FMF #19 - What Mums Cherry Ripe Taught Me About Systems

It's No Secret with Dr T.

Today I want to share a story from my childhood and how my mums Cherry Ripe chocolate taught me a great lesson about systems and why slight system changes can have devastating results long-term on your business if you don't keep an eye on them.

My mother loved Cherry Ripe's, and about once a month she would treat herself to one of those large Cherry Ripe bars. She would tear open the bright red shiny wrapper at the top, peel it back slightly to expose the rich dark chocolate and proceed to take a moderately sized bite.

She would then pull the wrapper back over the exposed cherry and coconut and place it in the fridge in the butter compartment, so it was out of sight. On average this Cherry Ripe bar would last her at least two weeks because she would only eat a small amount each time.

Just a Small Bite

On one particular week, I saw mum unwrap it, take a bite and put it back in the fridge, and I thought to myself...if I take just a small bite she probably won't notice. So I did.

The following day I looked back in the fridge, lifted the lid on the butter compartment, and I noticed she had eaten more, so once again I bit off the smallest amount and I must admit it took a lot of self-control not to eat more.

Anyway, the next day was a repeat of the previous day, and this went on for the rest of the week.

I thought I was pretty smart until one evening when I was in the lounge room watching TV with my dad and brother, and we all heard my mum yell out at the top of her voice, "whos' has been eating my Cherry Ripe?" All three of us looked at each other, PAUSED, and said at the same time, "but I only took a small bite".

In unison, we also said, "what do you mean you only took a small bite, that's what I did".

Suddenly we all figured out that all three of us were doing the same thing, and the small bites we noticed each day were our own, and mum had not gone near her Cherry Ripe for the past week, but when she did all our small bites accumulated to half her Cherry Ripe.

So why am I telling you this story from my childhood?

I genuinely believe this story pinpoints why many business systems, protocols and processes fail long-term.

If team members continue to make slight changes without the business owners consent or knowledge, and other team members are unknowingly doing it as well, it can severely damage a once well-established system.

And by the time the business owner figures it out, they may have lost half of their Cherry Ripe or worst still, done irreversible damaged their business.

System Reviews

But this can all be avoided with regular system reviews.

All business owners should be looking at their business systems on a regular basis, and if they do, they can halt problems before they get out of hand.

You've probably heard the saying, 'there's no point shutting the gate after the horse has bolted', well the same can be said for systems. Looking at your business systems after identifying a problem is too late.

Now I'm not saying my mum should have checked her Cherry Ripe in the fridge on a daily basis, BUT if she had, she would have noticed what was going on five-days earlier and saved half of her Cherry Ripe.

Reviewing systems is not just about team compliance, or about preventing someone from eating your Cherry Ripe, it's also the perfect opportunity to:

1. Tweak and improve your existing business systems
2. Make sure they are still valid. There's nothing wrong with throwing out a system that no longer works or serves your business appropriately.

Growth and Maturity

As your business grows and matures, so will you and your team and therefore so will your business systems. A system that worked well five years ago is unlikely to work the same way today if your business has grown.

There needs to be controlled modification though, and the business owner needs to be involved in its development, or at least be made aware that changes are occurring and why they are necessary.

It's essential for your team to understand the importance of business systems and why having them benefits everyone. I discussed this in a previous Five Minute Friday, Episode #12 - 7 Reason Why You Need Systems.

What Systems Are Not

It's also crucial for you to explain to your team what systems are not. For starters systems are not designed to restrict you; they're in place to guide and control your actions and to help predict outcomes. For example, if you do ABCD, then we can likely expect EFGH to occur, systems should be that predictable.

Systems are also not designed to try and catch people doing the wrong thing, even though they will identify poor performers in your team, but they can be used to determine team members who excel.

Regardless of the type of business you have, you need business systems, and they need to grow as you, and your business grows, and if you've had systems before and they've failed, don't throw in the towel; instead, you need to be like my mum.

You need to point out to the team or in my case the family, what has gone wrong and what changes need to occur, so it never happens again.

If you have any questions from this episode please email me at [e-mail]

Save The Date

17th and 18th August 2018. I will be holding a 2-Day It's No Secret Conference in Cairns and this year's theme is 'Communication, Persuasion and Influence'. My Keynote Speaker is David M Frees from Pennsylvania, who was also my guest on Podcast Episode 2. Keep an eye on my EVENTS page.

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