In the Level 7 System we embrace the idea that the key to success of your organization is dependent on the quality of your systems. The better your systems, the better your business. If you want to improve your business, improve your systems. If you have a problem or frustration, you have a systems problem.
Now just because you have all your systems well documented, tested and neatly organized in 3 ringed binders or stored conveniently on a company server, doesn't mean you will get the results you want from them.
You still need to ensure that your people are actually operating them.
The image below illustrates one of the single most important conversations your business needs to have in order to ensure you get maximal performance from your people and systems.
The very important conversation centers on the idea that the work people do everyday are reflected within their systems for their positions.
Assuming you were to have a meeting with the people in your organization, here is an outline of the conversation.
1- Despite our individual talent, skills and experience, as a business we must depend on the quality of our systems to ensure we achieve optimal and consistent results. Some of you may have even contributed to or actually written the systems. Yet, we must rely on our systems for our results not the knowledge in your heads.
2- For now on the pressure to perform and produce is on the system. The only thing you are accountable for is to operate the system. The system is designed and tested to produce the result. If the system isn't working, we must fix the system.
3- Each of you have a specific set of systems oriented for your role and position in the company. When you show up to work your guide on what and how to do what you do everyday is within YOUR OPERATION MANUAL. In other words, and this is most important, the work you do each day and the content of the manual are NOT distinctively different. Your work, job, results are the systems.
4- If you find yourself doing work that doesn't have a system, then you are either doing the wrong work or we need a new system.
4- When each and everyone of us understands and embraces this idea, we will ALL succeed in the business.
When a business can make this connection between the work outlined within your systems and what people do everyday, your business will produce consistent and predicatable results. If you fail to make the connection between the work people do and the content of your operation manuals then, the truth is, you've completely wasted your time documenting your systems in the first place.