Process Breakdown Podcast (audio)

Introduction

Troy Westley is the CEO at Operoo, an organization that helps businesses, especially schools, go paperless by automating their paperwork. As a fast-growing startup, many new processes were required for new departments and team members. Troy found himself having to explain every process to every team member and that was slowing him down and wasting valuable time. It was immediately apparent that to scale the business and be as efficient as possible they needed a way to manage the multiple tasks that were required to run sales, marketing, finance, and customer support operations.

Maintaining a high level of performance was a challenge with the manual processes they worked with. There were many opportunities for steps to be missed or things to be not done correctly. But all that changed when they adopted SweetProcess. Troy could finally relax, knowing that his employees had things under control. He tells the story of how they used SweetProcess to streamline their processes. First, let us get a little information about the organization.

Troy Westley CEO of Operoo

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About Operoo

Operoo is an automation service provider that enables institutions like schools to streamline paperwork into electronic formats.

An average school does hundreds of paperwork tasks in a day—communicating with the parents or guardians of their students and executing their internal processes with staff. All those tons of paper creates inefficiency that slows down operations. Operoo clears their desk, putting everything on a system. It allows for a smoother and smarter mode of operations by automating staff forms, consent forms, field trips, medical forms, group messaging, payments, and incident reporting.

Headquartered in Australia, it has data centers in other countries such as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its current full-time employee capacity was 25 at the time of the interview, now 36.

The Biggest Pain Point

Operoo had developed 100’s of processes to support onboarding, HR, sales, marketing, and customer support. Every task was documented in Google Docs to give employees a directive on what to do and how to do it. But the documentation was not enough as they still needed human guidance, asking several questions.

As CEO, Troy was at the receiving end of the questions. He had to explain even the most basic procedures including setting up email signatures.

“It sounds like a really basic thing but there are 20 minutes, there’s half an hour explaining something to every single person that you’ve got to set up new accounts for,” he laments.

Understandably, it was tedious having to explain things over and over again. In addition to that, his business suffered losses for their inefficiency.

“That’s just hard. I can’t quantify it in dollar amounts. It’s not only people’s time,

Introduction

As Administrator/HR at Brooks Law Group, Laura Johnson was not new to business processes. The firm had quite a number of processes for rendering their services to injured and disabled people. But these processes were manually managed, and there was only so much they could do with them. Employees were not able to work independently without guidance. This dependency hindered efficiency, causing operational setbacks in the organization. Switching to SweetProcess simplified their systems and allowed for better workflow. She shares details of how the system made their organization more efficient. First, let us take a look at the company’s profile.

Laura Johnson Administrator/HR at Brooks Law Group

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About Brooks Law Group

Brooks Law Group is a personal injury law firm that specializes in assisting accident victims get the help they need within the confines of the law.

The trauma and damage suffered by people involved in accidents can be devastating, and the complexity of the legal system makes it difficult for them to get due compensation or justice. Brooks Law Group has an arsenal of attorneys with the experience and practical skills to pursue such cases in the best interest of their clients.

The legal professionals at the firm have empathy for their clients and channel that energy toward getting justice for them. The provisions for personal injury cases differ according to the degree and events. The firm has a grasp of the various conditions and makes strong arguments for their clients with the goal of achieving success.

With offices in Lakeland, Winter Haven and Tampa, Florida, the firm currently has 31 full-time employees.

Acknowledging Room for Improvement

Business processes are meant to guide employees through tasks. When these processes are in place and employees ditch them, preferring to get guidance from people instead, there is a problem. There is a chance that the processes are ineffective. Laura experienced this firsthand.

“Employees were more dependent on me, even though it was on the server. They would have access to processes, but they would still lean more heavily toward me concerning questions and directives in some things,” she laments.

What happened if Laura was not available? Employees would either be idle or make mistakes in trying to get things done. In the end, the organization suffered the consequences of their inaction or mistakes. This is not good for business because anyone can be indisposed at any time by unforeseen circumstances. It is important to keep the business train moving in the absence of any one employee.

Signing Up for SweetProcess: An Easy Buying Decision

Recounting how the organization made the decision to sign up for SweetProcess, Laura says that the decision was made by her and one of the firm’s partners.

Introduction

As CEO of Good Nature Organic Lawn Care, clients’ safety was Alec McClennan’s priority. The clients granted him and his team access onto their property on the basis of trust. One way to respect that trust was to deliver a great service. But there was a tendency for workers to drop the ball due to a lack of clarity in their manual procedures. Though the company suffered losses correcting these errors, it was nothing compared to losing clients’ trust. Systematizing the business seemed like a good way to resolve the problem. Alec shares the story of how using SweetProcess made his employees more efficient.

Alec McClennan CEO of Good Nature Organic Lawn Care

About Good Nature Organic Lawn Care

Traditional pesticides contain chemicals that are harmful to humans and pets. According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 95% of chemicals used for lawn care contain carcinogens. Using these chemicals endanger lives.

Do you get rid of your lawns for your safety?

With Good Nature Organic Lawn Care, you do not have to. The company makes use of purely organic ingredients in nurturing soil and thickening grass. It also creates a healthy mix of ingredients for lawns, giving them a survival edge over weeds.

Having been in the business for 21 years, the organization has the expertise and experience to grow healthy lawns without using chemical insecticides, fungicides, and weed killers.

Based in the United States, the company currently has 40 full-time employees.

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The Biggest Challenges at Hand 

Good Nature Organic Lawn Care takes pride in offering lawn care services with non-harmful organic products. It is important that these products are mixed and applied with strict adherence to safety guidelines. As a result of this, they documented their business processes in a manual and distributed it to employees. However, the information contained in the manual was not useful for long. The manual became obsolete as frequently as the company updated its processes to achieve better results.

“The biggest problem was that, as soon as they were printed, they became obsolete because you changed one way you were doing something or one product you were using or one way you were handling a certain situation, and all of a sudden, that’s not right.”

A significant amount of time was spent constantly revising the manual to bring it up to date. But that was not enough. Carrying it around and constantly flipping through pages was a task that the workers did not fancy. So the manual did not make much difference.

“I spent a lot of time chasing my tail around, fighting fires. Someone would do something wrong and then I would be dealing with the aftermath of it. That was very not productive,” Alec laments.

Introduction 

Running a business of document management software for lawyers, CEO of Optiable Craig Bayer had a dire need of documented processes to get things done. He sought to meet this need by documenting the processes manually. But navigating them was a hard nut to crack. Micromanaging employees was part of the day’s job, and it was taking up a chunk of his time at the expense of other important tasks. Systematizing operations was a huge relief for both Craig and Optiable. Craig takes us through the journey of how the company’s business processes improved with SweetProcess. Let us get an overview of the organization to put things in perspective.

Craig Bayer CEO of Optiable

About Optiable

An average law firm has a stack of activities on its plate, including preparing legal documents, meeting with clients, and making court appearances. Juggling all of these together creates a stockpile of work, slowing down their operations. This is not favorable in the fast-paced legal terrain.

That is where Optiable comes in.

The company helps law firms to leverage technology in streamlining their workflow. It gets rid of old and less productive structures, creating more organized structures for them with specific tools that align with their businesses.

By harnessing the latest productivity tools, practitioners can work on the go without being restricted to their physical offices. They get to be on their A-game as they focus on their expertise, getting victories for the clients.

Based in Louisiana, the organization currently has three to five full-time employees, depending on their workload needs.

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The Biggest Pain Point

Difficult days are part of running a business. But when such days are constantly recurring with uncertainties about what to expect, it is a red flag.

Craig and his team could not execute the simplest of tasks and be assured that all was well. There was always a chance that something was amiss. No matter how hard they tried, there was a lack of trust among them about their efficiency. Tasks could not be ticked off without multiple verifications.

“We always would be triple checking our work,” he laments.

It became clear that the employees were not totally to be blamed for the problem. Manually sorting out hundreds of items on a checklist is hectic. There is a chance for things to slip through the cracks. As CEO, it was all on Craig to keep watch and fix broken ends.

“I’d stay up at night or go through and check everything over and over again because you really didn’t have a good way of verifying that.”

All those hours spent fixing things would impact any business negatively.

The Instant Decision to Sign Up for SweetProcess

Introduction

With no previous experience of using workflow management systems, ParcelPoint Operations Manager Charlotte Wallwork took the bold step to streamline her team’s business processes. The back and forth while executing simple tasks was evidence that her team members could do with some help. And with the company growing rapidly, they needed a solid system to match their growth; otherwise, it would not be sustainable. She took the proactive measure to structure their operations ahead of time by adopting SweetProcess. Charlotte shares how she was able to improve their performance seamlessly using SweetProcess. First, let us get an idea of the business for a better understanding of their journey.

Charlotte Wallwork Operations Manager at ParcelPoint

About ParcelPoint

ParcelPoint, a logistics and supply chain company, has given delivery services a whole new meaning by creating corner store connections among people, bringing communities closer in helping one another. It creates a sense of belonging in communities by closing the disconnect that may exist by moving parcels from one point to another.

The company has a network of over 1,400 locations in Australia for the delivery and return of parcels to locations that include convenience stores, service stations, and pharmacies that are open until late at night, where people can walk in to either drop off or pick up a parcel. By doing this, they get to interact with locals in the community and build interpersonal relationships.

Founded in 2011, ParcelPoint is based in Australia.

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The Breaking Point  

When everyone is just doing whatever they can at work, without a guide in a specific direction, things become upside down. One person does one thing and another person does something else, producing different results.

“It just gets disorganized and chaotic,” Charlotte laments.

The operations department she heads is a moving train. Things happen very quickly. New products are introduced, and processes need to be implemented rapidly. Team members were constantly playing catch up to keep up with the updates. Charlotte was saddled with the responsibility of mitigating the impacts in the business. Part of her efforts was spending half of her day explaining things and answering the same questions for the umpteenth time.

So much time was invested.

“You pay for it with time. The extra amount of time for training and all that kind of stuff as opposed to actually paying for a product.”

Signing Up for SweetProcess: Good Value for Good Pricing

The necessity to tie up loose ends in their departmental operations propelled Charlotte to search for a helpful system on the internet, and then she found SweetProcess. She signed up for a free trial, and it proved to be very useful.

Introduction

General Manager at Maxwell Counters, Austin Maxwell, was keen on enhancing employee efficiency by making provisions for documented processes to guide them through their day-to-day activities.  But that was not sufficient. The documents were either inaccessible or not up to date. It became apparent that they needed better systems in place. Austin gives us an account of how they streamlined their processes with SweetProcess. But before then, let us get an overview of the company.

Austin Maxwell, General Manager at Maxwell Counters

About Maxwell Counters

Founded in 1981, Maxwell Counters specializes in the fabrication, installation, and replacement of countertops—offering custom surfacing products for residential and commercial applications.

Committed to satisfying their clients, the organization prioritizes quality and using durable products for projects. Its team of experts works closely with clients to get an idea of their specific needs and expectations, and then channels that information into delivering personalized services.

A lineup of their services includes the installation and replacement of solid surface countertops, laminate countertops, quartz countertops, natural wood/butcher’s block surfaces natural stone, and butcher block, for commercial and residential applications such as countertops, backsplashes, fireplace surrounds, windowsills, tub decks, etc.

Based in Illinois, Maxwell Counters currently has 35 full-time employees.

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The Constant Struggle to be Productive

In an effort to smoothen its operations, Maxwell Counters required its employees to write down steps of assigned business procedures on paper. The papers were joined to a binder that they carried around for work. In addition to this, the company also documented processes in Microsoft Word documents saved on their network folder. All of these were targeted toward improving their performance.

But their expectations were cut short.

“It took too long to find things, and then at a point in time when you wanted to update the procedures, you never knew how many copies were flying around and where they were at,” Austin laments.

The sheets of papers in the binder would fall apart, and the documents on the computer folder were not readily accessible. Employees were always looking for documents or asking questions. It was just difficult to get things done.

The Skepticism About Signing Up for SweetProcess

When your typical workday is all about answering numerous employee questions and helping them find documents, there is hardly time to be productive.

This was Austin’s dilemma. He went on Google to find a solution. After several searches for standard operating procedures software, he found SweetProcess.

In this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast Geoff Woods, vice president of The ONE Thing, talks about prioritizing, time blocking, and setting goals.

He talks about how you can successfully set things in an order of importance, how companies should prioritize and time block for maximum effectiveness. He also puts these methods into perspective by telling stories of how he’s applied the steps to his own life and career. 

He also speaks on how to effectively apply his system to work during a pandemic, which is especially important for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and those of us working from home right now. 

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Key Resource List:

* The ONE Thing (<<<— online community)* The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results (<<<— book)

Show Notes:

0:05 – Introduction

0:37 – Host Dr. Weisz talks about his guest on this episode and about previous guests he’s had over prior episodes.

1:12 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures – SweetProcess – highlighting a 14-day free trial.

2:05 – Jeremy talks about Geoff a bit, some of his achievements, how he went from employee to entrepreneur within a year, and his goals.

3:21 – Geoff thanks Jeremy and introduces himself.

3:37 – Geoff talks about how he’s helped people form habits, making reference to a quote from the book The ONE Thing.

4:58 – Geoff tells about some habits he’s taught himself, and how he started acting in order of priority.

8:10 – Geoff describes what the “411” method is, talking about how the world and people need to learn to have a relationship with goals, invest time in priorities, and how the 411 helps with that.

10:21 – The guest speaker explains where the 411 template can be found, teaching companies how to make it part of their culture, and how the use of time-blocking enables leaders to get more done in 66 days than what it takes other people to do in a lifetime.

10:49 – Geoff talks about what’s lately on the 411 for him, how so many businesses are focusing on thriving during this pandemic, and how his 411 for the week focuses around recruiting people for the company.

12:51 – Geoff talks about things people can do to help businesses survive and thrive during this pandemic, what he teaches owners to do, how he gets them to prioritize, and how this is the time they should be training their employees.

14:32 – The guest speaker talks about big organizations he’s worked with,

On this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast Bob Sutton, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford, co-founder of Stanford Technology Ventures Program and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, speaks about the errors companies make, how to correct them, and how they can adjust their game plan for maximum output and profit. 

He also tells funny stories about certain companies that he finds interesting, about some of the books he’s written and his favorite story that inspired his first book.

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Key Resource List:

* BobSutton.net* Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less

Show Notes:

0:07 – Introduction

1:06 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures, highlighting a 14-day free trial with SweetProcess.

1:50 – Host introduces Mr. Bob Sutton, the guest speaker, sheds light on him and his work, including his new project, The Friction Project, and some of his other books.

3:31 – Mr. Sutton starts to talk about how he got interested in his line of work, and on how to grow organizations.

5:13 – Mr. Sutton gives some examples of things that companies should make more difficult.

9:30 – Mr. Sutton talks about the road map for his new book, and the difficulties he’s undergoing.

12:11 – Mr. Sutton talks about the rise of “flash organizations” that just come up out of nowhere and crash.

13:46 – The speaker talks about Patrick Collison and how he’s into doing things really fast.

15:54 – Mr. Sutton talks about steps he thinks will be valuable for a company to apply, and arbitrary traditions that need to be eliminated.

19:26 – Mr. Sutton talks about when he worked at Facebook for a bit, and how their mentality of operation there confused him.

20:40 – Mr. Sutton shares his take on the annual performance review.

24:00 – The guest speaker talks about his favorite case study in the Friction project.

26:00 – Mr. Sutton speaks about the difficulty leaders face in times of uncertainty.

28:15 – He gives an example using the CEO of Airbnb as someone who’s handling this difficulty rather well.

30:16 – The speaker talks about companies he finds fascinating, and his particular interest in Walmart, and about companies that disrupt themselves.

32:55 – Mr. Sutton talks about co-founding the Institute of Design.

38:41 – The speaker talks about scaling to other markets, using IKEA as an example.

Do you want to discover how to show appreciation to employees?

In this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast, author and motivational speaker Chester Elton revealed the steps to take to appreciate your employees and show them gratitude based on his decades of experience helping clients understand the value of appreciating their employees.

He described how a little bit of gratitude can make an employee want to do a great job. Chester tells a beautiful story of how a company he used to work for showed him appreciation and other stories that give testimony to the power of recognition and showing gratitude.

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Key Resource List:

* Leading with Gratitude: Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results* The Culture Works

Show Notes:

0:06 – Introduction

1:26 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures, highlighting a 14-day free trial of SweetProcess.

2:00 – Jeremy introduces the guest speaker, Chester Elton, who talks about some of the books he’s written and some of his achievements.

3:13 – Chester talks about his co-author Adrian Gostick, and the study of workplace culture they’ve been dedicated to for 20 years, learning about gratitude and the recognition of people.

4:32 – Chester explains how expressing gratitude is a learned skill and how the tool of gratitude is a good tool to use for spurring productivity.

5:30 – The guest speaker gives an example of Humbert Joly, who turned Best Buy around financially by using the principle of appreciation and gratitude. He explains how making work meaningful is a way to engage people’s hearts, not just their minds.

7:17- Chester talks about his favorite methods of celebrations companies show to staff and team members, giving Toronto FC’s celebration as an example.

9:14 – Chester gives more examples, talking about the steps Books-A-Million takes to promote gratitude within their employees, and Carlos Aguilera’s ten-coin method.

12:10 – The guest speaker tells the story of how the company he worked for sent flowers to his wife at home, showing gratitude for Chester going on work trips for the company.

14:00 – Chester tells another story about Garry Ridge, and how he started to up his gratitude and appreciation, referring to his company as a tribe.

17:07 – The guest speaker talks about his most skeptical client Humbert Joly, and how he completely transformed once he saw the light; and Dave Kirpan, a classic cynical New York man, how he tried the gratitude process,

In this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast Cameron Herold, talked about the misunderstood role of a Chief Operating Officer (COO) in a company. He revealed how the relationship between the CEO and COO in a company should be, how a company should run, and how employee-employer relationship can be made better.

He talked about the perks of being a COO, and how a proper COO can make work much more fun for everyone in the company.

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Key Resource List:

* COO Alliance

Show Notes:

0:07 – Introduction

1:00 – Dr. Weisz shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures, highlighting a 14-day free trial with SweetProcess.

1:50 – Jeremy introduces his guest on the show, Cameron Herold.

3:26 – Mr. Herold talks about his encounter with the CEO of SweetProcess.

4:38 – Mr. Herold talks about what the COO Alliance is and how it was founded.

10:45 – Mr. Herold explains the role of the COO, and how there should be good communication between the CEO and COO.

13:26 – He talks about how COOs should be able to learn from people outside of their organization.

16:42 – The guest speaker talks about how to treat and grow employees.

17:50 – Mr. Herold talks about two books he’s working on and a group that he’s in.

19:14 – Mr. Herold talks about the three steps he took to boost a company he was working at.

21:33 – Mr. Herold discusses an effective way to recruit and hire people who actually want to take part in your vision.

27:16 – Mr. Herold talks about how to determine whether or not a possible hiring candidate has had proper leadership training.

31:23 – The guest talks about how to trust your gut and experience.

31:43 – Mr. Herold talks about his favorite stories from his Second in Command podcast.

35:46 – The guest speaker gives information on where his books and podcasts are available for download.

39:14 – Outro

Guest Profile:

Cameron Herold is the founder of the COO Alliance, a group for COOs of companies that helps enlighten and train them further on their roles in their various companies.

Cameron has extensive experience in business growth mechanisms. He has helped multiple companies with their company’s growth and management. 

He’s also the author of five business books on Amazon.