Training Design for the Unofficial Instructional Designer

I've been talking a lot about Employee Training vs. Operations Manuals, but let's get to some nitty-gritty on how to actually DO this stuff.

Today, we'll start with how to start designing your employee training. (Please make a plan. Don't just start listing out topics. Pretty-please?)

Don’t worry - I am not about to teach you all of the technical aspects of instructional design, because you don't care about that. But I will teach you a quick-and-dirty way to design a training that will actually get you the result you want. (AKA: Not overload your learner with TMI that they can't possibly digest.)

How it feels when you’re in an employee training that hasn’t been thoughtfully designed.

Here’s how to Design an Employee Training in 4 Easy Steps

Step 1 - Decide who your trainee is, how much time you want the training to take (Both in number of hours and duration of days), what “mode” you will use to deliver your training (Online, face-to-face, or both), and an approximate breakdown of learning time in each mode.

Step 2 - Open a blank spreadsheet, and in the left-most column, list out everything your trainee needs to be able to DO by the end of the training. These are called "Objectives." You'll want one Objective per row.

• IMPORTANT: Don’t try to throw EVERYTHING into a training. Only include what’s truly relevant to begin to be successful in their job. For a new-hire, a great question to ask is, “What do they need to be able to do in order to be a productive employee?” (Not an employee who knows all the things.)

• ALSO IMPORTANT: Make sure your Objectives describe OBSERVABLE behavior - not what they’ll “learn” or “understand”… remember, the whole point of employee training is to change behavior. So Instead of "Understand the vehicle inspection process" (which isn't observable, unless you have some powers I don't.), try "Complete and submit a vehicle inspection, according to our process" (I can observe that!)

Step 3 - In the next column to the right, next to each Objective, write down how you could observe that a trainee has met this objective in the training setting. (This might be demonstrated on the job, in a mock scenario, through interviews, or traditional quizzes). These are called "Assessments" and every objective needs one, or you won't know your training worked.

Step 4 - Then, in the third column, it's the part you've been waiting for... the topics. (You wanted to start out with listing topics, didn't you?) Here's where you get to list out all the "stuff" you need your trainee to learn (either through lessons, observations, or activities) in order for them to be able to do the thing that was in column 1: Your Objective.

And that's it! Armed with these three simple columns on a spreadsheet, you're ready to start creating an employee training that will be WAY better than 95% of them.

Sure, there's more to discuss like sequencing the learning, choosing HOW you want to teach each of the topics, and creating the actual content and assessments, but that's a discussion for another day!

Happy instructional designing!

Building an Employee Training? Have a Little Empathy.

Every morning, Seth Godin's daily email is the first one I read. He helps me set the tone for how I want to show up that day and shines a light on new ways of thinking about the world.

And often, I feel like he's spying on me when I get his post on THE EXACT THING I WAS JUST WRITING ABOUT YESTERDAY. But he always has a slightly different emphasis... some part of the idea that I didn't quite see.

In today's post, he helped me put my finger on another key difference between building an Employee Training and an Operations Manual: The level of empathy required for the task.

When you're writing an Operations Manual for your business, you definitely do need some empathy for your reader, because you don't want to create something they'll never use. But you can usually assume they have context for the instructions they're about to read and often they've done the thing you're writing about (perhaps in a different way) at least a time or two.

But when you're creating Employee Training, you need to crank the empathy level up to 11.

The original "up to eleven" knobs in the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap

Your trainee...

• is new to your company culture

• barely knows anyone

• may not have ever done this exact job before

and most importantly...

wants SO badly to make a great first impression, but isn't quite sure what success looks like at YOUR company.

That's why you have to be so very thoughtful when you're creating an employee training. Because you're not just teaching them some steps in a process. You're creating an experience that will help them grow their confidence. Confidence to be successful at their job and to become an important part of your team and culture.

This means you have to...

• be explicit about "obvious" things like how we communicate around here. (i.e., "We're super silly and casual behind-the-scenes, but please be formal and professional in your interactions with clients... no client-facing emojis please!")

• be careful about how much information you're sharing at once. Humans have a limit to what they can learn in a single sitting. Better to go deep and give lots of observation and practice in one topic than to try to teach 52 things in a day.

• be intentional about how they interact with the other humans in your business. Sending your new-hire to "do their training" at a computer all day ignores their very real need for relationship-building in their first weeks on the job. Yes, use software tools like Trainual to facilitate an easy and repeatable training experience, but be sure to also intentionally build the human touch-points that will help them feel at home in their new workplace.

Keep asking yourself how your trainees are feeling as you build your Employee Training and you'll be sure to build a more effective training that ultimately gets you more of what you want: A team of aligned, connected A-players.

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Note: This post contains an affiliate link, but we only share products we LOVE and use ourselves!

An Operations Manual is NOT an Employee Training

They told him he had to read the whole Operations Manual before his first day.

I was on a Zoom call yesterday, when someone asked me an interesting question…

"What's the Difference Between Creating Employee Training vs. an Operations Manual"

And as soon as I started answering, I realized I had strong opinions on the matter. (Of course I do.)

The truth is, you might be using your Operations Manual as Employee Training. And if that’s the case, YOU ARE AMAZING and way ahead of most businesses that have exactly zero things written down for their employees to learn how to do their jobs. However, if I’m keeping it real, an Operations Manual does not an Employee Training make.

To keep things simple, let's talk definitions...

Employee Training

Employee Training guides a trainee, often a new employee, through a curated set of learning experiences, the result of which is to ensure they can perform a pre-defined set of job duties to a pre-defined standard.

There are a few key words to pay attention to here…

• “trainee, often a new employee” - because the fact that they need training suggest they do not currently possess the knowledge and/or experience to complete this task. Employee Training is NOT for current employees who are kicking butt at their jobs, unless you’re training them on something brand-new.

• "guides" - because we're not just giving a random list of topics for the trainee to review... we've intentionally laid out the sequence and how the learning will unfold. Because we like them.

• "curated" - because employee training is careful to not just throw every damned thing but the kitchen sink at the learner. What you choose NOT to include is just as important as what you DO include.

• "learning experiences" - because it's not about teaching (what YOU do) it's about setting up a set of experiences that creates LEARNING. You have to set things up really differently when you think about it that way.

• "perform" - because if they can't show you they can do the thing, then your so-called "training" didn't work.

• "pre-defined set of job duties" - because the whole point of making the training in the first place was to ensure they could do their job.

• "pre-defined standard" - because if you're not clear on exactly what "success" looks like on the job, they won't either.

Operations Manual

On the other hand, an Operations Manual is an ever-evolving and easy-to-reference collection of work instructions & policies, organized by topic, process, or role, used by ALL employees to complete their most essential business tasks.

Again, let's look at the key words here...

• "ever-evolving" - because the SECOND your processes change, you should be updating them in your operations manual and communicating those changes with your team so everyone's on the same page. (Ok fine, I'll give you a week.)

• "easy-to-reference" - because the goal isn't for a person to read this thing cover-to-cover (talk about boring!), but instead to serve as something you can just pick up and quickly find out how to do something when you need to do that thing. (We call it "just in time training" in the training world.)

• "work instructions & policies" - because that's all they are. There's no need for assessments or activities like you'd have in a training - just tell me how to do the thing, what my boundaries are, and what "success" looks like.

• "organized by topic, process, or role" - because again, we're not guiding our reader through a learning experience, they just need to be able to quickly get to what they need and follow the directions.

• "ALL employees" - because operations manuals are for everyone, not just trainees. If we don't all agree on what needs to get done, then we have problems.

These are honestly just working definitions, and I reserve the right to evolve them as my thinking evolves, but this should give you a bit more understanding about why you might want to choose to build one of these over the other.

Rule #1 in business documentation is to always know what problem(s) you need to solve before you start building a thing. But more on that tomorrow…

New-Hire Training: SO important, but is it URGENT?

You know you should do it.

You know how much better your life will be when it’s done. 

But somehow, you can never quite muster your team’s time and focus to finally document your company’s processes and create a Business Playbook and get clear on what a new hire needs to know and do. I often hear my clients lament that even though they know how important this project is for their business, it’s just never quite been urgent enough to tackle.

Remember Eisenhower? 

And his Matrix? It’s that pesky chart that helps you categorize the tasks and projects you need to complete based on their urgency and importance. The idea is that if a task falls into Quadrant 1 (Urgent AND Important), you should do it first. If it falls into Quadrant 2 (Not Urgent, but Important), you should schedule it as a priority to get done. If it falls into Quadrant 3 (Urgent, but not Important), you should delegate it, and if it falls into Quadrant 4 (Not Urgent NOR Important) you should get rid of it altogether. 

It’s a useful way of getting some clarity on which projects really need to get tackled in a given quarter, month, or week. The problem is that sometimes projects that seem non-urgent actually are. 

FACT: For businesses that hire frequently, developing a consistent and easy-to-deliver training program is more urgent than you think.

You could keep putting off building your training program, thinking about it as a nice-to-have. But think about the hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars flying out your office window every single time you haphazardly train a new employee. Costs like…

• The time your A-Players have to spend reinventing the wheel – figuring out yet again what to train the new employee on, putting together the training materials, and delivering face-to-face training. (Time they could spend on generating revenue, improving processes,, or delighting your clients!)

• The extra days you’re paying your new hires to be “trainees” instead of contributing members of the team.

• The potentially expensive mistakes your new hires may make as a result of not having been trained to do it the “right way.”

When you add up all those dollars, over and over again, you can see how important it is to document your business. And the more new team members you onboard every month, the more urgent this becomes.

It’s not easy to stay focused on projects that seem non-urgent, but just keep thinking about those dollars flying out your window. That’s real. 

Lucky for you, documenting your business doesn’t have to be as painful as you might think! We’ve built an awesome 90-day program to help fast-growing, mission-led businesses do this work. Complete our survey to see if you’re a good fit for the program.

Introducing the 90-Day Employee Training Sprint

Building a service business is a funny thing. Most of us start out DOING the service we offer. We love doing this thing, so we say yes to all the opportunities to do it and start dabbling in lots of other related services. There are so many places we can help! It’s so exciting!! So many things!!! 

But as we work with more and more clients, we begin to realize we’re doing too many different things for too many different people. And so we start zeroing in on the kinds of services we love most and the kinds of clients who make that work a joy. Little by little, we get clearer on the true change we’re trying to make in this world.

Entrepreneurs like me, though, delay the dreaded day of PICKING ONE THING as long as humanly possible. Not because we think it’s the wrong thing to do. We KNOW it’s the right thing to do. We delay because of fear. Fear of change. Fear of no longer being comfortable with “the way things work.” Fear of letting go and allowing others to lead. 

Six months ago, I finally decided to embrace the fear and leap. It’s been terrifying at times, but I know that the fear is just a sign that I need to lean in and keep going. I’m proud of what we’ve built and I can’t wait to watch it get even better under the watchful eye of my amazing team. I’m also acutely aware that none of this would have gotten built if I hadn’t finally ripped that bandaid off and DECIDED to pick one thing. 

So now it’s time to share our signature service with all of you…

Introducing…

What is it? Our signature process for helping you get your company’s most essential processes out of your team’s heads, so that you can identify, hire, and train the right people to grow the business and serve your clients.

Who is it for? Mission-driven teams who are growing like crazy and need to get their employee training handled ASAP so they can scale without going crazy.

Who is it NOT for? Business owners that want to document their business “just in case” or who don’t hire new employees very often.

This program is for you if these are your problems…

• The way you onboard people in your frequently-trained positions is a cluster. 

  • It takes your best people out of the game for weeks at a time. 

  • Each new hire gets different information about “how we do things around here.” 

  • There’s no way of knowing if they get the information they do need. 

  • And it takes forever for them to be productive.

• You’ve tried downloading Trainual or writing your own SOPs, but the whole thing made you feel like a failure.

• You have dreams of scaling your business to serve more clients, but your entire business model is inside the heads of a few superstar team members.

• Even if you do scale, there’s no way you can maintain the high quality of service and, dammit, you will NOT compromise your clients’ experience!

Imagine if…

• Everyone on your team shares your vision for the company and the culture you want to create.

• Everyone on your team knows what success looks like for their position and exactly which tasks they own.

• Every time you hire a new employee, you and your team don’t have to think about what to do to bring them on board. You know that your training works.

• Every new team member knows that they’re cared for and what they need to do. They’re ready to start producing as soon as they’re on board. 

• Your business processes don’t feel “accidental.” You have a system to keep your documentation and training up-to-date.

• You have the confidence to bring on a ton of new clients because you finally have clearly-documented processes and training. Everyone is on the same page!

Here’s how we’ll work together during our 90-Day Program:

1. We’ll assess your particular needs, identify your key processes, and prioritize what to document to get you the biggest ROI.

2. We’ll assign your team content and teach them how to break down what they do in video form.

3. Your team will submit assigned content, while we provide lots of support and loving tension so they can actually get this project completed!

4. We’ll turn your team’s submitted content into effective training, including meaningful assessments along the way. 

5. We’ll teach your team how to keep going and how to keep things up-to-date!

And here’s what you’ll end up with…

• Documentation and training for your most frequently-trained positions. For most clients, we’ll get through 2-3 positions during our time together, but it will depend on your unique needs and your team’s capacity to get us content. We’ll provide you with:

  • job descriptions, so new hires know what’s expected of them and what success looks like.

  • work instructions, to walk employees step-by-step through how to do their most important tasks.

  • regular quizzes, to assess learning along the way. 

  • on-the-job training checklists, so trainers can make sure new hires know what they’re doing before they’re on their own.

• Additional material about your business, essential for new hires, but useful for everyone:

  • new-hire orientation content, so team members know everything about the organization they’re joining, including company history, mission, vision, core values, competitive analysis, and more.

  • employee bios, so new hires can get to know their team from day 1.

  • an accountability chart, so every team member is clear on how everyone fits into the organization.

  • core service process maps, so everyone knows how your main service(s) are delivered from beginning to end.

• Last but not least, we provide Trainual setup and training - so your Trainual account will be set up the right way the first time and your team will be equipped to keep it running.

It feels good to FOCUS

So this is The Process Mavens’ one thing. For now. We’ve been doing it for a while, and it just keeps getting better and better. Most importantly, it gets results.

If it sounds like the solution to your problem, then get in touch. Here. We’d love to help make your employee training a breeze!

Hit the December Reset Button on Your Business

I need one of these right about now.

Hit the December Reset Button on your Business

Every new quarter, I make a big fuss about getting your Quarter 4 strategic planning done, and I stand by the importance of that message. But also, I owe you an apology because I forgot to tell you one important thing about your Q4 planning. 

For most businesses, December is not a real month. 

You may observe some designated holiday time. Many team members may also take time off during the last couple of weeks of the year. But even for those who do work during those last couple of weeks, it’s not always the most productive time of the year. Between potlucks and flu season and gift-buying and photo-sharing and people being out, it just feels… different. 

For those businesses in their “busy season,” everything is urgent and the number one focus is taking care of clients and customers, so there’s less time available to work on more strategic issues.

For businesses in more of their “quiet season,” customers and clients are going to be distracted right now and it may be hard to get their attention. 

You probably have, at most, three weeks to get stuff done in December. (And for most businesses I work with, that’s generous.)

Which also means Q4 is not a real quarter.

Sorry guys. At least you’ll know for next year. But in the meantime, is there anything one can do to make the most out of this half-assed month we find ourselves in? Of course there is!

If, like me, you have big ambitions for your business but also want to be realistic about your team’s time constraints this month, today is the PERFECT day to stop living a lie and make a game plan for how December is actually gonna go down. 

It’s already December 3rd, so let’s hit the December Reset Button (This can also be done any-old-time!). Here’s how to do it...

Step 1 - Revisit your Q4 Plans and Adjust

I’ve already written lots of words about how it’s ok to adjust your quarterly plans, so that part is out of way. Right now is when you need to get real about what’s possible and what you need to complete by the end of the year. Trust me, deciding to say “no” to your favorite goals TODAY is way less painful than deluding yourself for the next four weeks and feeling shitty on New Year’s Eve. (Or worse, trying to push your team to complete something that’s just impossible.) 

Take a moment to identify the most important things you need to shift by the end of the year. Cut out everything else. Now is the time to be brutally honest.

Step 2 - Take Stock of ALL the Projects

Your team is currently working on projects related to your quarterly plan, but there’s likely a whole bunch of other projects they’re working on too. They may even have projects they think are important but actually aren't!

Ask your leadership team to make a list of all of the projects they’re working on right now. It might be client-facing work, it might be quarterly-plan-related work, or it might just be other projects that are important and need to get done. Call a 45-minute meeting to share your newly-adjusted Q4 plan AND to go through all of the “in-flight” projects and get uncomfortably serious about what stays and what goes. Remember… YOU ONLY HAVE TWO AND A HALF WEEKS OF ACTUAL WORK TIME LEFT. 

You simply can’t say “yes” to everything. Keeping all the things on the list is a lie. Everyone needs to walk out of that meeting with a list of projects they need to stop working on. Let’s free up that mental space for the important, better things.

Step 3 - Go Go Go!

Now, you and your team should have a renewed sense of clarity about how you’re going to make this a powerful and transformative December. It might not look the way you thought it would back in late September when you were still planning and dreaming, but that ship has sailed, baby. 

What if, instead of feeling crappy about what you didn’t do, this December reframe made it the best end-to-the-year yet?! 

When you get clear on what’s no longer essential (or possible!), you give your team permission to get laser-focused on what is. You also open up space and time during a season when things can feel hard for so many.

Not to mention, you’ll feel fantastic from the sense of accomplishment when the year comes to a close. 

Not a bad vibe to have going into a shiny new year.

3 Questions to Ask Before You Build Your Business Playbook

This is you after you finish documenting your business! Yay!

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases.

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Documenting your business.

Building your “Business Playbook.”

It sounds so simple, until you get started. But you’re in luck because The Process Mavens do this work LITERALLY every day (and we’re pretty awesome at it, if I do say so myself.)

If you’re going to go it alone, here are a few important questions you need to ask yourself before you start documenting your business.

1 - What’s Your Vision for How Documenting will Make Things Better?

Why are you even doing this in the first place? As in, what is going to be the return on your investment of time and resources to undertake this project. Without one, it’s going to be tough to get this project done.

• Are you sick and tired of clearing off two weeks from your calendar every time you bring on someone new? 

• Are you about to bring on a crap-ton of new employees and need to have a solid plan for how to train them all up?

• Do you have ridiculously high turnover and are leaking money with your current inefficient onboarding and training process?

• Do you have a handful of employees who know EVERYTHING about your business and you’ve got to get it out of their brains so you can finally start sleeping at night?

• Are you looking to franchise your business and need to provide a handbook for new franchisees?

• Is your customer service suffering because everyone is doing things differently and you need to document the one “way” so you can better retain your customers and build a more efficient business?

• Are you looking to exit your business and need to document everything to increase its value?

All of these are compelling reasons to start building a business playbook and will provide a measurable ROI on your efforts for years to come. 

You know what doesn’t? Documenting your business because you read in a book that you should. Whenever I get CEOs who “Just want to feel better having everything written down,” or who are clearly motivated just by “checking a box,” I’m wary. Nearly every time I’ve taken on clients like this, it turns out to be a tough project. There just isn’t enough pain or a big enough potential reward to propel the team forward through the project. 

Also, you may just not be ready to document quite yet. If you’re a startup who is still figuring things out and doesn’t plan on a massive hire in the immediate future, it may seeeeeeem like documenting will solve everything. But it’s basically impossible to document your business when you haven’t figured out how things should work yet. Get your systems down … then later you can document how you do things.

Moral of the story: Make sure you have a clear vision for how documentation is going to change everything. (And make sure you sell the shit out of that vision to your team.)

2 - What’s the first small “win” you can get with this project? 

Now that you’re clear on how documenting your business is going to change your life and the lives of your team members, it’s time to get focused. 

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT start listing out all 807,898,615 roles, responsibilities and topics you want to write down and just start documenting. I can warn you against this with great authority because we used to do this here at The Process Mavens and we learned the hard way how overwhelming and demotivating this method is for most teams. 

Instead, try this process:

1 - Make a short list of the problems you’d like to solve by documenting your business. For example, if you’re a fast-growing agency that’s going to be massively expanding in the next year, you might list out:

1. Make new-hire onboarding smoother and more automated.

2. Create a consistent 3-week training process for new designers so we can stop re-figuring it out.

3. Make sure everyone in the company knows our core values and how to live them.

2 - Decide on your first “shippable” documentation project, based on the problems you’ve listed.

You want to be able to create something fairly quickly, which you can start using with your team right away, so you can learn from the experience to make the next one even better! From the examples above, you might decide your first project will be documenting your “New Hire Onboarding,” which can be used with ALL team members in their first couple of days to learn everything they need to know about the company and culture. Done!

3 - Decide who will be responsible for getting the project done and when it’s due. 

This one’s simple, but critical. Without ownership, it just ain’t happening. Trust me, I’ve learned the hard way.

4 - Figure out what “Done Looks Like”.

This can be as detailed (or not) as you want, but spend some time with key team members making a list of what the finished product needs to look, sound, and feel like. Questions to consider include:

• How long should it take to go through the content?

• How much video should be included vs. text?

• Do we have an example we like? What do we like about it? What don’t we like?

• What’s the tone we’re going for? (Ex: Casual, professional, formal, sweary, etc.)

• What content must be included, no matter what?

• And finally…

3 - What Tool Will You Use to House Your Business Playbook?

It’s funny, because everyone just wants to jump to this step first. They find their fancy tool and they dream about a beautiful finished playbook and sugarplums dance in their heads. 

And there are SO MANY tools on the market for documenting your business. The truth is, pretty much any of them will work just fine if someone on your team is diligent about making sure the content gets used and stays up-to-date. Remember, software is just a tool … it won’t implement and maintain itself. (Yet.) :)

That said, I’ve never been shy about the fact that I heart Trainual. 

It’s simple to set up, has dozens of pre-created templates already built-in, allows you to provide your team with only the content that’s relevant to them, and now that they’ve created lower-priced options for small teams, it’s accessible to just about every business. (affiliate link below)

I just can’t recommend it highly enough and it keeps getting better. 

You’ve Got This!

Be clear on your vision for how documentation will change you.

Choose a small, meaningful “first win” and set yourself up for success.

Choose your documentation tool wisely.

You’re ready for this. Don’t aim for perfection, aim for one usable piece of content that will make a real difference in your business. And then do it again and again. 

I wish I could walk everyone through how to get started with this process so we could share everything we’ve learned from doing this work over the past few years. But in the meantime, I’m going to keep sharing these tips. 

I wish I could walk every one of you through how to get started with this process so we could share everything we’ve learned from doing this work over the past few years, but in the meantime, I’m going to keep sharing these tips with you. 

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I’m offering ten FREE 20-minute consultations on how to get started with building your Business Playbook. Click the button below to apply!

Awareness + Self-Compassion + Accountability + Systems = Change

I have a pattern of procrastination. I don’t like it. But sometimes it feels straight-up impossible to change. But I know that’s not true.

If something isn’t in alignment with the person you want to become, it’s ok if you haven’t figured out how to shift it yet. You might not have the right tools, or the right perspective, or the right systems.

Or it’s possible that the way you’re talking to yourself inside your mind is actually holding you back from change.

Don’t give up on the you you want to become.

Stay aware.

Keep loving yourself.

Ask others to hold you accountable.

Build systems to help you stay on track.

Change is possible… it just takes longer than we think. (And the path is almost never straight.)

Setting Fire to Your Quarterly Goals

See? Destroying all your well-defined goals can be fun!

When I finished up my last quarterly planning session, I was crystal-clear on what we needed to shift by the end of the quarter. I had my objectives and key results (OKRs) defined. We finalized them together as a team to make sure they were clear. 

WE. WERE. READY.

And so we barreled off into the quarter, ready to accomplish our ambitious mission. But there was one problem. About two weeks in, it was clear things were … shifting. And not just in a minor way. We’re talking BIG, monumental shifts in the way our business will operate in 2022 and beyond. 

I couldn’t have predicted the shift back when I was making my Q4 plans, but here we were. 

What’s a CEO to do when something big happens in your business that impacts all of your beautifully-defined quarterly objectives!?

This is a question I get asked all the time by my clients. It’s usually asked with some amount of worry that if they change their objectives, they’ll somehow be doing strategic planning all wrong. After all, they spent all that time creating them and vetting them with the team and maybe even started implementing them. And now they’re going to throw all that work away?!

The truth is, we’re talking about sunk costs. Seth Godin has written a lot about these, but I think my favorite is this: 

Part of what it means to be a creative artist is to dive willingly into work that might not work. And the other part, the part that's just as important, is to openly admit when you've gone the wrong direction, and eagerly walk away, even (especially) when it's personal.

It’s the “eagerly” walk away part that really gets me. When circumstances change, when you understand more clearly where you want to go, it’s time to act. To change course and start heading where you need to go next as quickly as possible. The work you did to get to this point was a gift to your current self who now is so much wiser and ready to kick some ass. 

All of these systems and frameworks I teach my clients are just that … frameworks. They’re not laws and they’re certainly not set in stone. They’re just meant to give you a nice, repeatable process that (usually) works so you don’t have to re-figure things out every quarter. Hold goal-setting systems loosely and adjust them to fit your team’s needs, as needed. 

And so, in case I wasn’t clear with all of the words above …

Yes, it’s ok to adjust your quarterly goals and objectives before the quarter is over. 

No, that doesn’t mean you should flit around and keep changing your mind, because that will annoy and exhaust your team and get you exactly nowhere. But if you’re mid-quarter and realize your direction truly needs to change, then do it. The alternative is to keep moving forward with poorly-fitting objectives or to ignore that you have them at all!

Make the change. Help your team understand why it’s necessary. Get them excited about the new objectives. And then make the most out of the time you have left. By making and communicating the change that needs to happen, you’ve accomplished far more than you would’ve if you’d have just “muscled through” the wrong goals all quarter. Not bad for a day’s work.

Saying Goodbye to What Your Business Was

Me musing that “less is more” doesn’t apply to books or service offerings.

I love learning, but not as much as I love teaching. I get intensely interested in a topic and then dive deep to learn everything I can about it. But it’s more than just a curiosity for learning - it’s a desire to apply this knowledge by helping others to learn it too. 

And so I’ve built my business upon teaching all of the beautiful learnings I’ve collected over my career. As I learn more and more about scaling businesses, organizational management, training and documentation, I’m able to provide even more value to my clients during our engagements. It’s awesome. 

But for many of us, there’s a dark side to collecting all of this expertise: the temptation to want to do it all… to help everyone with all the things.

When The Process Mavens began in December of 2017, I was on my own. I focused mainly on developing no-code software solutions - think Smartsheet and Monday.com - for small businesses to streamline their operations. It was really fun and we made a big difference. 

Then, in 2018, we grew in size and became Certified Trainual Consultants, helping businesses to develop training and documentation for a wide variety of businesses. Being a team of instructional designers, it made perfect sense to add those services on top of the ones we were already doing. No problem.

In 2019, we began offering broader consulting services to our work; helping business leaders figure out where they wanted to go, which people they needed to help them get there, and making sure they had an actionable plan each and every quarter. What’s another couple of services when you’re making an impact, right?

We just kept collecting services and adding them to the menu. It felt mostly good as we continued along the path. Until it didn’t. Which brings us to the present-day. 

Our clients are happy, but every time we add a new awesome thing to the list, our work gets a little less efficient. It becomes a little harder to find our ideal clients. We become a little more dependent upon the genius of individuals instead of strengthening our systems and team. It’s a funny thing to know you’re providing so much value but be unable to clearly describe “the thing” you do. 

The fact is, I want to grow my business and my leadership skills. I’m ready to level up. But I’ve been ignoring a nagging call to let go of what my business was (and who I’ve been as a leader) so that I can step into what it needs to be next. 

Seth Godin so rudely put it best...

Often, we try to pretend that growth comes with no goodbyes, but it does.

Yes, it’s super important to have plans for all the things you want to accomplish in the coming year or quarter. But it’s equally important to stop and assess what you need to say goodbye to in order to make those plans a reality. Maybe it’s ...

• a team member who just isn’t a fit for the culture you’re trying to build. 

• a leader who has helped you get this far, but won’t be able to help you get to the next thing.

• a service offering that’s sucking all your time and slowing your growth.

• a client who just isn’t aligned to your new direction.

• a responsibility you’ve taken on as CEO for years that you need to hand off to someone else.

Letting these things go can be PAINFUL, but that pain comes with a whole lot of newfound wisdom and growth. And it’s not like you’re carelessly tossing them aside like a jerk. You can let go of the things that no longer serve you with genuine gratitude for helping you get where you are today. But now it’s time to embrace the tension of letting them go so you can get to the other side of what’s possible.

But you can’t get there unless you first say goodbye.

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