My Thoughts by Rick Stephens

I am adamant about the use of processes. I believe that everyone who is organized and interested in minimizing grief in their business as well as their personal life uses processes. For me, processes are an integral part of my life. I use them everywhere and often. Some people would say that I am too process oriented at times, and maybe I am. I, however, find that my life is simplified by processes and they allow me to spend my time thinking about the important things in my life instead of the routine.

I first realized the value of creating and following processes way back in my youth and have allowed them to be a part of my life ever since. When I was in the military, I found that while in basic training many of the recruits, as well as myself, were struggling to respond to verbal commands from the drill instructor. He would fire these orders out rapidly and with a vengeance. “Left Face. Column right.” When a recruit would turn left instead of right or right instead of left the drill sergeant would get right in his face and make him look and feel like a fool for not knowing right from left.

The problem is, that when you are under stress and responding to rapid fire orders it is very easy to make that type of mistake, turning the wrong way. So I realized that to keep from making that mistake, I had to create a process that would allow me to turn immediately in the correct direction without having to think about it. It had to be subtle and consistent. Here is what I did. While standing at attention I would slightly grip the seam of my right trousers. While marching I would grip my right index finger and thumb together as if I were gripping the seam of my trousers. (Because your arms move while marching, I could not keep a grip on my trousers, so I gripped my fingers to get the same feel.) I then told my brain that when ever I heard an order to turn right I would turn in the direction of my gripped fingers. It worked, and I never had to endure the drill sergeant yelling at me for turning the wrong direction again.

I don’t know why this worked, but it did. Your brain is an amazing thing and when given a process to follow, it will take over for you. This is why it is so important to have processes in your business as well. Your company must be able to run on autopilot for all of the routine situations. This will allow you to concentrate on the important things in your business, such as customer service, product development, marketing strategies, etc.

If you will establish processes for all of the routines in you business, amazing things will happen. So taking a lesson from my military basic training let me just say, “Get a Grip!”

To Your Success -