How Does Your Business Work While You Are Away?
How does our business work while we are away? Have we set up systems that are robust enough to work well, regardless of whether we are there or not? In my mind, a sign of a good system is one that is followed as part of the daily and weekly routines that are built into the way our business works. Meetings are held as scheduled; we have people to run them, even if a key person is absent. Actions are carried out and our customers needs are met. And our business systems continue to be used and audited.
What to look for?
When you return from your holiday, you have the opportunity to see what worked well and where improvements are needed. Here are some of the key things to consider while conducting a post-holiday review:
1. Which systems continued to work well while I was gone?
2. Which processes or systems failed?
3. Are the key process documented?
4. Have the key people, plus a back-up person, been trained in these processes recently?
5. Are these processes visual? It is clear what the “right thing to do” is? Is it nard to do the “wrong thing”?
These five elements will start to give you a clear picture on what works well in your current business and where there are gaps, causing the processes to fail when you aren’t here to provide the constant guidance. So if you need get organised ahead to your next holiday and make sure your processes are robust enough to survive your absence for a few weeks, give your TXM Lean Solutions a call 1800 319 552 and get started.