Would it be helpful to watch a live creation of the CCF? Watch Nick Griffiths from MediBooks (an Australia-based bookkeeping firm) as he walks you through the creation of his. Sometimes all it takes is seeing someone else follow the process for you to ‘get it’. www.SYSTEMology.com/resources

That said, I’m not a big believer in hiring unskilled fifteen-year-olds to do all the tasks in your business for minimum wage (unless you sell hamburgers … then I’ll grant you an exception). Don’t create every system for the lowest common denominator. Take Reed Hastings’ (founder of Netflix) advice from the Masters of Scale podcast: “What we failed

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 your systems over time (we haven’t even got to the optimisation stage yet). A reader with so

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 this gives them added job security. The idea that their knowledge and experience is going to be documented could be unsettling because it implies t

Here are a few ideas to get you started: • Welcome video from founder (include company history and values) • Training on your core tools and software (email, systems management and project management) • Explanation of the CCF and where the new team member fits within the business • Review of the core systems relevant to their role • Sharing of dail

Step #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 – covers all the systems related to how new leads and prospects are generated for the bu

The takeaway from this story is the beauty of having a simple system for problem-solving within your company. • Step #1: Identify a problem and add it to the problems list. • Step #2: Discuss, devise and deploy a solution. • Step #3: Monitor and review the results. • Step #4: If the solution doesn’t deliver the expected results, go back to step #1.

For larger problems, it’s a good idea to create a new section in your project management software. Label it ‘Problems List’ and teach your team, whenever they spot a larger problem that’s related to a system (or lack of one), to record the details as a task in this section.

than it actually is, to the point where they fear that documenting their work might uncover how little they actually do on a day-to-day basis.