Get the Secret Knowledge Out of Your Head

Good systems and procedures are the springboard to growth.

Mike Van Horn 
#11 in the series

Turn “seat of the pants management" and the things that "only you can do" into systems and procedures, so that you can hand them off to others—and focus on your growth, profitability, and ease of operation.

This workbook helps you build up the systems and procedures you need for growth, profitability, and ease of operation.

Topics covered

  • What is a system? What are procedures?

  • The trap of “only I can do this.” Moving from secret knowledge to delegating

  • Systems are the springboard to growth. How to become a systems-generating wizard

  • Checklist of small business systems and procedures

  • “Yeah-but…” Why businesses resist systems

  • From secret knowledge to duplicating yourself

  • How to develop systems and procedures (it doesn’t have to be you)

  • Don’t reinvent the wheel! Others have already created most of these systems.

  • Overcoming resistance and inertia

  • Templates and exercise sheets

Warm up exercise

From the workbook

Why do you resist putting in systems?

Do any of these apply to you?

  • “Only I can do this key job. I can't tell others how to do it."

  • “The personal touch is what makes us special. Doing things by the book will take the soul out of our operation.”

  • “All our transactions and jobs are so different. We need to be flexible. Systems just get in the way.”

  • “I prefer to wheel and deal, and come up with the best decision for each circumstance."

  • “My people balk at adopting productivity-enhancing systems. I have tried to install new ways to do things, but they dragged their feet and just wore me down.”

  • “It’s too expensive and time-consuming to install these systems and procedures.”

  • "We have decent systems, if only I could get my people to use them correctly."

  • "Our systems worked fine for years, but as we grew they got clunkier and clunkier."