092: Train the System, Then the Person

Written By Jenny Blake

Stress, frustration, overwhelm: These are systems flags from your business asking for renewed attention on a bottleneck or inefficiency. In my case, it was repeating myself for the fourth time in as many months to different team members in answering the same small email-related process question. This is no one person’s fault (other than mine!). 

My aha moment: a strategy for training the system to get smarter first, then teaching the team how to better leverage that system, which makes their life and work easier and more frictionless too!

🌟 3 Key Takeaways:

  • Create a Manager Manual and separate Email Guide

  • Save links to email guide entries in TextExpander

  • Using filters in Gmail (or workflows in HelpScout): Automatically label incoming email messages with the short-link to the Email Guide process entry. Here’s what my v1 looks like:

📝 Permission: Stop repeating yourself! That’s a sure sign that the business area is ripe for systems reinvention.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Start an Email Guide with your most common decisions and process questions.

📘 Books Mentioned: Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business, Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One  

🔗 Resources Mentioned: 

Related Podcast Episodes: 086: The Cyrano Strategy for Delegating Important Comms


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Jenny Blake

Jenny Blake is a career and business strategist and international speaker who helps people people organize their brain, move beyond burnout and create sustainable careers they love. She is the author of PIVOT: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One (Portfolio/Penguin Random House, September 2016). Jenny left her job in career development at Google in 2011 after five and a half years at the company to launch her first book, Life After College, and has since run her own consulting business in New York City. Find her on Twitter @Jenny_Blake and subscribe to the Pivot Podcast. 

http://PivotMethod.com
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