Understanding Processes vs Policies vs Handbook

So the first thing to think about, and I touched on the idea of the difference between systems and procedures, sops those sorts of things versus policies in a handbook. So systems are very prescriptive. Step one, do this. Step two, do that. Step three, do that. Policies and handbooks are more broader. Here are the rules of the game. I think Namiki called it that in the chat and I think that's a great way to think about it. It's almost like the catch all for how things are operated. And they're really critical as a way to, for lack of a better word, lock things down. Or if things are happening in your business that you aren't happy with, you then get it down. This is how we do things here. Which then helps with the enforcement because then you can go, hey, we have a policy on this. It's a way to blame the system, not the individual or the person or for you to be the bad guy. That's what our policy is. And consider any. I'll try and zoom in a little bit. Any staff member that you have, maybe especially in the early days when you're figuring all of this out, if there's anyone's that keep finding the loopholes. I don't know if anybody has team members like that. Especially in larger organizations where they happen to find the loophole for how to get an extra sick leave day or bundle something together or expect to get double pay on this day or all like those loopholes, those individuals consider them as gifts. They are people who come into your organization who help to tighten your processes and policies up and then get it down. Just like a system or a process, we want to make sure that it's always the system's fault. So if someone finds the loophole, you want to come back to either the system or the policy or the procedure to tighten this up so that way it doesn't continue to be a problem. Now when it comes to handbooks and policies, I know for smaller business it can feel a little bit stuffy and it's like values. Values for a lot of organizations are stuck up on a wall and they're in a nicely laminated thing with big words that nobody really knows or cares about. And they go, oh yes, we've got values. You want to make this as real as.

So the handbook needs to be fun and non technical and human. And it needs to cover a range of different things. So this is our handbook. The handbook introduces a little bit about the organization. There's a message from me. It'll talk about the organizational chart and then it goes into a bit of a background about the business and the clients. It'll cover things like your values.

It'Ll cover things like probationary periods, leave processes, those sorts of things. Now I'll give you a template on where you can start from this and you get something into place and then this will organically grow over time and you'll be able to start to add additional policies in and things as you go.

One of the areas that we've added in is this section, Systems Culture. And as part of the original business systems accelerator, I created a video that was very specifically for team members to explain to them. I recorded it generically and didn't talk about a particular company and I just talked about and this is how we do things here and this is how you move up in your organization and this is what a system is. All of that is built into this.

Handbook that then inducts them into our systems process, covering things like a handful of the myths and things like that that's pre recorded and chopped up and ready to go. And you'll see how we then share this with the team member on how they work through it. Because what are you going to do on day number one? You're not going to say, hey, here's my handbook. Read it from start to finish. That's we need to then also look at how we make this consumable. But it talks a little bit about also how situations, what warnings are and how things can get escalated and those sorts of things. So the takeaway here and there's other work out there around how to build a handbook. This is just my take on it and trying to take the best bits of it. But then the bit that we've added in that's a bit more unique is a systems culture flavor most of the way through with some very specific systems culture training in that onboarding or in this handbook. So that's the first piece of this, the second piece, the department specific policies. So if the handbook and a great handbook you can Google is, I think it's maybe 37 signals handbook basecamp and there's a few out there that publish their handbook. I think this is one that is well done. This is the 37 signals handbook. So I'm going to give you my template. I'm going to suggest something like the 37 Signals Handbook and then you're going to basically.

Mesh that in with your own company, do a little bit of rewriting. So it's got your DNA and your insight into it. But this is now so Much quicker with obviously ChatGPT and training, custom GPTs and things like that. So we have the handbook and then you have. This is where over time, if there are certain departments in your business, we might create specific policies that are relevant to specific departments. So we happen to use a thing called Pipedrive. We're actually in the process of moving that to HubSpot, but it has to do with some of our policies around following up leads and how quickly we get back to them. This is one of those catch all rules that I was talking about that then means it's easier for us to follow up and enforce things. So that's the first bit getting those two pieces into place. The last bit here that I wanted to cover underneath the policy section is then how this relates to position descriptions. So we then store our position descriptions in System Hub here. So let's dig into one like Maggie. So Maggie's from our marketing team. Now, position descriptions again, another key component for setting the right expectation around what it is that you expect and what they will be looking over. So we've got the key responsibilities.

We'Ve got the duties and responsibilities and the skills and qualifications. Now the, the last bit because this is pretty standard, there's nothing special here other than try and build in some systems thinking components into these position descriptions. So one of Maggie's responsibilities is to continuously improve and optimize marketing workflows to enhance productivity and effectiveness, to ensure that all team members are trained on and adhere to established systems and processes. This plants the seed early on for all new team members that are coming on board that this is the way that we do things here. Down underneath the duties and responsibilities.

It'S important that the team member train new and existing staff to ensure consistent application. So I'll share with you some of these templates just so you get a vibe for it. And then over time you also want to start to think about which systems and processes relate to those team members or that particular role. So again, when you're recruiting right up front, it will link through to certain systems and processes. Actually this jumps into the Asana task. I'll talk a little bit about Asana in moment, but this is then one of her responsibilities. Now my vision.

For System Hub 2.0 is once you start linking the systems to a particular role and then you assign a role to an individual, this connection can happen a little bit more automatically. But for now again it's tying all of this together and then presenting it. I think these three areas are key as far as getting a handbook that references systems thinking, getting department specific policies, and then having position descriptions that not only reference systems thinking, but also link to specific systems within the position description. Now this will change and evolve over time because obviously new tasks are going to get added, certain ones are going to get removed. And that's one of the reasons why I want to try and see if we can get the machine to do this a little bit more organically. But stitching this together again, it just sets that level of expectation. Especially like when a new team member comes on board in the first couple of weeks. Like I said, you want to make them as productive as you can and doing valuable work that adds to the business rather than just busy work as quickly as possible. Part of your position description, you might only list three or four systems and you just think in your head, what are the first three or four tasks that I want this new team member to cut their teeth on right when they get started so that they can learn your CRM, so that they can learn how you onboard a client or whatever it might be for the relevant role. Now, all of this lives inside your System Hub account. Already we've revamped underneath this policy templates and that's inside all of your accounts. So it's in the italics just here.

We've gone through and taken our employee handbook and I've got the template here for you. And then we're highlighting the bunch of bits that you'll need to update with your company. Now just consider this a starting point. I still want you to add your own flavor, add your own culture, add your bits, add video, what's important to your organization. But this ends up being a really great starting point to accelerate. Just a heads up, that clip was taken from a session in our Systems Champion certification program, which is the world's first and only program for systems champions to to help you build a systems culture and develop an AI first approach and roll it out inside your organization. To find out more, head over to systemology.com systemschand and I'll see you in.