tags:: on/business on/systems #source/book Productivity
author:: Sam Carpenter
read:: true
Summary - Source

Write a Standard Operating Procedure for everything you do.

One can compensate for the negative outcome of a recurring problem, but without repairing the errant process that caused it, the problem will undoubtedly occur again.

A seemingly isolated problem is not isolated at all.

Inaction is action.

Since you are making choices all the time anyway, focus on making more active choices and fewer inactive choices.

owners of small to medium sized businesses break loose; to eliminate organizational inefficiency so growth can happen, profits can increase, and true personal freedom can be found

The Work the System method compliments the brilliant works of elite motivators and business/personal gurus such as Steven Covey, Anthony Robbins, Jim Collins, Robert Ringer, Michael Gerber and Dale Carnegie. Better said, the method gets underneath these proven methodologies and makes them even more potent.

Many corporate managers and entrepreneurs/business owners see the world as a complex, confused, random mass of sights, sounds, and events. And because of this misperception of reality, the leader is working long stressful hours, killing fires and performing endless recurring tasks…and is almost always contending with cash-flow problems. There is no foundation for building solid infrastructure, coddle customers, train staff properly or do the creative tasks necessary for growth. Usually, family life is a struggle too.

The leader doesn’t see the less-than-perfect mechanisms that are producing the bad results.

The systems of life are there, working constantly, whether one sees them or not. So it follows that unseen (and therefore unmanaged) systems will produce random (and undoubtedly) bad results.

A successful leader sees and understands how the machinery works, and then makes permanent adjustments to those mechanisms to achieve desired results.

The Systems Mindset is logical and self-evident as it produces incredible efficiency at work and in personal life. The added bonus? A relaxed, confident state of mind that stems from solid command of events and outcomes.

Every result and situation in our lives is the end-product of an underlying step-by-step linear system…and most systems work just fine!

View the workplace as it is: a collection of individual linear systems – how the phone is answered, how a complaint is handled, how a sales presentation is performed, how customers are billed. Know that these systems are separate from each other. (Yes, of course they interact, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t independent entities.)

As a matter of policy, everyone in the organization will execute each perfected system in exactly the same sequence every single time – yet everyone understands that if a system can be improved, the adjustment will be made instantly. This “bottom up” strategy is a key element of the work-the-system formula.

Your job is not to be a fire-killer. Your job is to be a fire-prevention specialist.

Stop expending energy in the constant repair of the bad results that have been produced by your unseen and therefore unmanaged systems. Instead, spend your days observing and then managing the systems that are creating the results.

“If solid goals are established and the majority of time is spent manipulating systems toward those goals, great results will materialize naturally.”

Testimonials

"Work the System is integral to the Mindvalley operation. Simple and powerful…essential reading for the CEO."
– Vishen Lakhiani

One of the most useful business books you’ll ever read.

Josh Kaufman