The Streamlined Business Blog is all about getting—and keeping—Operations Under Control by implementing good business systems, processes, and standard operating procedures. Our staff experts blog regularly on a range of topics including: Operations Mapping approaches, systems-based management, standardizing operations, calculating costs and ROI for systems improvements and a whole lot more.
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What’s the Next Action? Getting Things Done
If you haven’t read David Allen’s personal productivity bestsellers, Getting Things Done and Making it All Work, we highly recommend them! In both books, but most recently in Making It All Work, Allen stresses that the simple discipline of asking the question, “What is the next action?” is one of the most powerful and profound […] READ MORE
Are Your P&Ps GOOD or Bad? Here’s the Definitive Test
Many companies have heated internal debates on this question: “Are our written policies and procedures (P&Ps) good or bad? “ How do you know? Some people measure quality based on whether P&Ps exist and are physically accessible to staff, whether they are grammatically correct, or how they look. Criticisms range from “Our P&Ps are too […] READ MORE
Web-Enabled Policies and Procedures Employees Want to Use – Video
If you still think of policies and procedures as boring “static company procedures manuals” that no one uses or wants to use, then it’s time to move into the 21st century! Today, even small businesses are ditching their “old-fashioned manuals” for a more user-friendly, electronic browser approach. But simply putting existing documents online or into […] READ MORE
Create a Delegation System (Part 2:)
As they say, the first step towards solving a problem is recognizing you have a problem. Stuck in your routine you may be “blind” to what’s limiting you and solutions that might exist. With the New Year just ahead, its a perfect time for the following quick exercise to help you streamline business processes and […] READ MORE
Common Problems Leading to Outsourcing Failures (Part 2 of 3)
If you decide outsourcing makes sense as a time and cost-cutting measure, before you forge ahead, consider a couple of the most common causes of outsourcing failures and what you can do upfront to avoid them. Lack of upfront planning. Like all other areas of life, it’s difficult to succeed at outsourcing without a well-thought […] READ MORE
Standardizing Operations is “Good Business”
We’ve been blogging about steps organizations can take to survive and thrive in Tough Times this week. A previous post, How to Make Your Organization Bulletproof discusses how the secret to becoming bulletproof is to focus on efficiency, productivity, and contingency planning. Another good article on the topic is Productivity Improvement For Tough Times by […] READ MORE
Are Your “Core Systems” and “Key Processes” a Joke?
We had to laugh out loud at the June 3rd “Dilbert” comic strip. As usual, Scott Adams put his finger on how often strategic management processes like “core systems”– that sound so good in the board room–can misfire and become punchlines around the water cooler. Are you actually encouraging your employees and colleagues to act […] READ MORE
How do SOPs create Accountability?
Many have said that by just thinking about how their business “works” and defining the best way of doing things has gone a long way in transforming their organization from a “seat of the pants” culture to one of accountability. You have to put it in writing. Capturing and communicating standardized procedures, the right actions, […] READ MORE
