Mike Clark's Business Bites: Are you the limiting factor in your business?

A simple system for optimising time invested in training is to use the notes taken to create a simple how-to for the task taught. Photo / Unsplash

Do you need more time at work? Are you often interrupted by people asking how to do things? Could your business operate without you there?

In many companies a new employee will take three to six months before they start to be productive enough to cover their costs. How quickly did your latest employee start to be productive? Putting in place a simple system can dramatically improve this.

How evolved your business is right now is easily measured by looking at whether you are person run, system and process run or culture run. If everything relies on you - all decisions, all sales, all training etc then it goes without saying you are the limiting factor.

When you create systems and processes that enable your team to do many of these things you will often free yourself up but still find the need to check. When culture runs a business everyone is aligned and you can trust the decisions and outputs will match goals and plans created and agreed upon.

When a new person joins your team they have a lot to learn and will often take plenty of notes. A simple system for optimising this time invested in training is to use the notes taken to create a simple how-to or standard operating procedure for the task taught. This means the knowledge is captured and can be referred to and used again.

Here is my three-step approach:

1. Experienced person does the task while the new employee watches and takes notes and/or follows the notes previously taken, adding to them as necessary.

2. New employee does the task following the notes while the experienced person watches. If the new employee gets stuck or does something wrong then the notes are checked and adjusted until the task can be done following the notes alone.

3. The new employee does the task. The experienced person is freed to go back to their work and is available if needed for the inevitable anomalies and any questions. (Always ensure new advice is captured for future reference.)

Initially, this takes a little longer as time must be given for note recording/addition.

However, the time saved is quickly realised if the experienced person is disciplined in responding to the questions of "how do I ... ", "where do I ... ", "who do I ... " with the encouragement of "what do your notes say?" This encourages a mindset of ownership and accountability.

This process works well for any training. Some people are more visual learners and using short video clips can be an alternative way of capturing the process. Which process could you benefit by capturing like this?

• Mike Clark is director and lead trainer and facilitator at Think Right business training company.