Everything that happens between intent and delivery is process!

Everything that happens between intent and delivery is a process.  Check out these great tips on creating processes for your business, from our friend and business coach, Donald Cooper.

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Creativity and innovation are ‘hot topics’ right now, and I applaud that.  But, in the end, it’s boring, unsexy ‘process’ that actually gets things done.  Even ‘creativity’ is often a process.  Sometimes it’s just dumb luck or a sudden flash of brilliance…but, often, it’s a process.

Most successful companies have disciplined and consistent processes that deliver a stream of innovative products or services, well-trained and highly engaged employees, more efficient operations, consistent quality, employee safety, increased sales and an amazing customer experience.

‘Process’ is what keeps airplanes from falling out of the sky.  It’s what makes a Big Mac exactly the same in Montreal as it is in Moscow.  Process is what gets cars designed, engineered and produced. Process is what allows a hotel chain to know that you want a non-smoking room on a low floor, near the elevator, with a king size bed, foam pillows and a USA Today at your door each morning.

In fact, everything that happens between ‘intent’ and ‘delivery’ is process.  As a business, you can have the best intentions for your customers, your staff, for the environment and for your bottom line.  But without clear, effective and well-communicated processes, these wonderful intentions will be just that…‘intentions’.

To quote the late W. E. Deming, the internationally renowned authority on quality and efficiency, “If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

So, exactly what is a process, anyway?  Simply put, a process is…

1. An effective and well-communicated sequence of activities,
2. Supported by the necessary resources,
3. Designed to deliver a consistent, efficient and effective result,
4. To a specific standard.

OK, so it’s not so simple.  But that’s what a process is…and there are no shortcuts. Re-read the definition above again and, while you’re at it, rate your business’ performance, on a scale of 1 to 10, on each of the four elements.  Then, ask your Team, “What needs fixing, or better training?” and then be clear on what will be done, by whom, by when, at what cost, with what outcomes, measured how in order to fix what needs fixing.  Make ‘systems and process’ a priority in your business.

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For more information, or if you are interested in working with Donald Cooper, please reach out to him here:

www.donaldcooper.com

Phone: 416-252-3703

Email: donald@donaldcooper.com

Thank you,

Your Costen Insurance Team