it so that team members only see the tasks that they've been assigned and literally nothing else. This gives clear focus. Number 6: Intuitive and easy to use. Due to the wide variety of variables between companies, industries, and situations, It's easy for project management software to quickly become overcomplicated. Just remember the key criteria I've outlined here and avoid chasing the latest and greatest shiny feature. Unneeded features create complexity. Complexity creates friction, and friction lowers adoption. There's nothing wrong with a broad set of features in itself, especially if you know that you'll have a use for those many extra features. But an intuitive platform that can be mastered quickly is far more important. Remember, it's going to be your whole team who uses this program, and not everybody is tech savvy. If the platform is awkward to use, difficult to learn, or even just slow when navigating from one page to the next, it's only a matter of time before your team starts looking for ways to limit their need to use that platform. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where people only log into the project management software once per day. They do it right at the end of the day just to tick everything off. This destroys the core benefit of project management software, which is to get your staff to use the systems and to record their progress as they're doing the work. Making the final decision. Before making the final decision on which project management software to use, put together a small focus group to test it out. Help them understand that the purpose of this platform is to make their job easier and get them to run a few projects and tasks through the platform. Then you can just ask for their feedback. Don't expect ringing endorsements from everybody, but listen to the feedback and carefully consider any criticisms before you make your final choice. A word on automation. I love automation as much as the next guy. Who wouldn't wanna have robots doing all of the work? But before you start setting up automatic triggers that fire once the previous step is complete, or before you hook up Zapier to automatically fire a zap every time someone sneezes, let me suggest you try human automation first. What's human automation, I hear you ask? It's how Google approaches things. You know, only the biggest tech company in the world. It would be easy to think that Google would jump straight to automation when improving their search engine results. Of course they would rely on a machine to do all the heavy lifting for them when it comes to calculating these things, right? But that isn't the case. Instead, Google's search team first identifies something that they would like to improve. They then create a hypothesis and supporting documentation to test, or I would call it a system. Then the testing begins with thousands of manual testers testing the results of the change. Google wants to fully test their hypothesis with human oversight. Before fully automating the system. This all takes place long before it's codified and then incorporated into the search algorithm. So what's the lesson here? Think like Google. Do it manually first, perfect it, and then automate it. This applies to all things in business. There's no point in automating something till you're sure that it's worth automating. Next, let's look at your systems management software. It's more common for a company to have project management software or jobs management software than to have systems management software, which speaks directly to the primary reason so many businesses have trouble with their systems and processes. Where do you think most companies store their systems? I think you already know the answer to this. They're often scattered all over the place. They're on people's desktops, some in Dropbox, others in Google Drive or on SharePoint. Some are stored in Microsoft Word and others are stored in text files. Some have wikis, some use WordPress plugins, and some even use Google Sites. The point is, if they're everywhere, that really means they're nowhere. Systems management software solves this by creating a central location for all of your systems and processes. It's the home for your most important asset. Systems management software is purpose-built to make the whole process of business systemisation easy and fun. So how do you find the platform that's right for you? Here's my buying criteria. There are 5 points with checkboxes next to each. There's dedicated systems management software, attaching rich media, permission levels, sign-off, and finally, intuitive and easy to use. Let me walk you through each. Number 1: Dedicated systems management software. My first tip is to avoid storing your systems in document management or file storage platforms. Things like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, SharePoint, anything like that. These quickly evolve into unorganized messes of random folders, files, and inconsistency. Similarly, avoid wiki-style platforms that require coding, HTML, or some sort of specialized knowledge to use. Any platform with a steep learning curve or one that will primarily rely on only a handful of team members to keep it up to date, is doomed to fail. To build a systems culture, you want the whole team to buy in and use it. You're looking for software that has been designed with the explicit purpose of creating, editing, and managing your systems. If it handles your company policies and other training, Well, that's a little bit of a bonus. Yes, it's possible to hack other solutions together, but this typically comes with compromises. Remember, your systems management software will house the most important asset in your business. Number 2: Attaching rich media. When it comes to building your systems, you need to have all of your associated resources in one place. From spreadsheets, to images, to audios, to email templates, to videos, to flowcharts, to any other file types that can't be added through regular text. It's best if you can embed those directly into your systems. For example, your original extraction videos should be embedded directly to the relevant system. The software might require you to first upload that video into a sharing site, such as YouTube or Vimeo before you can embed the video, and this is perfectly fine as long as it can be streamed directly from the system's documentation page without having to go to some external site or having to download the video. The key here is to have everything in one place. Number 3: Permission levels. It's critical to have varying levels of access. Not all systems will be relevant or, for security reasons, need to be seen by everyone. You need to be able to assign systems to roles and then those roles to individuals, thereby limiting what they can and can't see and edit. This particular feature also allows for quick and easy reassigning of roles and associated systems when team members end up moving on or up. This one is a real biggie and often where non-dedicated platforms fall short. Number 4: Sign-off. Another handy feature, and one of the secrets to compliance, is to remove the possibility of the team member saying, "I didn't know!" Team members simply sign off and agree that they have read and understood a system. Be sure your systems management software has this feature. Number 5: intuitive and easy to use. Similar to my recommendation for your project management software, but perhaps even more critical here, is ease of use. Good systems management software should require almost zero staff training to get everyone up to speed. It should look and work in a way in which your team members are already familiar. Avoid excessive, often unnecessary features that overlap with the goal of your project management software. While automated workflows, active checklists, data collection, and all those types of things, they all sound great. Most of these features should live inside your project management software, which manages the who does what by when, rather than making decisions based on, oh, wouldn't that be cool, or, That looks like a great feature! Always come back to the primary purpose of the tool. Systems management software is where your systems are stored so that they can be easily accessed by you and your team. Project management software, on the other hand, tracks all of your projects, ensuring that every team member knows what tasks they should be working on and when they're due. Together, these two components are vital to your success in building a systems-centered business. Software sorted? What's next? Time to make these platforms your own. Step number 1: Customize your project management software. I'm going to keep these next 2 steps super short since it'll be hard to give you direction other than just the basics. This is going to depend heavily on your business, your team, and the software that you've selected. That said, within your project management software, begin by setting up the workspace for each of the different departments you've identified in your business. Things like sales, marketing, operations, finance, human resources, and management. We did that in one of the earlier chapters. Underneath each of the relevant departments, create tasks to match those identified in your critical client flow. And then finally assign the knowledgeable workers that relate to those tasks. Step number 2: Customize your systems management software. Within your systems management platform, create folders, one for each of your identified departments, and you can use subfolders to further help you organize things, and then begin importing the systems that you've created in the earlier chapters into the platform. Assign those systems to the knowledgeable workers and grab the links for each of those systems and then post them in your project management software next to the corresponding tasks. Don't worry if you can't visualize this just yet. It's always easier when you see how someone else has done it. Watch a short video showing you how project management and systems management software works together. It's inside the resources over at systemology.com/resources. Final word on software. To ensure this book stands the test of time, rather than making specific software recommendations by name, I decided to focus on the key considerations when making your decision. As I've said right from the start, no software alone is going to be The silver bullet. People are often drawn to bright shiny objects, and while software may appear to be the missing piece that is going to solve all of your systemisation woes, there's much more to it than just some piece of software. Transforming your business into a systems-centred business needs the right software, training, management, and culture. As you progress through Systemology, you will learn how to install all of these vital components. Case study: Mount Martha Preschool. Mount Martha Preschool is a highly regarded, play-based, non-profit preschool local to the coastal bushlands of Victoria, Australia. The school consistently meets and even exceeds federal quality standards thanks in part to the committee of parents that leads it. Soon after joining, committee member Daniel Power Murfin noticed that poor succession planning was causing stagnation and disorganisation in the decision-making process. When committee membership turned over, new members needed at least a month or more to get up to speed before they could even consider new policy initiatives. Talk about lost time! As a supervisor in the mining industry by day, Daniel was no stranger to the importance of systems in highly regulated industries. That said, he also knew that the red tape many of these software solutions introduced would stop the initiative dead in its tracks for the preschool committee. Daniel followed the Systemology framework and moved from Word documents in Office 365 to an online systems management software, and this was a game changer. Finally, they had a solution that bridged the gap between systems, federal regulatory policies, and training. With all the knowledge stored in one location, Daniel says future committees now have the tools to hit the ground running. What's more, the school is better equipped to honor their values with transparency between committee departments, teachers, and staff. It's amazing what a little reorganization can do. Organize action steps. See our current preferred project management and systems management softwares at systemology.com/resources. Next, identify what software you will use. Step number 1: Customize your project management software. And step number 2: Customize your systems management software. Step 5: Integrate. Integrate chapter summary. The fifth step in Systemology is to get your team to buy into your new systemized approach to business. Positioning the benefits of the new initiative in relation to the individual rather than the company is one of the secrets to making this work. Another is that people support what they help to create. Yes, change management is always easier said than done, but there is some good news here. We have a system for that. Highlights from this chapter include: How to get some perspective and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Why previous attempts to systemise may have failed you. What are the two most important roles in growing your business? How to deal with resistance from difficult team members who fail to follow your systems. Now, the myth that I wanna bust in this chapter is that even if you have your systems in place, that your team won't follow them. Okay, you have your core systems documented and stored, and your software, it's all set up. Time for your business to magically start shooting out profits while your team diligently follows your systems. Ha! You and I both know that's not going to happen. If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. Having the systems in place is one thing, getting your team to follow them is another. This trips up a lot of companies when it comes to systemization, and I hear these stories all the time. You've probably even seen it firsthand, where a new initiative with the best of intentions gets put into place by a handful of key stakeholders, but within a few short weeks, it's back to business as usual. People go back to doing things the way they've always been doing them. The problem is, this isn't isolated to the introduction of systems, but it extends to almost all areas of change within business. Sadly, this also perpetuates the myth that even if you have good systems in place, your team won't follow them anyway. It's actually a perfectly reasonable assumption that if you were to stop the Systemology process at Stage 4, Things aren't going to work for you. But of course, you're not going to stop here. You're gonna push on. You're determined, right? I ask because in many respects, this stage will be the most challenging of the entire Systemology process. It's manageable, and the process is proven, but you need to be ready to push everyone out of their comfort zone. And that includes yourself. The key to ensuring that your business develops a culture where systems are not just created but actually used is persistence. You need to break through old habits, replace them with new ones, and reach the point where your team knows, "This is how we do things here." You will face challenges, there will be resistance, and at times you might even question if your team can make the transition. In these moments, I want you to keep the faith. Many companies have come before you and they've bridged this gap, and I have the confidence that you will too. Also, take solace in knowing that your biggest challenge will come from your existing team members who've been with you the longest and who might already be set in their ways. For new team members, this way of work is all they know, and very quickly they will discover if they're the right fit or not. Identify your strengths and understand your flaws. I owned and worked in my digital agency for a little over a decade. In hindsight, it was a Frankenstein-style business Since it was built up over time with a lot of crazy ideas, tools, and team members all cobbled together. There was no strategic planning or structure. We just kept marching in the direction of growth. More clients and more revenue. If problems came up, I solved them by hiring someone or just purchasing a new piece of software. Everyone kind of did their own thing and we pieced everything together as best as we could. It was functional, but definitely not efficient. It's funny how long it can take you to learn some things, and then, once you learn them, it immediately becomes obvious. You wonder why it took you so long to figure it out in the first place. I always thought that I was a good manager, but it wasn't till the last few years of my time in that agency that I realised my style was the reason we had stalled. Sure, I got on well with my team, and people seemed to like working for me, but I confess I was a micro-manager. If I felt like projects weren't progressing as I imagined they should, rather than coaching the team member or telling them that the work wasn't up to standard, I would often just get in there and do it myself. Now, there's nothing wrong with being a business owner who has a great relationship with their team. But if your business as a whole is going to grow and develop, some positive pressure needs to be applied. Otherwise, you're back to being the person who always steps in and saves the day. To change your business culture, to build a business based on systems, it's going to take a firm hand and the willingness to hold people accountable. You don't need to be a tyrant. You're not going to whip your team into shape, but you do need someone who is going to lead by example and who isn't afraid to tell people what needs to be done. So here's the big question: is that you? Are you the person to lead the charge with this change? You need to be able to assess yourself honestly, push your ego out of the way, and understand your flaws. If you need to, ask trusted colleagues for an honest assessment. This goes beyond making the decision to let someone else take over and run with Systemology. We've already established that many of the steps should be handled by someone who already loves systems and has extra capacity. This is about who should be managing the transformation of your company into a systems-centered business that is dedicated to following processes and procedure and rejects the ad hoc style of working. Ultimately, this is the person who will run the daily operations of your business. For me, as hard as it is to admit, I wasn't the best person to do this. The yin to my yang. Melissa, the person who eventually took my place running the agency, is my perfect counterbalance. She understands, values, and is committed to building our systems-centred business. She's a better people manager than I was. She's well-liked by the team, but she doesn't need to be. This isn't important to her. This allows her to give someone clear instructions, step back, and let them take responsibility for their work. She trusts them to do their job. If a mistake gets made, she's created an environment where team members feel comfortable taking ownership, and she'll work with them to fix the issue. She's also as hard as nails. And she's also comfortable pushing back in situations where the rules aren't followed. As hard as it might be to believe, she even does this with me, the business owner. During my transition, I still had a bad habit of stepping in and throwing my weight around. I might, for instance, get tunnel vision and think of the project I was working on as being the most important. I would put pressure on a team member to get a job turned around quickly without considering their overall workload and how this might affect other clients' jobs. This happened often enough that Melissa took the bold step of posting a message inside our project management software advising everyone to ignore any urgent messages from me. It was a gutsy move, no question about it, but she was well within her rights. A few months earlier, Melissa and I had talked about how hard it was on the team when I would come up with a new idea every other day and then seemingly change directions at the drop of a hat. What was exhilarating for me was jarring for everybody else. They'd still all be coming to grips with my last innovation, and then suddenly, I'd be talking about yanking them in a whole new direction. Off the back of this meeting, we created a system for me to direct my work through her. Talking to Melissa first gave me the opportunity to explore the new ideas without distracting the rest of the business. She could help me weigh up these ideas with the big picture in mind. That way, we could make sure that we didn't overcommit and ensure we only worked on my best ideas. So, there we were. I'd put Melissa in charge, but I was undermining and sabotaging her work. When I went to a team member directly with my urgent assignment, I was failing to follow the system that we'd already agreed to. Her calling me out on this, yes, it was a little bit embarrassing, but it demonstrated to the team that we had a way of doing things, and more importantly, no one was above the law. As you can imagine, it didn't take long to get me back into line. These days, if I have something that I feel is urgent, I can still take it to Melissa, and we figure out how it's going to fit in with everything else that's happening. Sometimes it'll be a case of Melissa saying, "Yes, we can do it," 'But at the cost of this or that, is that acceptable?' It can be pretty scary as a business owner to have someone else in the business challenging your direction, but I actually believe it's required to grow to the next level. Without it, you'll eventually slip back into your old role of trying to do it all and have it all. The leader and the manager. The two roles I'm really speaking to here are the roles of a leader and a manager. The truth is, you need both. The leader is quite often the founder or the business owner. They're the problem solver, quick with ideas and full of drive, passion, and creativity. They're great at starting businesses, inspiring others, and powering them forward through a mixture of hard work, quick wits, and raw instincts. Their blessings are a double-edged sword, though. With too many good ideas, they often find themselves moving on to the next thing before they finish the last. Compare that to the manager who gets things done. They're highly detail-oriented and quite often the glue for the organisation that holds everyone together. They ensure everyone marches to the same drum and is accountable for their work. Most importantly, they are very process-driven and have the patience to see a job through to the end. Yes, of course, you can grow a business without one or the other, but if you have both and they can learn to work together well, that's a recipe for explosive growth. This might also give you some insight into why you may have tried to systemize your business in the past but failed. It's entirely possible that as the business owner, you're a great leader in desperate need of a manager to lock things down. The leader and the manager partnership is one of those things that might be new to you, but once you're aware of it, you'll start to see examples of it in many great growing companies. For instance, did you know that Walt Disney had a brother called Roy? Seriously, Google it. I'm not making this stuff up. Walt was the visionary leader who everyone knew and loved. Roy was the guy behind the scenes making things happen. Or how about Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company? We all know about Henry Ford, right? But what about his cousin James handling the day-to-day operations? Another one? How about Ray Kroc? You know, the McDonald's guy. He took a hamburger restaurant in Illinois, USA, and turned it into the most successful franchise of all time. But he couldn't have done it without the assistance of his right-hand man and manager, Fred Turner. Often, we don't hear about the managers because it's the visionary leaders who are usually the public face of the company, They enjoy, at least to some degree, being in the limelight. Managers may not mind to get some attention, but they don't tend to seek it out. They're too focused on driving every resource and team member to achieving the company mission. Are you a leader or a manager? If you're a startup founder, there's a good chance you're a leader. Some people are a mixture of both roles. But very rarely can you find someone who can do both roles well at the same time. So, who's the manager in your business? You might be lucky and discover that you already know someone, maybe even someone within your existing business who would be well suited for this role. Or maybe you have to hire that person. If this is the case, You don't have to rush your search, but I do wanna plant this seed. At some point, to truly step out of the business, you will need someone to step in and run things. You need to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, and then you need to use this knowledge to help you find a person or persons who will complement you. For now, as it relates to Systemology, It's okay to proceed as long as you have someone you've identified as your system's champion. We discussed this earlier in step number 3, Extract. At a minimum, this person will take ownership over the process and dramatically increase the success of this new initiative. Let's dig a little deeper into how you will roll Systemology out within your team. As I noted at the start of this book, I advise reading through the entire book at least once before following the action steps here, since some of the later chapters, like this one, will help you with earlier ones. Depending on where you are in the process, you may have already introduced your department heads and knowledgeable workers to Systemology, and that's okay. The steps I'm about to cover Speak more broadly to how to introduce things to your team. Now, there are 8 steps here, and obviously everyone's circumstances are different, so you may need to adjust accordingly. Step number 1: Identify who's leading the charge. It should go without saying that you need to convey your determination and unwavering commitment to making this most important change to your business. But you also need to determine who's going to be the best person to lead the charge when it comes to implementation. If you're a leader personality, this definitely won't be the first time you've introduced a revolutionary new idea to the team. So you only have yourself to blame if some of your team members secretly roll their eyes and wonder if this idea will stick. Or if it's just going to be replaced by something new within a few months. If you have a manager on your team, they will be the perfect choice. Otherwise, a department head or a senior team member may be a good fit. Identify this person upfront, get them a copy of this audiobook, or buy the physical version, and ensure you're both on the same page. Step number 2: Know your selling points. By this stage, you can probably already reel off many of the key benefits of Systemology and talk about them with enthusiasm. But I want to give you a few more that you might not have thought about. I want you to have a strong, long list of reasons that you can use to help build some positive pressure. You don't need to memorize this list of benefits unless you really want to. But having them handy, along with a deep understanding of the results Systemology can produce, will go a long way to strengthening your resolve. This list, while not exhaustive, hits the main points and can be roughly grouped into the benefits for team members and the benefits to the overall success of the business. First, the team member benefits. There are fewer errors, and less wasted effort. Improved employee onboarding. Reduced micromanagement. Eliminate single-person dependency. Identify and fill gaps in competency and capability. And finally, empower team members to develop and improve. Second, the business benefits. Duplicate best practices. Improve results for your clients. Free up time for strategy and product refinement. Scale up for profitable expansion. Make the business more attractive to future buyers or investors. Run efficiently even in the absence of founders or managers. Step number 3. Introduce Systemology to your team. Getting all of your team at all levels into one room to announce your plan to systemize is perfectly fine if this is the norm within your business, but it shouldn't be your first venture into the subject. Your partners, managers, and team members are all going to have different questions and concerns, so it makes sense to bring each group into the conversation separately. A top-down approach is the most logical route. Get your partners on board by sharing with them the business benefits. Then move on to your department heads, knowledgeable workers, and team members using the team member benefits. Remember, everybody is different, so you wanna frame things with their perspective in mind. Ideally, you don't wanna move on to the next group of people until the current group shares your level of commitment. Here's the thing, change is scary for many people, and the topic of systems also has a lot of baggage around it. People have preconceived notions on what this will and won't mean to them and their work. Many times, they have reached their conclusions without fully testing their assumptions. We've addressed many of the biggest myths as you work through this book, but there will no doubt be others. It may be unrealistic to think that you can get complete buy-in from everybody on the first attempt. Some people will get it and embrace it, while others may take more time before they fully commit. Just remember, if your team members feel like Systemology is going to make their job harder, or they can't see the clear benefits to their situation, you'll get pushback. Put yourself in their shoes. Think of their current problems and how Systemology can help to solve them. For example, you might say something like, "You know what it's like when you go on vacation or when you're sick and you come back to find all your work is piled up, your inbox and your voicemails are full, and you have 1 million tasks that have been waiting on you and now you need to work double time to get back on top. You spend the next 3 weeks trying to get things back on track for the 1 week that you took off. Well, we're looking to document some of your key systems so it's easier for other team members to step in and help out when you're on leave. Or maybe it's something more aspirational. We would love to move you into a more senior position 'But to do this, we'll need to delegate some of your current duties. By creating some step-by-step systems, it's going to be infinitely easier to elevate your position.' See how those two reasons might appeal to different people? Walk them through the critical client flow and the department's responsibilities and team chart. Ask for their help in refining and tweaking those documents. Have them as part of the process. People are much more likely to stick with something that they've played a part in creating. Remember to set the stage and address any concerns about the process being time-consuming or difficult. Tell them about your plan to make this a two-person job, where someone else will be doing the documentation. All you need their help with is to capture what they're already doing. Easy! Remember, people are great at reading energy, so be sure to introduce this with excitement and focus on the opportunities that it's going to create for everybody. Step number 4: Start the extraction process. With your key players on board, your systems champion selected, and your knowledgeable workers ready to go, it's time to start the extraction process. Work through your CCF using the System for Creating Systems and let your systems champion do the heavy lifting. That is to say, focus on making it as easy as possible for your knowledgeable workers. Step number 5: Introduce your software. If you already use project management or jobs assigning software, simply add the links to your systems which are now stored in your systems management software, and pop those links into the project templates. Remember, the goal with your systems management software is to have all your documented systems already there, easily accessible at the point at which they're needed. Combine this with your project management software, and you have full accountability for the completion of the task to the required standard. Note: Don't expect every team member to open a system every time they're completing a task, especially the more experienced ones. That's okay. Just having them mark a task as complete is a step in the right direction. It's the job of their manager to ensure that it's completed to the required standard. Step number 6: Manage via the systems. Once all the big rocks are in place, you must start to make your systems central to the way that you do things. For example, you need to train your team to always look to the systems first. If they want to know how something is done, if they have a challenge, if they've got a question, or whatever it is, their first port of call should be to review the relevant systems, or at least search your systems management software for the solution. Systems empower your team, and it gives them a resource to get their questions answered without judgment. All too often, particularly with new team members, they fail to ask questions when they're not clear on a task because they're worried about whether it's going to make them look silly or not. A systems database empowers your team to be self-sufficient. Now, I've been as guilty as anyone of slipping back into old habits when we first started this management style, especially when it came to responding to questions from my team. My instinct was to try and solve all the problems myself. I'd answer any question on the spot because it was easy, fast, and I liked being helpful. But the truth is, All I was doing was training my team to come to me whenever they had a problem. Melissa eventually coached me out of this. Another reminder that you need a manager with the courage to stand up to you. The fact was, managing the team this way didn't help me or the team member in the long term. These days, when someone comes to me with a question, the first thing that we do is open our systems management software and look to see if the answer is in there. This makes me happy, since I still get to be helpful, but more importantly, it trains the team member to look for the answers themselves before asking for help. If they can't find the answer, this is an opportunity to improve the system or create a new one. This environment also makes it safe for team members to alert their supervisors when something goes wrong. Individuals no longer feel like they're expected to take the blame. It's always the fault of the system, assuming that everybody has followed that established process. The focus is on improving the flaw in the system rather than blaming the individual. It's just a better way for everyone to work. Of course, if a problem is caused by a team member who failed to follow the steps outlined, their supervisor has a clear path to a resolution. They can start by reminding the team member that by marking a task as complete in the project management software, they are confirming it has been completed to the outline standard in the system. If the standard isn't met, it's a sign that the team member needs further training or a reminder to follow the documentation. This will result in one of two scenarios. Either the team member will get into shape, or they won't. If they don't, we need to uncover why and get to the heart of the resistance. Step number 7, identify resistance and meet it head on. Yes, there's a good chance that through this process, you will meet some resistance. To be clear, I'm not talking about the people who will push back, grumble, or struggle to change the way things are done. Be persistent and patient with these individuals. Make sure they're held accountable for their progress, and these bumps will smooth themselves out. I want to address how to deal with people who either outright refuse to participate, procrastinate, or sabotage to the point where it basically means the same thing. These are the people who create tension in the workplace and who risk undermining your efforts. There are many reasons why people resist change, but some of the more common reasons include: some people may hide behind the idea that no one else in the business knows how to do their job. They feel that this gives them an added bit of job security. The idea that their knowledge and experience is going to be documented could be unsettling because it implies that they might eventually be considered replaceable. Other people have learned how to make their workload appear heavier than it actually is, to the point where they fear that documenting their work might uncover how little they actually are doing on a day-to-day basis. Still others have been with the company for so long and are so used to doing things a certain way that they feel like they have the freedom to dig in their heels and resist change. These can be the trickiest to tackle. Let's not wait for these problem personnel to show themselves. Decide in advance how to deal with these problems depending on your preferred management style. For instance, you might decide on a three-staged approach that starts with a discussion, moves on to some sort of disciplinary action, and concludes with termination. As always, start by putting yourself in the team member's shoes. Try to understand their motivations and help them to see why the change is necessary. It's good practice to try a few different approaches. You might find the solution is as simple as linking people's success with Systemology to their performance reviews and bonuses. However you decide to approach this step, it needs to be clear to everyone that becoming accountable for their work is not optional. Time will be given for everyone to adjust and learn the new procedures, but opting out is not on the table. If this step is making it sound like Systemology is going to result in a round of mass terminations, remember, that this is about preparing for the problem. If you take a benefit-led approach to presenting your new systems, most, if not all, of your team will join in with you. As much as anything, this step is about ensuring you're committed to following through, even if difficulties arise. Don't lose sight of the ultimate goal of Systemology: complete business reliability. Step number 8, build a systems thinking culture. The term culture often feels a little bit airy-fairy, or at best, something that only big companies should worry about. The truth is, it's more important than you realize. Your business's culture is one of the biggest influences on how your team members behave. Perhaps it's because your culture attracts similar team members. Maybe it's because people look to the actions of those around them to decide what's acceptable and what's not. Or maybe it's just a reflection of the health of your business. Now, I'm no expert on culture building, but I do know a thing or two about embedding systems thinking into a business. The good news is, you are already well on your way. Putting systems front and center when assigning tasks, focusing on the way you create accountability, and managing your team via systems all play an important role in building the culture you need to make this work. I also suggest getting clear on the qualities your team members need to have to succeed within your business and building that into your recruitment process. Imagine building a business where you attract the right team members to you and repel those that aren't a good fit. It's entirely possible, and as you would expect, it's a process. The point is, you need to deliberately cultivate this sort of environment. This doesn't happen by chance. In the next chapter, we'll discuss your hiring, onboarding, and management systems. You want team members who are primed for systems thinking, and you need to spot these qualities up front. It's also important to stress that you're not looking for robots who mindlessly follow instructions. Quite the opposite. You want smart team members who think. Systems are simply documented ways to handle recurring tasks within your company. Systems allow your team members to focus on areas where they can add the most value. Heck, we even think it's so important that we added it to our company values. Systems thinking. We always seek out and create systems-centered solutions for any recurring tasks and challenges. For you to achieve complete business reliability, you must become a systems-centered business. This isn't just about having documented systems or the software tools to store them. Your team, at their core, needs to develop a systems thinking mindset. Not everyone is a systems person. Pinned to the wall of my bedroom was a piece of paper known only as The Sheet. Created by my father, The Sheet was his attempt to gamify his children's life. Based on the mission-critical systems that he believed were essential for having a rich, meaningful existence, it offered points for completing various tasks. Things such as washing the car and getting on well with my brother and going to bed at a certain time and cleaning the bird cage and cleaning up the dog poo and those sorts of things. The number of points that I would earn would then determine how much pocket money I received at the end of the week. But this was more than just a simple checklist of chores that converted into our allowance. The sheet was an elaborate system that rewarded consistent behaviour. Points accumulated over time, and exceeding certain limits would result in the award of additional cash bonuses. The idea was that the sheep would encourage and build positive and responsible habits that would become deeply ingrained over a long period of time. I just wanted the money, so I figured out how to play the game. I worked out which jobs provided the most points for the least amount of effort and made sure that I exceeded the 300 points a week for successive weeks to activate the cash bonuses. I cracked the system so completely that my dad had to change the rules. It was either that or get a second job to cover my massively inflated pocket money. I was 8 years old. As much as I loved a good system that was fun and easy to follow, and one where I could maximise my results and pocket money, my brother hated it in equal measure. He loathed the sheet, and if he ever scored any points, it was usually by accident. He simply had a different model of the world to me, and it taught me a valuable lesson. Some people just won't follow your systems, no matter what it is that you do. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. There's nothing wrong with this. It's neither good nor bad. It just is. There's no point in getting upset about this or trying to force people to do something that they don't wanna do. You have decided to build your business a certain way, and if someone identifies themselves as someone who doesn't resonate with this approach, the sooner you discover this, the better. There will be times when you need to make difficult decisions. Just remember, it's worth making those tough choices sooner rather than later. Because you'll be one step closer to building a team who loves this new way of doing things. Case study: Inception Websites. Inception Websites is a comprehensive online marketing agency that focuses primarily on serving chiropractors. As former chiropractors themselves, Mike and Amy Hamilton founded the company when colleagues started asking questions about their own thriving practice. Other chiropractors wanted their secrets to lead generation. So Inception Websites was born. Through a combination of quality outputs and smart marketing, the business quickly picked up speed. They soon had the curse that every entrepreneur thinks they want—more business than they could handle. In the beginning, Mike and Amy saw new client growth of around 3 to 4 clients per month, but as their business started to grow, the number spiked up to 30. The first couple of times that they reached 30 new clients in a month, they found themselves backed up for several months, so they had to pause their advertising to catch up on their work. We would be losing business just because we couldn't handle the customers properly. If they wanted the business to grow with the same exceptional client experience they prided themselves on, something needed to change. They discovered me through my early digital marketing videos, they followed the rabbit hole and progressed to Systemology. It was time to systemize their operations. We started by documenting their critical client flow. They then started to use this to train new hires, and the result? For the first time, they were able to keep their ads running for a full year. No starting and stopping, no letting down clients, and no value surges or dips. And the best bit, Mike found that when we have time to be creative, we grow 10 times faster than when we're stuck in our everyday jobs. Growth, of course, brings with it its own challenges, but now with the company culture of systems thinking, the solutions are swift, and efficient. Integrate action steps. Step number 1: Identify who's leading the charge. Step number 2: Know your selling points. Step number 3: Introduce Systemology to your team. Step number 4: Start the extraction process. Step number 5: Introduce your software. Step 6: Manage via the systems. Step 7: Identify resistance and meet it head-on. Step 8: Build a systems thinking culture. Step 6: Scale. Scale chapter summary. The 6th step in systemology is to extract and organize the systems required to scale your business. Your business, as a system, is only as strong as its weakest link. Therefore, it's vital to document all the areas of your business. The goal is to get your business to a point where there is no single-person dependency and where you're well-positioned to leverage every opportunity that comes your way. Highlights from this chapter include: why the secret to scaling is directly tied to your capacity to deliver. How a solid recruitment and onboarding process attracts superstar systems thinkers to your business. The one exception to the rule that you should capture your current best practice. Why sending your best staff on vacation is one of the smartest things you can do. The primary myth that I wanna bust in this chapter is that systemization destroys creativity. The myth that systemization destroys creativity stems from this idea that systems turn everybody into robots that are incapable of original thought. And this is just flat-out wrong. In reality, systems create space, and space opens doors to creativity, inspiration, and opportunity. Did you know that many of the greatest thinkers and most creative minds in history leveraged the power of systems to increase their decision-making power? Einstein, Jobs, Zuckerberg, and Obama, for instance, all claim to have multiple versions of the same outfit, effectively a uniform, and they'd wear this every day so they wouldn't have to dedicate any brainpower to thinking about getting dressed in the morning. Essentially, they had a system for clothes selection. They believed that this simple system gave them an extra level of efficiency that created space in their brain for more important thoughts and decisions. This is just one simple example, but I can only imagine how many other simple systems they created with the same objective, with each system building on the last, saving a little extra time and creating a little more efficiency. Imagine taking those savings and compounding them over a week, a month, a year, or even a lifetime. How much extra space have they created with just a few simple systems? I'm not suggesting that this is something that you should specifically imitate, but it illustrates the power of systems to nurture creativity rather than stifle it. Moreover, you'll come to learn that your biggest opportunities in business will present themselves when you're thinking creatively and you have the space to take advantage of them. Business owners must learn to step out of the day-to-day operations, to systemize routine tasks, and that way they can work on the highest leverage activities that only they can move forward. So what systems will you need to scale your business? Obviously, and like all things in business, there's no one-size-fits-all here. There is no magical system that's gonna turn your business into the next Amazon, Google, or Netflix. The strategies vary widely from industry to industry, and so too will your circumstances and opportunities. The key is to understand where you are and where you wanna get to, Remember back to the 4 stages of business systemization. This was the pyramid where survival, stage 1, was at the base of the pyramid. Building on top of this was stationary, stage 2. Then there was scalable, stage 3. And finally, saleable, which is stage 4, and that's at the top of the pyramid. Remember, you can get a copy of all of these graphics over at Systemology www.microsoft.com/resources. This chapter focuses on moving you from stationary to scalable. Remember, these stages are linear, and you need to have completed the previous steps to succeed at the next stage. Therefore, at the very least, your CCF, those core systems, must already be documented before you begin this chapter. The CCF focuses on the specific objective of having the business make money without being dependent on any one specific team member. So, be sure that these systems are up and running first. They don't have to be perfect, but as long as you have something in place, you're ready to consider the other mission-critical systems required to keep your business functioning. As we work through the other departments within your business, there's a good chance that you will realize you haven't given much thought to these other areas, and that's okay. Like everything in business, it's a constant work in progress. If we can at the very least identify the holes, it will become infinitely easier to fix them. So where do you start? Just as before, we'll identify the critical systems, select your knowledgeable workers, and begin the extraction process. You can download the worksheet at systemology.com/resources and then just follow the steps along with me. Step number 1: Identify your systems for growth. Look at your department's responsibilities and team chart, the DRTC, and notice the departments that have few or no systems identified. We're going to focus on the critical systems from 3 particular departments. Finance, Human Resources, and Management. We want to identify the next 15 to 20 systems needed for documentation. In this step, we will only need to identify them. These will be listed on a piece of paper in bullet point form. I'll walk you through those three departments. However, if there are other departments that have particular relevance to your business, it's okay to add those in here too. Finance department. Unless there's a pressing need somewhere else in the business, I usually like to start with your finance systems. The good news is finance people like bookkeepers, accountants, and CFOs, they all love systems, and they're usually very happy with a little guidance to break everything down into their component parts. The finance department is made up of a set of repeatable systems that occur on a consistent basis. Invoices need to be issued, wages need to be paid, bank accounts need to be reconciled, and tax obligations need to be met. All of these things need to happen on a day-in, day-out basis. Ask the department head what needs to happen for the finance department to function at a bare minimum. Focus only on tasks you are already doing, not those that you would like to do, And if it helps, it's okay to brainstorm as many ideas as you can to start. We can just simply apply the 80/20 rule after. I like to take out a blank piece of paper and list out the headings: daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. Under each heading, I then list each system that comes to mind as a bullet point underneath those time periods. Then, once you have a good 15 or more systems, you wanna take out your highlighter and identify the critical 5 to 8 systems that are core repeatable tasks. This obviously won't cover everything, and that's okay. We just want a starting point. Remember, your business is already a going concern, and the tasks will continue to be completed as they've always been done. We're just looking for a small collection of tasks that occur on a regular basis and that are critical to the operations of the finance department. Here's an example of what the final output might look like. Under the heading 'Weekly', you might have issuing invoices. Now, you've already identified that in the CCF. You might also have paying expenses, reconciling accounts. Under the heading 'Fortnightly', you might put 'Payroll'. Under the heading 'Monthly', you might put 'Preparing and sharing cash flow and profit and loss statements'. And finally, underneath 'Annually', you might have 'Conducting end-of-year financial analysis'. And that's it! Your goal here is to simply create a list of 5 to 8 systems. Note: if you're outsourcing much of your financial department to a bookkeeper or an accountant, Just focus on the areas that you have control over and where you're required to prepare information for your partners. Yes, in the long term, it is a good idea to develop complete systems for this department, but your current goal is to first free up your team's time and increase their efficiency. Let's move on to the next department, the Human Resources Department. As far as systems go, Hiring, onboarding, and managing your team are amongst the most important areas of business to get right because they directly impact who you hire and ultimately how well they're going to fit into your company. We've already squashed the myth that your team won't follow systems. A-players love to know what's expected of them and how they can succeed in their role. That's why it's so important to have your core systems documented, and you want to set the standards early. Establish right from the start, "This is the way that we do things here," and then you'll be well on your way. How well you do this is one of the biggest determining factors of your success in building a systems-centered business. Magic happens when you define a clear way of doing things and have the right people executing them to those standards. The good news is, and I think you're starting to get the point here, There's a system to attract the right team members, introduce them to your way of doing things, and how you manage them on a daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual basis. Similar to what we just did in the finance department, loop in any relevant team members and brainstorm ideas. On a blank piece of paper, build a list of all those processes relevant to the human resources department. Important note! If you don't have a current way of doing things in the human resources department, don't stress. I will make a unique exception in the next step. That is, you don't have to only focus on the tasks that you are currently doing. List all of the systems that come to mind, including those that you would like to have implemented. Then, just as before, highlight only 5 to 8 of those systems that are core for this department. These might include things like hiring. Now, you definitely want to include this one on your list. Then onboarding, and definitely include this one too. Then you might have things like leave requests, daily team member routines, and annual team member reviews. Like all things, add or remove items as needed and add them to the list that you made for your finance department. Next, let's move on to your management department. This is the final department that we need to take a closer look at. This covers how you choose the strategic direction of your business, how you review performance, set goals, and ensure that you're on the right track. This can be quite a deep topic, and there's lots to cover depending on the size and the complexity of your business. We're going to keep it simple, though. I'm going to steer you to identify systems around your meeting cycles and the agendas for those meetings. Consistent meetings with specific agendas are the secret to great management. We just need to make sure you're not having meetings for the sake of having meetings, and I want to ensure that every meeting is designed to deliver a specific outcome. It might be a daily team meeting, a weekly sales meeting, a monthly meeting with your bookkeeper, and a quarterly or an annual planning session. It doesn't matter the exact rhythm as long as you have something in place. And remember, we're not looking to re-engineer parts of your business just yet, with the exception of those few that we talked about in the HR systems. For now, just capture what you're currently doing Our goal is to make it consistent. Systemology always begins by capturing the way things are right now. If you spot gaps in your current way of doing things, just make a note of it, create a placeholder, and come back to it later once we start the optimization phase. Also, if you follow the meeting rhythms from such books as Scaling Up, Traction, The 12-Week Year, or any books like that, you can simply list these. Include any key staff in this process and brainstorm your current meeting cycles. List them all, and then highlight 5 to 8 of the most critical ones. Here's an example to get you started. A daily team meeting to keep everybody on track. A weekly sales meeting a monthly meeting with your bookkeeper, a quarterly planning meeting, an annual strategy and planning meeting. Once you have these added to your list, you should have a total of between 15 to 20 mission-critical systems split up between your finance, human resources, and management departments. Step number 2: Assign, extract, and organize. You've identified and listed 15 to 20 department critical systems. You may have already realized that we can just follow the same process that we've used to capture the systems from the critical client flow. See step number 3 of the Systemology process—Extract. Simply populate your spreadsheet with the system name, add a description, and list the knowledgeable worker. Then, using the system for creating systems, it's time to begin the extraction process. Remember, it's a two-person job. You've got the knowledgeable worker and the systems champion. In situations where systems might seem a little bit too complex, just remember to start with an overview-style system first. Lastly, save the new systems in your systems management software and add a link to the relevant systems Wherever the task is assigned for completion. Sounds simple, right? It is, but please don't confuse simple with easy. Simple is uncomplicated. Easy is comfortable. This process is simple, but it's not necessarily easy. There is work involved here, and that takes focus and discipline to complete. But trust me, the rewards are worth it. As before, I advise against heavily re-engineering your systems the first time you capture them. Avoid trying to capture things as you would like them to be. It's okay to make minor tweaks, but tremendous wins can be gained by simply modeling what your best team members are already doing and then bringing everybody else up to that standard. Most small businesses lack consistency. And that causes more issues than you realize. The final stage of Systemology is all about optimization, so we'll get there, just hold your horses. Work through the list of the 15 to 20 systems identified in the previous step and begin the extraction process. Capture what you're currently doing, except... When it comes to the rule of capturing what you're currently doing, depending on how you're currently doing things, you may need to make one exception with two of your human resources systems: hiring and onboarding. Building a great team doesn't happen by chance, and it's critical you hire only the best. Trust me, put in the work here and you will be handsomely rewarded. These systems will form part of your new team member's first experience, and it's vital that you bake your systemised approach to business into these systems. If you already have some systems in place, they may need some modification, or you might need to create entirely new systems. It really just depends on your situation. I'm not suggesting that you do anything overly complex here. It might only involve a few modifications to what you're already doing. The goal is just to ensure that you demonstrate to the prospective and new team members that you run a systems-centered business. A handful of small tweaks can have a big impact. For example, a great modification would be to include links in your position description to some of the systems related to the role you're recruiting for. You might even consider adding them to your job ads. In this way, you're effectively saying right up front, "We have a way of doing things here, and you need to be comfortable working this way." You may want to go the extra mile and consider adding Systems Thinking as a core value to your company values list. I touched on this in a previous chapter. Either way, let's look at the two systems you must have in place: your recruitment system and your onboarding system. Firstly, let's look at your recruiting system. The truth is, if you don't have anything currently in place, just having a recruitment system will go a long way to helping you attract the right team members. Average team members like to sneak in under the radar, whereas A-players love a system where they can demonstrate their skills and stand out from the crowd. Here's an example of a basic recruitment system. Number 1: Write and post the job ad. Underneath that point, I have a few bullet points. They include: write the position description and details about the person required, write the job advertisement, create a questionnaire that interested applicants can complete when they want to apply for the position. Post the job ad on popular recruitment websites. Number 2: Shortlist, trial task, CV, and cover letter. The bullet points include: create a shortlist of applicants who have responded and filled out the questionnaire, create a suitable trial task to gauge the skill level of those applicants, send a trial task to the shortlisted applicants. Shortlist applicants again. Ask applicants for a CV and a cover letter. Send successful submissions to team members for review. Number 3: One-on-one interview. The bullet points are: create a shortlist of candidates you want to interview, schedule interviews and advise those who have been unsuccessful, Create interview questions and then conduct the interviews. And lastly, number 4, hire. The bullet points under those include contact relevant referees, select the successful candidate and make a formal offer. Once the successful candidate accepts, advise unsuccessful candidates. And lastly, agree to a commencement date and time for the successful candidate. Obviously, this is just an overview style system to demonstrate the key steps. Over time, you may add supporting documents and subsystems that detail everything from example job ads through to the questions that you might ask in your interview process. When the time is right, I recommend you go deeper into learning about recruitment systems, and there are many great books written on the topic. Most notably TopGrading by Brad Smart. We've also had numerous recruitment systems shared on our podcast at systemology.com/podcast. Remember, the first version of any system is almost always the worst it will ever be. Every iteration improves the system and the results. Team member onboarding system. Now, the second system I advise you to engineer is your staff onboarding process. That is, the steps that a new team member follows to be welcomed into your team. This is another critical system because it helps to set the standards right from the start. Just like your recruitment system, I strongly suggest working in elements of your systems-centred approach into your onboarding. Here are just a few ideas to get you started. Bullet point number 1: Welcome video from the founder. You want to include your company history and story and detail your values, those sorts of things. Bullet point number 2: Training on your core tools and software, things like email, systems management software, and project management software. Bullet point number 3: Explain your CCF and where the new team member fits in within the business. Bullet point number 4: Review of the core systems relevant to their role. Bullet point number 5: Sharing of daily routine. Bullet point number 6: Completion of relevant forms. Lastly, give all new staff a copy of this book and say, 'This is the way that we do things here, and we need your help to build the business following this blueprint. In fact, why not buy a copy of this book for every one of your existing employees? Buy them two if you like! In all seriousness, however you want to approach this, I can't understate the benefits of investing time and effort into correctly onboarding your staff. This will play a major part in their success. These two areas Recruitment and onboarding are the only exceptions where immediate modifications are beneficial and recommended. Continue working through all of the systems that you have identified. The objective of this chapter is to extract and organize the 15 to 20 critical department systems. Your systems champion should drive this, creating a realistic timeline and supporting your team members through each step. Step number 3, identify key team members' critical systems. Clearly, there is going to be a little bit of a lag time in completing those previous steps before you start this one, but I want to get you to start thinking about it. Ultimately, we're working towards an elimination of key person dependency with respect to the daily operations of the business. And sending your team members on vacation really is the only test for this. Technically, you can carry out the same test by firing people, but I think vacations are much more fun. It's natural to feel nervous about this step, but calm your anxieties by reviewing the work that you've already completed. Many of the systems that are critical to key roles have already been captured through the earlier steps. And while there are literally hundreds of systems that can be documented, typically there are only a good few handfuls that really matter, and even fewer that need detailed documentation. This step ensures that nothing absolutely critical has slipped through the cracks. It can be helpful to think of the systems that you're capturing in terms of batches, where batch number 1 would be the critical client flow systems. Batch number 2 would be the critical department systems. And then batch number 3, key team member systems, and that's the one that we're about to complete now. Separating your work into batches in this manner forces you to remain focused and accountable and makes it easier to stick to a timeline. So don't move on to the new batch until you've completed the previous ones. Start by prioritizing the key roles within your business. Typically, I like to start with the business owner, department heads, and key team members that deliver parts of the critical client flow. Just get out a blank piece of paper and create headings for the names of each of your identified team members. Then, starting at the top, it's just a matter of chatting with each team member and asking them the question, 'If you were going to take a month-long vacation, to keep things moving, what tasks and responsibilities would we need to ensure we cover for you?' Let them know that you want them to be able to take a restful and enjoyable vacation knowing that any of their key tasks are taken care of. Focus on recurring tasks critical to the core operations of the business. And help them to brainstorm all of their ideas. Then, as before, just grab a highlighter and identify the most critical 5 to 7 tasks for each team member. The steps are always the same for each batch: identifying, assigning, extracting, and organizing. Just limit yourself to 5 to 7 systems per team member, and I would suggest no more than 5 staff at any one time. Stay focused, get the work done, and then celebrate by actually taking a vacation. Woohoo! You've got this. Step number 4, go on vacation. It's time for a vacation. Not everybody at once, obviously. Start with the business owner and then move on to your key team members. A little extra organization may be required, but with your systems documented organised and integrated into your project management software, it will be infinitely easier for you to assign tasks and ensure that the business continues to operate smoothly. The first time a team member takes leave, it's normal for a few things to go wrong. Don't worry, this is all part of the process. The whole point of sending people on vacation is to spot areas that you missed or ones that can be strengthened. Time to give yourself a pat on the back. You know you've done some tremendous work and you have significantly altered the trajectory of your business. Problems become opportunities. The scale chapter of Systemology is not about creating opportunities. It's about preparing for them. It's about opening up the capacity and the scalability of your business. You have no way of knowing when opportunities are going to present themselves or exactly in what form they will take. But this stage will help you prepare for a wide range of possibilities. That's the best that any business owner can do when planning and preparing for scale. Perfection in this area isn't attainable because it would require infallible foresight, but you can stack the deck in your favor. When you truly master Systemology, you will begin to recognize every potential problem. And every potential problem will just look like another opportunity to create a useful system. Case study: Dan Lenny. Dan Lenny is busting the myth that you can't systemize creativity. In his business mastermind program, he coaches small video production business owners to help them scale. Ironically, he said, "The biggest problem I had in my business was actually me. He's a creative at heart, and yet he felt scattered and distracted by the tangle of daily tasks that stifled his creativity. It was inefficient at best. Making some strategic hires was the next step, but he needed to figure out how to first. In the past, he had the idea about hiring specialists, He thought, "You can just hire them and let them figure it out." But that's not how it works. There's too much room for interpretation, and new hires will just do what they think needs to be done. All new hires need some level of guidance. Like most of us, he started with a project management software, but soon realized that he needed something more than just project management. He needed systems. That's when he came upon my work and immediately began implementing the Systemology approach. He realized that for anyone to work effectively, they needed a framework. Systemology gave him the structure to refine his business frameworks. Then he set a virtual assistant the task of building out his systems. Systems streamlined his onboarding process and colored in all of the grey areas. Dan found liberation in 6 short months, plus a whole bunch of extra revenue. Now, through a partnership, he coaches his business clients to follow the Systemology approach. The results have been stunning. One client removed themselves from the day-to-day operations in only 3 months. They credit systemization with the efficiency that led to their highest revenue month so far. Den insists that the systems help to unlock the creative process. Frameworks give plenty of room for interpretation and creative latitude without bogging the creator down with the minutiae of routine or technical processes. Systems, he says, really do set you free. Scale. Action steps. Step number 1: Identify your systems for growth. Step number 2: Assign, extract, and organize. Step number 3: Identify key team members' critical systems, and then assign, extract, and organize these systems too. And then finally, step number 4: Go on vacation. Step 7: Optimize. Optimize chapter summary. The 7th and final step in the Systemology process involves creating a dashboard that gives you visibility into your business and then begins the process of optimization. We identify the problems, make system improvements, and then monitor the results. When the team becomes unconsciously competent in this skill, it unlocks the door to complete business reliability. Highlights from this chapter include: why trying to imitate McDonald's is hurting your systems development, why watching too many metrics causes confusion and slows progress, how to make systems improvement simple, fun, and automatic. Yes, it is possible! The simple secret to accelerating your business optimization. The big myth that I wanna bust in this chapter is that you're going to need to systemise like McDonald's. This myth, more than any of the others, sets you up for failure. Think of McDonald's as an elite athlete who's been competing at an Olympic level in the sport of business systemisation. They're a lean, mean, systemised machine. They've been training their whole life and they've won numerous gold medals. Now, compare that to you and your business. How long have you been training for? How do your systems and processes look? Compared to them, I think we all look like couch potatoes. It would never make sense to try and replicate the results of McDonald's by trying to follow their current habits, diets, and exercise regime. It sounds silly, I know, but it's not uncommon for someone to get bitten by the systemization bug and then think that their systems need to be at McDonald's level before they even start using them. They start split testing the equivalent of, "Would you like fries with that?" or seeing if the color of team members' shirts affect sales. And they do all of this before they even have a baseline in place. Like it or not, it just isn't possible to create Olympic-level systems on your first go. It takes hard work and consistency over a long period of time. But in truth, you don't need perfect systems to deliver great results. And it probably doesn't even make sense for you to systemise like a global fast food chain. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great lessons to be learned from McDonald's. But remember the 4 stages of business systemization from my introduction? If you try to jump from survival to saleable in one giant pole vault-style leap, you're going to do your business an injury. Let's not forget that McDonald's, in its current guise, is the result of 6 decades of development. If you get the chance, I want you to watch the movie The Founder. It's the story of Ray Kroc and his efforts to turn the original McDonald's restaurant into a franchise. When Ray arrives on the scene, the McDonald's brothers have already created a restaurant that functions as a well-oiled machine, and the movie only provides a glimpse into the years of hard work that went into reaching that point. Before I saw the movie, Warning, minor spoilers ahead. I didn't even realise that the McDonald's brothers had already tried and failed to franchise their business. It took a lot of persuasion on Ray's part to convince them to let him have a crack at it. And while he eventually succeeded, obviously, there were a lot of problems and headaches along the way. The whole project would have crashed and burned if Ray hadn't— Well, if you haven't seen the movie, I don't want to completely ruin it for you. My point is that the McDonald's system was far from perfect when they started. It took years of optimization to reach near perfection. It's good to dream big, but when you translate that into action, start by systemizing based on where you are, not where you would like to be. Optimisation, tweaking, and testing your way to a better business is useless, even counterproductive, if you haven't yet first established a solid baseline. One of the core principles in Systemology is to first capture what you're currently doing. That means, if you're still getting your systems together, now is not the time to start optimisation. It's entirely possible that your business structure is already pretty advanced, and you've already carried out the earlier steps in Systemology in one form or another. And that's okay too. Everyone will go at their own pace. But don't try to mix up the order of the steps or work on more than one simultaneously. You can't improve what you don't measure. There are many reasons each step is ordered and prescribed in the order in which they are, and there are reasons that it's best to leave optimization till last. Perfection, person dependency, and time constraints will all do their best to stop you from getting to this final stage. Moreover, it's not possible to begin the process of optimization till you have consistency in your work. Making it possible to measure your outputs, which in turn gives you a baseline to work from. The deeper you get into Systemology, the more you'll recognize that your business is simply one large system pieced together by a collection of smaller interconnected systems. Everything is connected, and small tweaks in one area of your business can dramatically impact another. For example, by tweaking who you're marketing to and how, you'll dramatically affect your sales. This can then alter your selling system, which can alter the experience of your product or service delivery, and then this in turn impacts the likelihood of repeat business. Long story short, these are just some of the more obvious relationships. The fact is, it's all connected. And it's easy to miss the relationships unless you're watching for them. Continuing on from the last step in the previous chapter, you and your key staff have returned from your vacations only to discover plenty of problems that still need to be addressed. Before you jump into creating your next batch of systems, you first need to create a measurement system. A solid measurement system will highlight the interconnected nature of your systems. It will help you to improve your consistency and allow you to predictably improve your performance. Let's break this down into clear action steps and begin the process of optimization. Step number 1: Create a CCF dashboard to measure performance. A dashboard, at least in this context, is simply a document stored in a central location with all of your key numbers and metrics from across your business. This is updated regularly at predefined intervals. You may or may not already have something like this in place, but either way, it's easy to overcomplicate this step. There are many data points that could be included, and you'll quickly find that collecting data isn't the problem. Analysing and gaining valuable insights that inform your actions from the data that you've collected that's where the real challenge is. So what's the 80/20 here? Of the thousands of metrics that you could put on your dashboard, what are the most important? What will give you the greatest insights to how your systems are performing? You'll be happy to know the answer is right under your nose. Take out your CCF and look at the headings that run down the left-hand side. Attention, inquiry, sales, money, onboarding, delivery, and finally, repeat or referral. This linear process describes the flow that your clients go through in your business, which makes it a great place to start measuring. Over time, you'll discover other metrics worth tracking, but for now, let's just start here. You don't need to measure everything. In fact, focusing on too many numbers tends to do more harm than it does good. So let me challenge you, even if you already have a dashboard in place in your company, let's simplify. Let's set a goal to identify 5 to 7 key metrics that measure the performance of your CCF. I'm going to work from the default template. But you'll want to customize it to suit your own unique CCF. Again, we'll just want to identify one metric for each of these stages, and you can list them out on a blank piece of paper. I'll talk you through each of the different sections, and I'll give you some ideas on what metric you could select. Let's start with attention. The ideal scenario would be to track all of the people who come into contact with your business But if the idea of pooling together multiple data sources to get a blended number is going to represent a logistical challenge, start with something basic. This could just be the number of visitors that end up on your website or the number of people who walk through your shop door. Next, enquiry. Shall we use the number of new email enquiries received? The number of inbound calls, or perhaps the number of proposals that you sent out, or maybe we could blend those figures together, or maybe not. Just pick one, preferably the data that makes it easy for you to collect and calculate. For this example, I'm going to go with the number of proposals issued. Next, sales. You probably sell a range of products. With a range of different price points. But let's start with the most obvious. How many sales did you make? Your bookkeeper or inventory program should be able to calculate this one with ease. Next, money. What's the average price of the product or service that you sell? If you feel that there's too much variation in this figure, use the average dollar price of the central product or service that you used when creating your CCF. Next, onboarding and delivery. There are a range of different metrics that you could be monitoring here. Everything from production time to the number of projects in active development to inventory turnover. There's lots of options. That said, I'm going to combine all of these together to find one metric that gives you a pulse on how you're doing. And that metric is going to be the profit margin. Your bookkeeper or accountant should be able to help you calculate this in a heartbeat. Next, repeat or referral. Maybe you use the Net Promoter Score, or if you're in a business where you get repeat clients, how many times do your clients come back? If you're in the software business, what's your churn rate? If you sell coffins— yes, I'm using that joke again— well, there's not too much repeat business there. So maybe think about how many referrals do you get? This one might be a little bit harder to calculate with your current dataset. But at the very least, it should get you asking the question, how would I measure this? For our example, I'm going to use the number of times our clients come back. When you've finished this exercise, you should have a list that looks something like this: number of website visitors, number of proposals issued, number of sales made, average sale price, profit margin, and finally, the number of times clients return. These metrics focus on key areas of the business, and they're easy to track. Best of all, these numbers probably already exist somewhere in your analytics or your CRM or or your accounting software. It really is just a matter of pulling all of this data out. Next, create a spreadsheet that lists all of these metrics in one row and then use the columns to identify the date ranges. Decide on the frequency in which you want to capture these numbers. I would recommend calculating these figures at minimum on a monthly basis. Weekly is probably better, But just keep in mind that once you start, you're committed to keeping this updated. It's okay to make things easy for yourself in the beginning, and you can always go back and build up to a higher frequency interval later on. I have a graphic here that shows a template table with your chosen metrics running down the left-hand side as row headings and the months of the year as column headings. It won't surprise you to learn that I recommend assigning the responsibility of populating this spreadsheet to someone other than the business owner. It's a simple system that can easily be assigned through your project management software, and you can then add it as an agenda item for one of your regular meetings. If you need a ready-made template, just head to systemology.com/templates.

/resources.

You now have most of the big rocks in place to really take things to the next level. You have identified and documented your most critical business systems. You've created a dashboard and established your management team meeting rhythm. The work is far from over, but with continued focus on consistency and bringing everyone up to the standards that you've created, you're on the track to complete business reliability. It's time to discover who is committed to helping you achieve your vision, where the biggest problems still exist within your business, and what it's going to take to get everybody working together to reach your goals. Step number 2: Spot the problems. Most business owners are really great at problem solving. It's just that many of them get stuck solving low-quality problems over and over and over and over and over and over again. One of the goals of Systemology is to move the business owner up the problem-solving ladder and have them working on the biggest leverage, highest quality, and most important problems of the moment. When you have a clear system for problem-solving, having the business owner shift back into problem-solving mode is actually a great use of their talents. It's simply a matter of identifying problems as they arise, prioritizing them, and then looking for a systems-centered solution. This ensures you do the work once and solve problems forever. At the end of the last chapter, I suggested sending some of your key team members on vacation. If this is the first time that you've done this, when they return, a few new problems will have appeared. It's inevitable. These problems could have been caused by holes in your existing systems, or they might be areas not yet covered by your existing documented systems. If it's a quick fix or tweak, you just want to empower team members to fix up the problems in the moment. This could be as simple as adding a comment to notify the knowledgeable worker to get them to review things. For larger problems, it's a good idea to create a new section in your project management software. You might label it "problems list," and then what you want to do is teach your team whenever they spot a larger problem that's related to a system, or a lack of one, to record the details as a task in this section. In the early days, this list will grow rapidly. Add it as an agenda item to review it within your monthly meeting. If you've identified your systems champion, have them own this task. Allow them to work through the list, categorizing the problems based on your business departments, and then prioritizing it based on the urgency and impact. The approach will always be the same. Just work in small batches and then identify, assign, extract, and organize your systems. There is no exact formula here for calculating the order of priority. But begin by ensuring key team members, in particular, can take leave and still have their core tasks move forward. Over time, your list of problems will begin to shrink, and problems that once seemed quite frequent and never-ending will disappear forever. New problems will still crop up, but they'll be higher quality problems that, when solved, end up creating really big wins for the business. The key is to ensure it's part of your regular meeting agenda so that the team is kept accountable and it's consistently addressed and moved forward. Systems development is a little bit like eating an elephant. You have to do it one bite at a time. Step number 3, begin optimization. Can you believe it? I'm so excited for you. We are into the final step of the final chapter. And only now do you get to begin optimisation. Okay, this is all a little bit tongue-in-cheek, I know, since you're bound to have made some improvements along the way through your journey. By focusing your attention on areas within the business, you can't help but improve them. But I've steered clear of this topic because my focus has always been to first provide you with a solid foundation of systems. Before making any big changes, you need to shift the culture within your company. You need to allow your team to develop consistency and get everyone focused on the right metrics. This is why so much of the work that you've done to date has been focused on capturing what you're currently doing, rather than completely re-engineering and optimizing your business systems. This will seem counterintuitive at times, because it's entirely possible to create a system that will very quickly become outdated. But stick with me here. We're making things easy for your team, and this is probably the first time they've actually started getting some real momentum around the development of systems within your business. Remember, before we began, your business was already mostly working, and we've modeled these systems from what your best team members are already doing. We're looking for consistency here and aiming to bring all of your team members up to that level. It's also comforting to know that your new systems are always the worst they're ever going to be the first time you create them. And if that isn't enough, in circumstances where you know you're going to have to completely re-engineer something, you can keep your documentation light at first. Just do a few videos and some bullet points. That can be enough to get you started. Only once you have a baseline of systems can you create enough space for your team members to start doing their best work. You've also created a healthy, robust work environment, one where problems can be identified, added to a list for tweaking, improved, or completely overhauled. The art and the skill of growing your business is now knowing which areas you need to focus on next. Monitor your numbers, listen to your team, and let your business tell you what it needs. Listen to your business. I remember a good example of this a few years ago in my own business. During a finance meeting, we identified a problem with clients paying on time. The data that we generated had showed that some accounts were 120 days overdue, and yet we were still performing work for those clients. Slow payments are often seen just as part of doing business and the way that things are done in our industry. However, because we had the data and the space to discuss the problem, we identified that this was hurting our cash flow and more importantly, it was something that we felt we could fix. We looked for an easy option first and decided to try and automate the solution. Our accounting software let us send automated emails to clients if payment wasn't received. We created 3 levels of emails. Email number 1: Your account is overdue. Email number 2: 'Your account is really overdue, and if this bill isn't settled, we'll have to stop work.' Email number 3: 'Your account is really, really, really, really, really overdue. We've stopped work.' We knew that it would be clear fairly quickly whether or not this was effective. The short story was, it wasn't. There was a slight improvement, but it appeared that clients were just ignoring those emails. We knew from previous experience that if we called or even sent a personal email to the client directly, we'd often get a response. But the automated solution just wasn't working. While we would have loved to have solved the problem first go, often you have to have a few goes at it. It's just part of the process of finding a solution. We'd implemented our first idea, gathered the data, and found that the issue reappeared on our problems list. In our next monthly meeting, someone floated the idea of taking payment upfront and using automatic billing. The idea was to get payments to arrive consistently, in advance, and without any action required from our clients. But this would require a little bit more work than writing just a few emails so we spent some time talking over the pros and cons. Would the new clients agree to this, or would our conversions suffer? How would our existing clients feel about making the switch to automatic billing? Despite some reservations, we decided that the potential benefits outweighed the downside, and so we adjusted our invoicing process. The new process was step number one, 1. New clients would be advised that auto-billing was required and that work would not begin until the first payment was received. 2. Existing clients would be asked to switch to the new system. 3. If an existing client objected, they would be permitted to remain on an account system with the understanding that if they were late with a payment, they would subsequently be transferred to auto-billing. Now, yes, we did have a little bit of pushback, but nowhere near as much as we feared, and as we hoped, we saw an immediate improvement. Whereas before, clients would be 3 or even 4 months late, now payments were made in advance, on time, every time. Naturally, because this was a new system, we just continued to watch our metrics. Even though it quickly appeared to be the winning solution, we needed to keep an eye out for any unexpected side effects and be ready to adjust accordingly. The takeaway from this story is the beauty of having a simple system for problem solving within your company. Step number 1: Identify a problem and add it to your problems list. Step number 2: Discuss, devise, and deploy a solution. Step number 3, monitor and review the results. And then finally, step number 4, if the solution doesn't deliver the expected results, go back to step number 1. If the solution does work, document it and then make it a new part of your process. It's obviously not a complicated system, but it's extremely effective once you make it part of the way that you and your team work. In the early days, it may feel a little bit like you're going around and round on a merry-go-round, but don't despair. This isn't a bad thing. The goal is to reach a point where your core systems are solid and you go through a cycle of identifying problems, fixing them, and then moving on to the next one. Business is simply a game of problem solving. Wax on, wax off. The accelerated method of optimization. You may recall earlier I mentioned the wisdom one of my mentors shared with me about hiring a coach, consultant, or expert in their field of expertise to help create the systems. While I caution against this in the early days, having worked your way through much of the Systemology process, you're now extremely well positioned to get the most value from working with consultants. You have a baseline and you know your key metrics. So before any re-engineering or major changes take place, you can identify your current performance. This is the ideal scenario for a coach or a consultant because you're giving them something to work from. The process is still the same. You just share with them the problems you're experiencing and they'll advise on a solution. The difference is now you have a system for implementing the new changes swiftly and then a mechanism for reviewing the results. Working with an expert can be an extremely smart way to accelerate things. Keep thinking about your business as a collection of systems, and you'll recognize that the more you focus on building up your database of systems, the more valuable it becomes. Which brings us back to the last of the 4 stages of business growth: saleable. This is what you're working towards. You may not be ready to sell, and you might decide that you don't ever want to sell, but by building your business as though it is saleable, you'll open a world of opportunities that you never knew existed. Case study: Diggidy Doggy Daycare. Multi-award-winning doggy daycare centre, Diggity Doggy Daycare, manages canine activities, exercise programs, grooming programs, and day spas. Owner and founder, Jeanette Farron, was responsible for creating the business vision and managing staff. Running a doggy daycare was a demanding experience. There were a multitude of stakeholders to manage, including the dogs, their owners and staff. Handling live animals also required high standards and attention to detail. After running the business for over 13 years, Jeanette felt that it was time to exit the business. From the beginning, she had plans to sell the business, and with a background in business management, she was well aware that the best way to get top dollar when selling a business is to have the entire operation documented and running like clockwork. Two years before the sale, Jeannette started the process of systemisation. The first areas that corporate buyers look at when valuing a business are its accounts and systems. "The earlier people can educate themselves about systems, the better," says Jeannette. While she had already been diligently documenting procedures, she started to uncover holes that were proving difficult to fill. At this point, she came across Systemology and attended one of our live workshops. Systemology gave me a lot of clarity and momentum to organize my systems, Jeanette recalls. She started the process by documenting her critical client flow. It took some hard work, but Jeanette went from working crazy full-time hours in the business to stepping out of the daily operations and working on the business. Towards the end of the process, she stopped going into the office completely. While her hours within the business decreased, her confidence around selling Diggity Doggy Daycare for a great price increased. I knew that we had done everything and more for the business to be a really good proposition for buyers. Especially corporate buyers. "At the point of selling the business, we were running at full capacity. Systems and processes were on point and financials were solid. This gave the buyers confidence that they could take this model and then deploy it in other locations," says Jeanette. All ended well for Jeanette. She was able to exit her business and command a high multiple of profits. The eventual buyer highly regarded Diggidy Doggy Daycare's systems, and they played a huge role in getting a top valuation. Jeanette is currently travelling around Australia, taking the time to think about her next endeavour. Well done, Jeanette, you're an inspiration to many. Optimise. Action steps. Step 1: Create a CCF dashboard to measure performance. Step number 2: spot the problems. And finally, step number 3: begin optimization. Now is the time. Congratulations! You've made it to the end. We've covered an enormous amount of ground, so it's a really good idea to stop and take a step back and look at the 7 stages of systemology from a high level. Stage number 1: Define. Stage number 2: Assign. Stage number 3: Extract. Stage number 4: Organize. Stage number 5: Integrate. Stage number 6: Scale. And finally, stage number 7: Optimize. Most books in this genre use their closing chapter to remind their readers of all the benefits of what they've just read and why they should act on it right now. But in this instance, it feels a little bit redundant. In my experience, the vast majority of people that come to me to learn Systemology do so not because they want to be convinced of the benefits of systemizing their business, but because they're already sold on the idea and they just need a plan to make it happen. I'm the first to admit that business systemization is not an original idea. It's been around for decades. You may have even tried to systemize in the past but failed. What you needed was a system for making it happen, and this is the gap that Systemology fills. Every small business owner deserves to have a business with complete business reliability. This is the reason I assume most people will listen to this book. And if you've listened all the way through to this final chapter, you're already likely convinced of its merits. The argument for systemization is strong, and when you walk through the process, it's almost impossible to deny. No, a desire to act is not your biggest obstacle to getting started. The obstacle is when. When will systemization work for you? Become your business's top priority. What we know for sure is that as time passes, your future reality will happen automatically. The question is, what reality will you have? The fact is, doing nothing costs you more than being at the same place at some point in the future. The pathway to the future is never a straight line. It's curved and it accelerates as time passes. Do nothing and you will automatically drift down. Moving up and riding the curve upwards takes clear, decisive action. So what options do you have? If you lower the priority of systemization for too long, jumping from survival to saleable is, at minimum, riskier, harder, and more costly. And the reality is that no matter how far away the upwards curve feels to you right now, at this point in time, you're as close as you're ever going to be. Now is the time to make the jump. This has become even more relevant with everything that's going on in the economy right now. The world is changing before our eyes. The good news is business systemization has never been easier. Your team has never been more open to change than right now. Don't miss this window for opportunity. Perhaps one of the best ways to move people from "should" to "must" is to focus purely on the bottom line, so let's do that now. How much is not systemizing costing you? While this is a tricky question to quantify exactly, since The effects of systemization are so far-reaching. Don't worry, there's a calculator for that. Head to systemology.com/resources. That link will take you to a financial calculator that provides a basic formula for calculating profit. This allows you to observe the effects of small improvements in multiple areas and how that can impact your business. Small gains when multiplied out equal big wins on the bottom line. Now, I don't want to get too caught up in the maths here, but I do want you to understand the numbers we'll be working with. Firstly, there is attention—how many people become aware of your business. Secondly, inquiry—the percentage of people who become interested prospects. Third, Third, sales, the percentage of people who go on to make a purchase. Fourth, money, the average price of the products or services you sell. Fifth, repeat, the number of times a client comes back. And finally, sixth, the margin, the profit you make after your expenses. Now, if these numbers look familiar, it's because they're derived from your CCF and the CCF Dashboard. They're the key metrics from within your business, and they're the numbers we're going to look to improve as we install systems. Now the question is, what size improvement do you think you can make by improving your systems? Do you think with some new marketing systems you could increase the number of people who learn and inquire about your business? Do you think that you could improve the number of sales your business makes by documenting what your best salesperson says and then getting all of the other team members to follow suit? Could you add a step to ensure that team members always look out for other ways to help your clients and upsell where it makes sense? Do you think having a consistent way of onboarding clients and delivering work could reduce errors and increase efficiency? Would all of these changes lead to your clients having a better experience that will in turn increase the likelihood that they'll come back and they'll also refer new clients? Do you think that with a focus on your systems, capturing your best practices, getting everybody following these new processes, and in some areas completely re-engineering your systems, Do you think it would be possible to get even a 10% improvement in each of these metrics? Absolutely, and of course it's possible. I've seen the introduction of systems skyrocket performance across the board, far in excess of 10% wins. But even with a conservative outlook, 10% wins are well and truly achievable by installing good systems. Now, here's the kicker. What do you think the impact would be to your business if you saw a 10% gain in each of these numbers? I'll give you a hint. It's not 10%. When you dig into the numbers, you'll discover that those 10% wins compound each other and improve the bottom line profits by almost 80%. Let's look at an example. Attention: Imagine you get your advertising message in front of 100,000 people. Enquiries: 20% of those convert from a browser to an enquirer. That would be 20,000 people. Next, sales: 25% of those enquiries end up making a purchase, or 5,000 sales. Money: your average product price is $200. Repeat: your clients purchase on average once per year. And finally, margin: you make 25% profit margin on your total sales. To work out your profits, You multiply the sales by the money, by repeat, and by margin. In this example, that puts our bottom line profit at $250,000. Sales, 5,000, multiplied by money, 200, multiplied by repeat, just once, that would equal your revenue, which is $1 million. Now you times your revenue by your margin, which is 25%, and that gives you a profit of $250,000. Now, let's see what happens if you make a simple 10% improvement in each of these metrics across the board. Attention. Now you get your advertising message in front of 110,000 people. Enquiries. 22% of those convert from browser to enquirer. That would be 24,200 people. Next, you improve your sales by 10%. Now, 27.5% of those people end up making a purchase. That would be 6,655 sales. Next, money. Your average product price is increased by 10% to $220. Then for repeat, your clients now purchase on average 1.1 times per year. In other words, 1 out of every 10 clients make a second purchase. And finally, with your margin, you now make 27.5% profit margin on your total sales. So let's quickly look at the maths. Sales, 6,655, multiplied by money, 220, multiplied by repeat, 1.1, equals your revenue. That's $1,610,510. Now, take your revenue, multiply it by your margin, 27.5%, and then that equals your profit, roughly $442,890. Can you see the power in this? Simple 10% improvements in each metric gained through deploying systems increases the net profit from $250,000 to almost half a million dollars. That's an extra $190,000 in profit from just a handful of 10% wins. And don't forget that these are just conservative numbers. Get more than 10% in just one or two of these areas and the bottom line profit soars. These are just rough numbers too, and no doubt you'll have to make some guesstimates, but play around with the calculator and see what the impact could be to your business. The point is to show you the real cost of not installing systems. In this example, it is costing the business $190,000 each year not to take action. And that's just the bottom line. Systemology delivers many unintended and welcomed benefits. But if you want to get down to just the numbers, it's well worth finding out how much it's costing you to not systemize. Be prepared for opportunities. I'll leave you with one final story. And this is the story of how I wound up on a TEDxYouth stage in the Netherlands giving a talk about, you guessed it, systems thinking. I wish I could give you a formula like, seek out speaking gigs on a specific subject, build up a speaking portfolio, connect with a particular influential person, and then you'll score a spot. The sad news is I don't have such a system. The seed of the opportunity started early in my career when I was working in the stock market education field. I used to help people design trading systems. When I was just starting out, I did a few speaking events and then I uploaded these videos to YouTube before I moved on to new things. Cut to 15 years later and a young guy on the board of TEDxYouth tells his father that they're looking for an international speaker and then he asks if he knows anyone who could be a good fit. For reasons unknown, this guy's father remembers watching me on YouTube over a decade ago and then suggests to his son that he reaches out to me and see if I'd be interested. Crazy, right? I get an email out of the blue asking me if I'd like to be a TEDx speaker, which for me was one of the easiest questions to answer. 6 months later, I'm on stage. But here's the real reason I'm sharing this story. For the right person, speaking on a TEDx stage is a huge opportunity. It's instant recognition, and it can do amazing things for your brand. But what most people don't realize is that there's a little more to it than just jumping on stage and talking for 18 minutes. The really tough part comes before the presentation. Firstly, every TEDx Talk has to be strictly non-commercial in nature. You can't pitch anything, and there's no fee for appearing. So there's no real direct benefit to your business. You also have to cover your own travel expenses and accommodation. So there's a real cost for the privilege of speaking. And that's before we talk about the hundreds of hours you're going to have to spend preparing and practicing the talk. It's a pretty big commitment with no immediate commercial gain. But does that mean it isn't an opportunity worth pursuing? Of course not! Sometimes the best opportunities are those that most people are unwilling or unable to pursue. Now, whether or not this sort of opportunity would make sense for you, that's irrelevant. The point is that the opportunities present themselves all the time. Some you might decide not to pursue due to the time or money deficiencies, while others you might just miss because you don't have the headspace to see them. Maybe there is a system for becoming a TEDx speaker, but if there is, I don't know it. My TEDx talk came about through yet another nonlinear sequence of events that I couldn't replicate if I wanted to. Getting the opportunity was not something that I had any control over. But being prepared to take advantage of the opportunity when it presented itself was absolutely something within my power. The truth is, being ready to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves will always get you the biggest wins. I suppose that's kind of obvious by definition. Opportunity is a time or a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. Whether it's doing a TEDx Talk in the Netherlands, working with Michael E. Gerber to launch his book, or selling the MCG, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia's most beloved sporting ground. You'll learn more about that last one when you watch my TEDx Talk. You must be ready when the time comes. Accordingly, if I would wish anything for you, it's that you have the space in your own life to be able to take advantage of these nonlinear opportunities when they present themselves. I know if you're good at what you do, if you take the time to connect with others doing good work, and you build a reputable business that genuinely solves your clients' problems, Opportunities are going to present themselves, sometimes when you least expect it. I won't repeat my TEDx talk now. Instead, I'll include a recording at the end of this audiobook. But a lot has happened since then, and I've thought a lot about what I would say if I had the opportunity again to share my thoughts on systems thinking. If I had a do-over, I would discuss how creating systems is hard work, and how you have to have the discipline to stick with it. It's mostly simple and straightforward, but it's far from easy. I sometimes think that, in my talk, I made it sound easier than it actually is. But by now, I think you know what's required. Now is the time to get started. Make this happen, not just for you, but for your team, for your family, and for your community. Stick to the path and you'll create results beyond your imagination. Epilogue: Tragedy or Opportunity. There's no reason I couldn't have written this book a couple of years earlier. For quite some time now, I've been honing the Systemology approach and collecting numerous amazing stories of its application in a wide range of different businesses in disparate industries. But for whatever reason, I had a sense I wasn't quite ready. Maybe I was scared I would fail. Maybe it was the universe waiting for the right moment. Maybe I was just busy, and I find writing books a slow and painful process. Whatever the reason, I'm glad I waited, because more recent case studies and my own personal experiences have illustrated the power of Systemology beyond what I could have ever imagined even 12 months ago. In fact, shortly after completing the Systemology manuscript, I had an unexpected development that allowed me to produce an epilogue so perfect, you would be forgiven for thinking that it was part of some master plan. It started with a phone call. Melissa, the incredible systems-oriented manager of my digital agency, contacted me to say she needed to head back to America to take care of some urgent family matters. Thanks to Systemology and Melissa's commitment to keeping these systems running when she took leave, the business didn't miss a beat. The team stepped up and everything kept ticking along nicely. But after a few weeks, Melissa returned and announced what at first was some devastating news. She had planned to move back to America for some personal reasons. It was like a bombshell had hit. Melissa resigned. So what was I to do? Should I try and replace Melissa? Or take back management of the business myself? Neither option was appealing. My passion for the agency died years ago, and with Systemology at a critical point in its development, this wasn't the time for me to get pulled back into things. Even if I did quickly find the right candidate, it would take my time to get them up to speed, time I felt I couldn't spare, which really only left me with one alternative: to sell the business. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the right time for me to completely let go of the agency. The universe was giving me a friendly little push out of the nest. And letting me know that it was time to go all in on Systemology. Remember the 4 stages of business systemization? Number 1, at the bottom of the pyramid, was survival. Number 2 was stationary. Number 3 was scalable. And at the top of the pyramid, number 4 was saleable. To be the best example of what I teach and to take this business through to completion, Selling the agency was a natural conclusion. I set to work contacting a handful of people within my network. I had no interest in creating some kind of bidding war because my priority was finding someone I was confident would take good care of the agency. It wasn't just about leaving my years of hard work in someone else's hands. It was also my amazing team who were trusting me to find someone who would take good care of them. Within a couple of weeks, I had some good interest and two offers on the table. Both interested parties had solid credentials, but in the end, it was clear which one was the right choice. He was someone that I'd worked with previously, so he was already familiar with and highly valued our systems-centered business. He had a great reputation in the industry and had plans to stay true to what it was that we had built. Even then, there was no need to rush. The potential buyer was appointed as an acting CEO. This gave us both a chance to do our due diligence. I got to see how he would handle the business, the team, and the clients, and he got to look under the hood, so to speak. That way, he could examine the finances and the systems. Once we were both ready to sign on the dotted line, we negotiated a fair sale. A high multiple of annual earnings. We had the legals written up and the deal was done. It was rewarding watching how smoothly everything came together. Once the sale was completed, I asked the new owner what it was that attracted him to the business and what helped him reach the final decision. Naturally, I was hoping without any prompting that he'd refer to the systems that held the business together. And I wasn't disappointed. The financial performance of the business was important, of course, but seeing how comprehensively the systems were defined and recorded, resulting in the business that had been running independently for 3 years, gave him the confidence to take the helm. I didn't sell the business just so I would have a nice epilogue for my book, but it just goes to show you the importance of being prepared. And building a business founded on solid systems. Without this, what options would I have had? Sheesh! Without systems, I wouldn't have had a saleable business. To quote an old Australian saying, I would have been up shit creek without a paddle. Fortunately, I was prepared. Systemology gave me options. Now I know with every fiber of my being that Systemology Transforms businesses from survival, to stationary, to scalable, to saleable. And you know what? With the sale and my full focus now on Systemology, I'm probably starting at the same place you are right now. We have successfully moved through the survival and stationary stages. And now we're working our way through scalable, on our way to saleable. The steps that took Melbourne SEO Services through the entire lifecycle are the same steps I'll be using again with my current business. If that doesn't demonstrate the courage of my convictions, then nothing will. What's next? Anything's possible. I can't wait to hear your story. For additional resources, you can head to systemology.com/resources. I've got a bunch of cool useful tools and templates and example systems, interviews, and a range of additional material that will support your understanding of the Systemology Method. There's even a copy of the weekly allowance score sheet that my father created to gamify the chores my brother and I were responsible for. I'll explain this in more detail in my TEDx talk, which I'll play for you right now.

Why am I holding this piece of wood? And more importantly, why have I given you a piece? It just looks like an old piece of wood painted green around the edges, doesn't it? But it's so much more than that. It holds the key to get everything you ever wanted in life through the use of simple systems. This is actually part of a secret that I learned from my dad back in 1988. He developed this system called the sheet for my brother and I. It was a system where we could earn points for taking different actions, things like brushing our teeth, making our bed, and washing dad's car, those sorts of things. And then at the end of the week, he would add up all the points that we'd earned and use a scoring system to calculate how much pocket money we'd get. So if you earned above 300 points, you'd end up getting yourself $7, which back in 1988, as a 6-year-old, that was quite a lot of money. And I can tell you firsthand that it buys a whole bunch of candy. Now it's funny to have a look at the sheet now and see I could earn 2 points points by going to bed at 10:15 PM on a Friday night. That's 10:15 PM on a Friday night as a 6-year-old. I think Dad rigged the sheet a little bit because he just wanted someone to stay up late and watch movies with him, and I was only too happy to help. But clearly, Dad was a pioneer in the gamification of life, and For me, I loved the sheet, I embraced the sheet, I knew exactly what needed to be done to get the maximum amount of points to earn the most pocket money every single week. And I played the sheet so well that Dad needed to adjust the point system to reduce the weekly payout, because as he put it, he said I was bleeding him dry. Now, this idea, the sheet, it really had a very profound impact impact on me and the way that I see the world. As organizational psychologist Marshall Goldsmith said, "We don't get better without structure." And really, that's all the sheet was. It was a simple form of structure designed to create a predictable outcome, which seems like a really odd quote to cite right at the front of this TEDx talk when the theme of the event out of bounds. You'd think something like the sheet rules and structure, that would remove the creativity and serendipity of life. But the reverse is actually true. Simple systems, they allow you to live a life of freedom, a life that's out of bounds. Now I know this sounds like a really exciting topic, doesn't it? Systems. But stick with me because what I'm going to share with you quite possibly can change your life. I want to share with you a process for becoming the system architect in your life, and it's 3 steps that include: first, becoming consciously aware of the systems around you; second, identifying the inefficient ones, testing, tweaking, and improving them; and then finally, moving out of bounds. So first off, you need to become aware of the systems around you. For me, when I was doing the sheet, it's not like I instantly saw all of these systems around me. It wasn't actually until much later in my life. I was living with my mum in a rented 2-bedroom flat, and I set myself a goal. I wanted to buy mum a house because she'd already given me so much, and I wanted to give something back. So I was in the final year of my schooling, and I needed to make a decision.

Decision.

It's like I hit that crossroads. Was I going to go the traditional route and go to university, or was I going to go out, get a job, and get to work? So, against the advice of many, I ended up taking out a big loan and decided I wanted to learn how to invest in the stock market. So I started studying some of the legends. I figured I wanted to be the next Warren Buffett. That was my idea, because that's where the money and that it helped me achieve my goal as quickly as possible.

So, as I started to study all of these legends in the investing world, I was— it was interesting, they all had their own unique approach.

They all had their own way in which they invested their money. But I did notice a common element, a thread that links them all together.

And that was all of these great investors, they had a system, a set of rules that would outline how they would invest.

It'd tell them what they should buy, when they should buy, when they should sell. And oftentimes these rules, they were written down. That way they could be tested and tweaked till they got the desired outcome, which was just to make profit consistently from the stock market. So really, systems, they're the Holy grail when it comes to investing. Now, systems, it's a funny thing. Once you start looking for them, you start to see them everywhere. It's a little bit like when you get your first car, and before that you didn't see that car anywhere, but once you buy a car, you can't help but see it everywhere. And you ask yourself, has this car always been there, or did everybody go out and buy that car because I did? And they're copying you. Obviously those cars have always been there, it's just you became more aware of them. So I was doing some research and I came across a study that the World Health Organization did in 2007. They were looking to reduce post-surgical complications, and to do that they decided they were going to put in place a 19-point checklist. And this simple idea of creating a checklist had such a profound impact on what they were trying to do. Basically, they managed to reduce post-surgical complications, things like infections, by a third, and they halved death rates by a half just by putting this very simple system in place. And I began to realize that your life, it's just a collection of systems. Whether it's your health, whether it's your relationships, whether it's business finance, it's just a collection of systems. And whether or not you're consciously aware of them or not, you know, some operate at the subconscious level and some you're very much aware of. But if you're aware of them or not, it doesn't actually change the impact that they have on your life. I mean, if you eat poorly and you don't exercise, you're going to be overweight. And just because you didn't know that it existed, that's not going to change the outcome. An unhealthy system is an unhealthy system. So you have to be very conscious of these systems that are going on. It doesn't matter where you learn these systems as well. It could be from a parent, it could be from a friend, it could be from a teacher, and it still has a real impact impact on your life. And not only that, what makes it even more of a challenge to spot these systems that are going on, oftentimes the results of them, they're not felt in the moment. It's like it creeps up on you. I mean, it's not like if you miss, you know, one day of exercise and eat poorly, you're going to wake up overweight. It's a gradual process. So you need to stand guard at the doorway of your mind and be quite conscious about the systems that you allow your mind to run. Which leads me to the next step in this process for becoming the system architect of your life. Now you're more consciously aware of some of these systems, what we need to do is identify the inefficient ones, test and tweak and improve them, and then you'll start to see some real positive effects. So I wanted to give you a real practical example, something that you could apply in your life and see some immediate results for. Now, I want you to ask yourself, what's, what's the process that you go through when you're deciding that you're going to pack for a holiday? What's the system that you run? It might not have even been something that you consciously think about, Maybe what you do is you think on the spot, and you ask yourself, "Oh, what should I take on holiday?" And you keep asking yourself that question until you can't come up with anything else. But that's a pretty poor system at best, and it almost guarantees that you're going to forget something. A much better approach would be to write a simple checklist, something that you could refer to each time that you go on holiday. Now, the first few times you look at it, you might need to test and tweak it a little bit till you get it just right. But then after that, every time that you use this simple checklist, it's probably going to save you 5, 10, 15 minutes every time. Now, I don't know how many times you're going to go on holidays.

You're probably going to go on a few holidays every year. Yeah?

I hope you get to go on a lot more.

That probably works out to a good few hundred holidays over your lifetime.

And if you save 15 minutes every time, that ends up being a good couple of weeks' worth of packing that you're saving. That's a lot of packing. Now, I don't know what you're going to do with this extra time that I'm saving you now that you're starting to put this idea of a travel checklist in place. Maybe you'll learn to paraglide.

Maybe you'll pick up scuba diving.

Maybe you'll learn to juggle. With chainsaws on a unicycle. I'm not too sure what you'll end up doing, but that's a pretty good case for why you should create simple checklists. But that doesn't even really scratch the surface because there's a whole lot of other intangible benefits that you get as well. Obviously, it saves you a little bit of time, but it also reduces your stress as well because you don't have to worry about forgetting something something, and then that frees your mind up to think about other things, and it starts your holiday off on the right foot. But a word of caution before you all jump out of your seats, because I can see there's a few of you, you're all super eager to go out there and create checklists for everything and systemize your life.

I can tell, a few of you.

But before you do that, I want to give you some advice.

From someone who went a little bit systems mad.

You don't need to systemize everything in your life. Most of the systems already work pretty well. So it's not about creating a system on how you cut your toenails or tie your shoelaces. The real skill is to identify the inefficient systems in your life, things like your morning routine, and how you prepare for an exam, or a simple travel checklist. They're the systems that you wanna really focus in on. Which leads me to the final step in this process for becoming the system architect of your life. Now you're more consciously aware of these systems that are going on around you. You can identify the inefficient ones, you can test and tweak and improve them, improve them. Now finally, you get to move out of bounds. Psychologist and bestselling author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi hit the nail on the head when he said, control of consciousness determines the quality of your life. And systems give you that level of control. Now more than ever, your brain is getting hijacked and distracted by all these different things that are going on, whether it's a text from a friend, whether it's checking your social media updates, or whether it's surfing on YouTube. All of these activities and thoughts, they rob your mind of the space it needs to think about the really big ideas, the ideas of impact, things that can change the world, things like space travel or self-driving cars or artificial intelligence. Intelligence, virtual reality, or medical breakthroughs. We live in such an amazing era in history with so much disruption, and this disruption creates opportunity, but you need to have the right foundation, the right structure, and the right systems in place to be able to take advantage of this. Now for me, I'm working on a new project. I'm creating The Sheet 2.0, the ultimate gamification of life. And I've found my first test subject, Nathaniel Charlie Jennings. Now Nathaniel doesn't quite know it yet, but I was the original tester, the alpha tester of The Sheet, so I know all of the loopholes, and Nate, he's not going to have it so easy. Because I, I know all those secrets. But I have been thinking, because he's not quite ready yet to get entered into this program, but I have been thinking about the advice that I'd give him. I'd say, "Son, you can live a great life by identifying and becoming consciously aware of the systems around you. If you can spot the inefficient ones, test and tweak and improve them, It's hard work and it's a lifelong endeavor, but I guarantee you'll get everything that you ever wanted in life. And there's a chance that you might even live a life most would consider out of bounds. Which leads me back to this wood. Why am I holding this piece of wood? And more importantly, why have I given you one? It just looks like an old piece of wood painted green around the edges. Edges, right? But I want this to serve as a reminder for you, because I know when you get given really good advice, sometimes it's easy to forget in the moment. Now, you might not know, but Australians, we're obsessed with sport. We love cricket, we like Aussie Rules football, and we have this stadium. It's called the Melbourne Cricket Ground, or the MCG for short. Now, it's hard to explain how important the MCG is to Australians, but it's the largest stadium in the southern hemisphere. It holds over 100,000 people. All of our major sporting events get held there, and it's almost like a religious icon.

We love this place.

We can't get enough of this place. I think you're starting to get the idea. Well, this piece of wood This photo was taken from the MCG in 2003, the first time that I went out of bounds. I had this idea, because they were doing some renovations on one of the old stands, and I had this idea to get my hands on a lot of the discarded wood and carpet and then sell it off as sports memorabilia. So that's exactly what I did. I took the wood and the carpet and I chopped it up into little pieces, and then I announced to the media that I was selling Australia's most well-known sporting stadium for $24.95. And as you can imagine, the media ate this up. They loved it. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, they all wanted to cover the story. And it was my first big entrepreneurial breakthrough. Now, you can bet your bottom dollar none of this would have been possible without some pretty amazing systems. Because when you're selling thousands of these and you're shipping them around Australia and around the world, you need to be running a smooth operation. And my systems kept me cool, calm, and collected. Now, you hold a piece of wood in this— in your hands. This is a piece of history, and I want it to serve as a reminder for you to become consciously aware of the systems around you. Test tweak, and identify those inefficient ones, and live a life that's out of bounds. Thank you.

Now for the final secret to making Systemology work. You must take action. But like all team sports, you're not gonna do it alone. Share your progress, photos, and questions on your favorite social media sites with the hashtag #Systemology so we can support and encourage you on your journey. Acknowledgements. I couldn't have written this book alone, and while I mention many mentors, collaborators, and friends throughout the book, book, I wanted to say a special thanks to a specific few. Carolyn Jenyns, my wife, my rock, my inspiration. My boys, Nathaniel and Jordan. I will be the best example I can be. Then there's Alan Dibb, Brad Sugars, Gino Wickman, Melissa Crowhurst, Michael and Luz Delia Gerber, Mike Rhodes, Nick Thakralal, Peter Williams, Simon Bowen. All the Business Systems Summit speakers and guests, there are too many to mention, but you've all played a very important role in getting me to this point. Thank you. The Systemology team: Bill Dower, Emma Gough, Eric Putnam, Christian Basilio. Hold on to your hats, guys, we're about to go for the ride of a lifetime. Our Systemologists and partners, you are the messengers and it's time to take this message worldwide. Thank you for believing in us and together we will change the world. Our clients, a few of whom have shared their stories within this book, and the hundreds of others who have helped me refine my process. And finally, you, the listener, well done on buying this audiobook. Like Neo did in The Matrix, you have just taken the red pill. Welcome to Wonderland. Now I will show you how deep this rabbit hole goes.

Woo-hoo!

You made it! I hope you are as excited as I am. This has been a Systemology production. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this audiobook, please be sure to review it and share it. If you would like to find out more about Systemology, you can visit our website at systemology.com. This audio recording and the text is copyright Systemology 2020. The end.