How to Get Your Team to Embrace Systems That Grow Your Business

Adi Klevit, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in Portland, Oregon, is the co-founder of Business Success Consulting Group, which helps leaders create and document custom processes and tailor-made management systems. We asked Klevit why rapidly growing teams benefit from documented processes and how they help your business scale even faster.

Growing companies often prioritize immediate growth over process documentation. It’s easy to see why. Leaders who manage rapidly scaling businesses learn to function in a realm of constant change, so making a pause to document processes seem less critical than preparing for the next pivot. After all, when everything in your company is accelerating, your business systems are also changing. Why should you spend time documenting systems? 

Consider this: By failing to document business processes, you are losing the knowledge that is being created. With no record of what works (and what doesn’t), your business will struggle to onboard new employees, maintain consistency, and scale effectively. Instead of operating proactively to drive growth, you remain stuck in a cycle of reacting to immediate challenges. 

Why you should implement process documentation 

While process documentation is time-intensive, it can be dicey to avoid it altogether. You risk many potential pitfalls if you don’t document your business systems: 

• You can lose valuable institutional knowledge.  
• It is more difficult to replicate successes and avoid failures. 
• New hires face steep learning curves. 
• Information only lives in employees’ heads, risking chaos if a key employee exits. 
• Employees may waste time troubleshooting preventable issues. 
• Customers will get an inconsistent experience. 
• The company will likely have difficulty scaling. 

To scale successfully, your business must move beyond constantly fighting fires. You can do that by establishing repeatable systems with well-documented processes. 

Shift your mindset  

If your business has no or few processes documented, then employees and leadership need to change their mindsets. If your experience with processes is a dusty old binder hidden in some filing cabinet, you aren’t going to have a positive perspective on processes. So, the mindset shift has to come from the top. As part of the leadership team, you must understand the value of process documentation and implementation.  

One way to shift your mindset is to focus on concrete outcomes. Here are four tangible benefits of well-documented processes: 

• Increased efficiency 
• Improved customer experience 
• Greater opportunities for automation 
• Protected institutional knowledge 

From there, talk with your team and help them see how processes can benefit them. Sit with your team, listen to them, and find out what they are struggling with. Then, discuss what processes can help them overcome those challenges. For example, one of your team members may be stuck with repetitive work, leaving them little time to strategize and implement exciting new ideas. Another may be incredibly busy, with a to-do list a mile long, some of which could be automated or made simpler with a process. The idea is to ensure your team is on board with process documentation and implementation. 

I worked with a marketing company where the team initially resisted the idea of process documentation. They believed that implementing systems would stifle creativity. However, as the company grew, employees struggled. They found they had to reinvent the wheel with each new client. When the team embraced processes, they scaled from six employees to 60! By documenting workflows and maintaining up-to-date systems, they were able to replicate their success, maintain quality, and improve client satisfaction. This all starts with leadership. It all starts with you. 

Implement accountability systems without micromanaging 

Even after a major mindset shift, your team must not only document and implement processes but also have an accountability system. Some business owners groan at this idea. After all, accountability can feel like micromanagement. However, it shouldn’t! Here are three effective strategies to encourage accountability without micromanagement: 

• Gamification: Create friendly competitions or incentives for following processes 
• Public recognition: Acknowledge employees who successfully use and improve documented workflows 
• Performance scorecards: Attach metrics to each process to demonstrate its effectiveness 

If a process is working well, leaders should step back and allow employees to operate autonomously rather than micromanaging. 

A process-driven culture starts at the top 

Leadership must be involved for process adherence to become ingrained in company culture. It helps when CEOs and executives include process discussions as part of problem-solving. When issues arise, the first questions you should ask are: “What’s the process? Was it followed? If not, why not?”  

The way to build a process-driven culture is by consistently reinforcing the importance of business systems and involving your team every step of the way. Remember, no culture is built overnight. However, with a top-down approach and an engaged team, your company can build a culture of utilizing its processes to support exponential growth. 

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