What procedures do I need?
The logic answer is: Start with the procedures which are fundamental to the business.
We call these core functions the "business backbone."
The journey begins with generating a lead, progresses through the sales process, then moves to creating a sales order, which triggers the delivery of your product or service.
Along the way, you manage all the supporting processes, ultimately ending with receiving payment.
To keep things simple, we recommend starting with Marketing, Sales, Delivery, and Administration.
Every business—whether it's a large corporation or a small local shop—relies on these essential functions.
For example, a multinational company may have a global Marketing team, while a corner store may rely on local advertising.
Sales in a tech company could involve a CRM system, while a small café might take orders at the counter.
Delivery could mean shipping products worldwide or providing a service in-person.
Admin covers everything from managing payroll in large firms to simple bookkeeping in a small shop.
You can adjust these categories later as needed, but they cover the key functions in any business.
The important thing is that you can look at your system structure and clearly identify where each of your systems sit within that structure.
There are a number of ways to work out exactly what processes or systems you need within each of these areas. While we tend to use a mind map to create a big systems picture of the business, you could effectively use Post-it notes, ordering them under each of the systems areas you nominated. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to add detail at this stage. You’re simply trying to get an overall view of the systems you require. You will always feel more in control if you start with a small area and grow your systems from this solid base. Creating an overwhelming, fully detailed map of your business systems is more likely to promote fear than confidence.
Who will work on my procedures?
Procedures are meant to show the one best way of doing each task or process.
A kind manager or business owner might believe they're the best person to create the systems for their business.
However, there are a few reasons why this approach often doesn’t work:
- You're not on the front lines: Your perspective may be outdated since you’re not directly involved in day-to-day tasks.
- Your role is to steer the business: Your focus should be on leading and growing the company, not getting bogged down in operational details.
- It becomes ‘your system,’ not ‘their system’: If you create all the systems yourself, your team is likely to view them as your rules rather than something they own and believe in.
True accountability comes from ownership, and ownership only happens when your team is involved. If they aren’t part of the system creation process, they won’t feel responsible for it.
Let’s put it into perspective.
Imagine a boss handing their employee a folder and saying, “Here are all the systems you need to do your job.”
Naturally, the employee might feel skeptical or resistant, thinking, “How could someone else describe my job better than I can?”
What are the results?
Zero Involvement. Zero Ownership. Reluctant Accountability.
By involving your team, you'll foster ownership, accountability, and much better results!
Where should you start?
From the complexity of your product to the way your team works, these factors will influence the systems you need.
When building procedures for your business, it's essential to evaluate several core areas to ensure smooth operations and long-term success.
- Product or Service: The more complex the product or service, the stronger the systems required for development, storage, and handling.
- Market Expectations: Higher market expectations demand systems that ensure your product or service consistently meets or exceeds those standards.
- Customer Needs: Your systems must align with customer needs, adapting as these needs evolve over time.
- Employee Workflows: Systems should match the specific work environments and styles of your team, whether in an office, factory, or service setting.
- Compliance Requirements: Ensure your systems support compliance in areas such as accounting, HR, and industry-specific regulations.
- Risks and Benefits: Understand and manage the risks and benefits in your business to maintain a competitive advantage.
By focusing on these areas, you’ll create effective systems that support growth and mitigate challenges.
Appointing a Champion
While you shouldn’t be the one creating the systems for your business, it’s helpful to appoint a Champion to lead the process.
Your Champion won’t be responsible for creating all the systems alone. Instead, they will serve as your representative, guiding and supporting your team as they collaborate to develop the systems that shape your business.
It's important to clearly define the responsibilities of your Champion and communicate them effectively to your team. To get the most out of this role, keep these points in mind:
- Make it clear to your team that the Champion is there to assist and support, not to act as the "systems police."
- Emphasize that the procedure belong to the business, not to the Champion.
- Ensure your Champion has dedicated time to focus on their role, without distractions from other duties.
- Offer ongoing guidance and genuine support to help them succeed.
- Provide regular feedback and be open to the feedback they give you.
Involve the Team
So, having established a systems champion role,
Who else do we need to involve?
The simple answer is: everyone who can earn their place at the table.
You should involve those who have the knowledge, expertise, or experience relevant to the system you’re developing. Avoid including anyone who can't or won’t contribute effectively.
There’s an ideal number of people for productive system-building.
Two or three is optimal.
More than four or five can lead to some people "checking out" instead of actively participating. Having someone at the table who isn't contributing can also make others feel self-conscious and hesitant to share their ideas.
This is especially true if someone in authority decides to “just observe” – even if they say, “you won’t even know I’m here,” the team will absolutely feel their presence and may hold back.
Lastly, when working together to build procedures, avoid judging others' contributions.
It's much more productive to collaboratively review and refine a draft than to criticize while it's still being built. Most people tend to go silent after just a couple of judgmental remarks on their ideas.
How Should We Capture Our Systems?
We suggest to rely initially on a flowchart for each process or system.
We will always recommend that you add video, written guides, checklists, forms and the like to support implementation, but the core of our systems remains visual.
We can easily add other visual cues to the flowchart – software icons, role tags to indicate who performs a particular step, and the name of ‘props’ used (the checklists, forms, templates, videos, etc).
By using these visual cues, the user quickly recognises that the text component of the flowchart is always an instruction or question.
Last suggestion about how to methodize your business?
Be pragmatic.
In the words of Arthur Ashe, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
