Monday
Aug182008
When should you build a checklist?
Monday, August 18, 2008 at 2:55PM
If you're a small business owner and you haven't read Michael Gerber's book The E-Myth you've got some catching up to do. I am a big fan of Berger's because so much of what he advocates is common sense. For instance, if you're the owner of a business you can take five minutes to do a task yourself or you can spend an hour writing out the instructions so someone else can do it. The thing is if you spend five minutes guess how long you'll be doing that task...FOREVER. If you spend an hour guess how many times you'll have to do that task again...NEVER. As a whole these checklists build a how-to manual for your business. We call this an operations manual.
The problem as business owners is that we rarely have enough time to sit down and write out the instructions. The temptation to just get it out of the way in five minutes is too much for us. We crave action, we crave closure, we crave being able to check one more item off our to-do list. For me it all comes down to two things: timing and format.
Let's start with format. You can get all wrapped up in fancy binders, fonts, titles, and tabbed sections or you can actually get some work done. The fact is all businesses need an operations manual but very few need a glossy, professionally published document to impress the HR department. I favor checklists because they focus on HOW a job should be done, the are easy to CHANGE by inserting or deleting certain steps, and they can be used ON THE JOB. You don't need a lot of fancy narrative explaining WHY the job should be done. The WHY should be covered in your job descriptions and culture. Operations manuals and more specifically checklists are about the HOW.
Format also deals with how all of these checklists will be stored. You can pick any method that makes sense as long as it passes these three criteria.
Timing is the other major issue with generating a useful operations manual. I do two things to make sure I have the time to put together checklists that help my business. First, I schedule one day per week to work on my business. It's rare that I get the whole day to do things like financials and checklists but by not scheduling appointments, avoiding vendors, and spending time with employees I have a lot more time on this one day for doing things like checklists. It takes a little discipline but ask your staff for help. They can be invaluable in guarding your time and making sure you stick to priorities.
Second, if I know it's going to be more than two months before this particular task or type of task comes up again I don't give myself a choice. I MUST prepare the checklist, even if it means staying after hours to do it. A good example is our storm preparedness checklist. At the moment tropical storm Fay is rumbling around down in the Florida Keys and threatens to hit our immediate area as a hurricane in the next twenty four hours. We don't currently have a checklist for tropical storm and hurricane preparedness but I'm building one today because I don't know when we'll get this opportunity again. The important thing here is to draft the checklist while you are doing the task. Otherwise you're going to miss something. If you can't be assured of another forthcoming opportunity to build a comprehensive checklist you must take the time now to make sure it gets done.
Checklists aren't the big hairy monsters that most business owners think they are. With the right format and a few extra minutes you can build an operations manual that helps your business run without you.
The problem as business owners is that we rarely have enough time to sit down and write out the instructions. The temptation to just get it out of the way in five minutes is too much for us. We crave action, we crave closure, we crave being able to check one more item off our to-do list. For me it all comes down to two things: timing and format.
Let's start with format. You can get all wrapped up in fancy binders, fonts, titles, and tabbed sections or you can actually get some work done. The fact is all businesses need an operations manual but very few need a glossy, professionally published document to impress the HR department. I favor checklists because they focus on HOW a job should be done, the are easy to CHANGE by inserting or deleting certain steps, and they can be used ON THE JOB. You don't need a lot of fancy narrative explaining WHY the job should be done. The WHY should be covered in your job descriptions and culture. Operations manuals and more specifically checklists are about the HOW.
Format also deals with how all of these checklists will be stored. You can pick any method that makes sense as long as it passes these three criteria.
- Changes can be delegated. If you are the only one who can make changes you've only created more work for yourself. It's important that your checklists be maintained in a system that others can access and edit when given permission.
- Each checklist is a distinct file or document. When you give someone permission to update a checklist you want to make sure their changes are limited to that document. By keeping everything separate you can maintain the integrity of your operations manual.
- Changes are available immediately. This is where technology becomes your friend. If you have ten employees and each keeps a printed copy of the operations manual on their desk it's going to be hard to make sure everyone is using the latest version of each checklist. If all documents are maintained on a company intranet or file server it's much easier to keep everyone on the same page.
Timing is the other major issue with generating a useful operations manual. I do two things to make sure I have the time to put together checklists that help my business. First, I schedule one day per week to work on my business. It's rare that I get the whole day to do things like financials and checklists but by not scheduling appointments, avoiding vendors, and spending time with employees I have a lot more time on this one day for doing things like checklists. It takes a little discipline but ask your staff for help. They can be invaluable in guarding your time and making sure you stick to priorities.
Second, if I know it's going to be more than two months before this particular task or type of task comes up again I don't give myself a choice. I MUST prepare the checklist, even if it means staying after hours to do it. A good example is our storm preparedness checklist. At the moment tropical storm Fay is rumbling around down in the Florida Keys and threatens to hit our immediate area as a hurricane in the next twenty four hours. We don't currently have a checklist for tropical storm and hurricane preparedness but I'm building one today because I don't know when we'll get this opportunity again. The important thing here is to draft the checklist while you are doing the task. Otherwise you're going to miss something. If you can't be assured of another forthcoming opportunity to build a comprehensive checklist you must take the time now to make sure it gets done.
Checklists aren't the big hairy monsters that most business owners think they are. With the right format and a few extra minutes you can build an operations manual that helps your business run without you.
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