⚒️ The Importance of Processes

By: Mitch Wooderson

Developing processes is essential in life. We do it every day without thinking. We have processes for brushing our teeth, working out, getting ready to leave the house, etc.

🫵🏻 What is the most important process that you have developed for yourself?

When we think about how processes relate to our business, the importance of them is magnified. We need processes now and certainly will need them to expand to a business of more than 2 people.

Here are some of the benefits of creating and recording processes

🧎🏼Practice Makes Perfect

Developing a process comes through practice. The more we do it, the stronger and more efficient the process becomes.

🧐 Helps You Develop a Deep Understanding

As we practice we develop a deep understanding of what works and what doesn't work. We do this consciously and also unconsciously, using intuition.If we pay attention we will notice we make small adjustments, without thinking, that tweak our process.

For example, when dicing onions I used to dice an entire onion at a time. Cutting it in half, quartering it, slicing into strips, then dicing. After many days dicing onions I found myself doing each step for each onion, then moving on to the next step, instead of dicing an entire onion then moving onto the next onion . I did not consciously make this change, I just took notice after the fact.

Once we take notice of the steps in a process we can think about the why behind each step. If we are interested enough in the process in question, this can lead down a rabbit hole

If we record each step of a process that we develop, we have learned that process thoroughly. We were able to break down the sum of all our actions into steps. Once this is achieved we know it well enough to teach someone else.

These are the fundamentals. Now, let's use some math to get to the rest.

😐 Simplicity

deep understanding ➗ practice 🟰 simplicity

Simplicity is under-appreciated. Sometimes I find myself getting caught up and thinking that if something is not complex I have not put enough thought in to make it unique enough.

But, that's almost always wrong.

If something becomes simple that means we have such a deep understanding of how the machine ticks, we are able to cut out anything extraneous.

Simplicity helps for easy substitutions. Want someone else to take over the process? No problem, it is now simplified!

When something is simple it is reliable. Simplicity removes the margin for error.

🧠< Less Mental Energy Expenditure

Simplicity 🟰 Less mental necessary

Any task that is broken down to basics requires less mental energy to complete. As I stated earlier, there's less margin for error.

That's because there's less to think about.

If we had to think deeply about every task we completed, we wouldn't be very efficient. We'd probably be mentally drained a couple hours into each day.

🤌🏻🤙🏻✌🏻Multitasking

simplicity ✖️ less mental energy 🟰 ability to multitask

Once a task is broken down to simple steps, it means less mental energy expenditure. This frees up some mental capacity that can allow us to complete two tasks at once.

For example, before I had simple process for our schmoke sauce and ranchero sauce, I was only able to do one at a time. Now because they have become second nature, I am able to do both at once. I am able to interchange the simple steps.

🏎 Efficiency

time ➗ multitasking 🟰 Efficiency

The more time spent multitasking the more efficient we are.

When tasks that were done one at a time are able to be done at the same time, we free up other time to complete more tasks. More tasks in less time is an obvious boost in efficiency.

This efficiency goes back to simplicity. Simplicity means less wasted energy. This saved energy can be spent somewhere else, improving efficiency.

🌎 Expansion

Efficiency 🟰 Expansion

When we have processes that we have simplified to the point that we can plug anyone in and not lose a beat we have an energy and time efficient system.

Once this is achieved expansion is possible. We are able to focus on growing and building new process, instead of the detail that makes up the current system.

We now will pay someone for their time to complete the processes that we have designed. Because the processes are efficient we can plug anyone into the role and there will be no wasted time. This means our business will still be profitable.

Growing new efficient processes will help grow profitability.

Summary Thought

Practice task and analyze to gain a deep understanding ➡ simplify the process to remove margin for error ➡ use increased mental capacity to multitask ➡ wield efficient systems to expand.