Operational System Success

I have a story about how an efficient operational system can make a difference in your business. It has to do with the best trip I took. My family took a 29-day trip to New Zealand. I left the business without a communication plan. No calls, no emails, no checking in.

Sounds crazy? Before we went, we left operational systems in place and we made the decision to let our employees deal with whatever came up during the period of time. What ended up happening was fascinating. There may have been a couple of emergencies in the first couple of days, but the employees solved them. They used the systems we had in place and figured out what the best course of action was, and took it.

When we came back, I had two emails and two phone calls I had to return. That is all I had to do for this business after vacationing for a month. It was wonderful. The communication break (our vacation) tested our systems and trained our employees to be able to do the things that were necessary for the business. It gave them a sense of internal responsibility and empowered them to grow. Not only did our staff grow, but our business grew while we were away.

Today, we ritually take between two, and as many as two and-a-half, months of vacation every year just to train our staff. We just go away so they can get better at making decisions and we can wean them from being dependent.