I think a lot of us wrestle with how to think about rolling out process. Again, we don't wanna be too bureaucratic, we don't wanna be too corporate, and we wanna keep that essence of the team and at the same time, we know we've gotta make a change because we've all heard it. What got you here to the place you are now that's not gonna get you to the place you wanna be.

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Welcome back to the show. Today is a fun episode for me because it's all about implementing process. Without changing the culture of the team. And why is this a fun one? Because my whole career in tech, in the corporate world was about implementing processes.

And in doing that and learning well what works and a lot of stuff about what doesn't work, I wanted to share some really simple things you can do to make sure whatever you wanna roll out is gonna land effectively. And why do we need to talk about this? Well, there comes a time in every team, in every business where whatever you're doing reaches a certain point.

Maybe you've hired enough team members, maybe you're evolving the business to a certain point. Whatever it is that you have to change the way you're working, you have to put a little rigor behind things. I'm working with the team right now that had been in heavy research and development for a few years, and now they're moving into shipping a product and this requires a very different way of operating, but they don't wanna lose the essence of the speed and the, and the inclusive culture and the friendliness that they have on the team.

So they're feeling a little bit stuck on how to handle it. I have another client that's really eager to expand her business and open another location, and she's feeling like, well, I wanna make sure that, you know, I'm still in touch with what's going on in the business, that I don't make it too corporate.

I think a lot of us wrestle with how to think about rolling out process. Again, we don't wanna be too bureaucratic, we don't wanna be too corporate, and we wanna keep that essence of the team. And at the same time, we know we've gotta make a change because we've all heard it. What got you here to the place you are now, that's not gonna get you to the place you wanna be.

Whether it's the configuration of your team, the processes that you use, the way you make decisions, the way you track work, all of these things that I talk about within the ops playbook. Well, these are things that you gotta figure out how to do as your team grows and they are going to be evolving.

Things like onboarding, things like making decisions, things like setting priorities, things like expectations. All of these things will evolve as your team grows. So let's talk about how do we keep that culture on the team, that vibe that we really spent so much time cultivating as we have to implement more processes.

And I wanted to share three ways to do that. So number one is to get crystal clear on your team values and your team anti values. So we wanna be clear on what does our team stand for? What do we believe in? You know, is it about, you know, being an inclusive team culture, is it about having the utmost quality of our product?

Is it about, you know, bringing in deep techno expertise? What are the things that our team values? And at the same time, we wanna talk about, well, what are the anti values? What's like the opposite of our team? So we know we never wanna fall into that because if we don't identify the anti values we can get in this point where we know what we do wanna do, but then a lot of the process that we implement actually goes right against the things we don't wanna do.

For example, you know, if an anti value is being moving too slowly, or an anti value is being really siloed in our work. We wanna make sure that any process that we of, that we develop doesn't sort of set us up for failure in those areas. So when we think about it, we wanna make sure that we're really, really clear on who we are and deliberately clear on who we are.

Not. Now, there are a lot of different exercises and workshops you can do to come up with your team values, but I think one really great place to start is having a group brainstorm, talking about the questions, what is important to us? What do we stand for, and what are the things that we don't stand for?

Having that conversation is a really great starting point to be able to understand, okay, like as we start building in more rigor, what do we wanna make sure we still hold true on? Second thing we wanna do is we wanna identify the biggest pain points that that require there to be more process and rigor.

Okay? It's not about overhauling every aspect of the way we work. Because if you come in there hot saying, okay, we gotta change everything, we gotta whip this place in the shape, everybody's gonna go, no thanks. I'm outta here. Or they're gonna agree to it and then not actually follow the process. And I know that because that happens all the time.

And I've been there, I've seen it. We've all felt it. Okay. So you wanna really start by talking to people, understanding what are the biggest pain points? Where are you feeling stuck? Where are you feeling like your work is moving slower than you'd like it to be? Where are you feeling like things are more frustrating?

Where are you feeling like, Hey, I just want more clarity here. Talk to your team members and understand what's actually getting in their way from feeling effective. We don't wanna make assumptions. We don't wanna think, okay, you know, we're moving, we're, we're shipping a hardware product. We have to follow this like rigorous process that this other hardware product team does.

We don't wanna go. Well, you know, I'm opening up another location for my, you know, med spa. So I'm gonna follow the exact process, like from this s o p guide I downloaded on the internet. No, we wanna figure out what are the pain points on our specific team that are getting in the way from achieving our goals and meeting our priorities.

Okay, maybe it's unclear decision making processes. Maybe it's hazy project timelines. Maybe it's a lack of, you know, really knowing where to go for information. These things require really different processes and really different solutions. And so we wanna know what we're actually solving for. So once we identify the biggest pain points we wanna ask ourselves.

The third thing, what is the simplest way to address this that doesn't add complexity, that doesn't solve for all the edge cases upfront that solves are maybe the 80% of the way solution. And then we, we explore and we collect feedback and experiment from there. Whenever I talk about rolling out a new process, I always frame it as an experiment.

It's something we're gonna try for a few months, maybe just a few weeks. We're gonna have an open loop to collect feedback. We're gonna see what happens, pilot it again, collect more feedback. We're gonna have this kind of continuous loop until we get it right, but we are gonna try it. So you see what I mean?

We don't wanna say, oh, does everyone want this or not? We don't wanna be in debate land forever. We wanna say, Hey, we're gonna pilot this. We're gonna do it for two, three weeks. We're gonna collect feedback and then we're gonna see, this is how you can demonstrate some certainty that yeah, we're gonna do it.

But you also leave the door open to saying, okay, we may not get it right the first time. There may be things we're missing, but we're gonna decide and commit to move forward. And that again, is using what is the simplest solution to address it. So if you feel like, well, you know, there's a lot of spending on the team and we're not clear on what it's for.

And you know, I really wish that I had insight into like, you know, the, the budget tracking and stuff like that. What's the simplest solution? Okay. Maybe you create a template and everyone just fills out when they have spent money, or there's a request process, but it doesn't go through multiple approvals and different things.

Maybe you say, okay, if it's anything over this dollar amount, that's when it goes through the request process. Anything over $75 or $500 or $2,500, whatever it is, you know, you wanna figure out what's the simplest thing that removes bottlenecks if it's about tracking work. Maybe it's not tracking every, like, minutia, grain of sand of tasks.

You say, Hey, we're gonna track things on a project level. This is the level of detail. Here's where we're gonna check in about that thing, and then we're gonna keep moving with it. So that's how we figure out the simplest thing. We don't try to solve for like the, the perfect, perfect thing that's gonna solve for a million different things at once.

Wanna solve for one thing, try a simple solution, pilot it and refine. So these are the ways that we can keep that essence of the culture, the speed that got us to where we are today. The, the, the positive, the fun, the collaborative spirit that you love about your team, and implement a little bit more rigor.

We wanna really get clear on those values and the anti values. We wanna identify the biggest pain points so that whatever we're solving for is something your team actually wants to solve for. And then we're gonna find the simplest way to solve it by piloting and experimenting with a solution. This is how we implement process.

This is one of my favorite things to support teams on. This is all about what the ops playbook is. And so if you're feeling like, ah, I'm too much in the weeds. I wanna be saving more time, I know there is, you know, downtime that, that people could be reinvesting that time. Another way I know it's costing me money.

These are the pain points that teams I work with are feeling. And especially right now when we gotta do more with less, this is the moment to think, Hey, what are some really lightweight systems and process we can put in place to bring more clarity, to get people moving, to help people feel and flow so that we can be growing our business?

And if you wanna bring that to your team, send me a message at hello@liagarvin.com and let's talk about how to bring the ops playbook to your team. This playbook will transform your business by giving everybody the place to go to first when they have a question. It ensures that people can be more proactive, they feel a stronger sense of ownership, and they're all collectively bought in to growing your business.

See you next time. That's all I have for today. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Managing Made Simple Podcast where my goal is to demystify the job of people management so that together we can make the workplace somewhere everyone can thrive. I always love to hear from you, so please reach out at liagarvin.com or message me on LinkedIn.

See you next time.