2. Less Stress, More Success: How to Fix What’s Actually Broken in Your Business | Process

Most small business problems don’t come from bad decisions, they come from trying to fix things without a process.

In this episode of the Outcome Academy Podcast, Ginny breaks down a calm, practical approach to problem solving using LEAN thinking, the DMAIC framework, and real-world examples from both healthcare and small business leadership.

If you’ve ever felt like the same issues keep popping up, your team feels frustrated by constant changes, or you’re fixing things fast but not seeing lasting improvement, this episode will help you slow things down just enough to fix the right problem.

Drawing on over a decade of experience leading regulatory, quality, and process improvement work in a hospital laboratory, Ginny explains how structured problem solving saves lives in healthcare and why the same principles are essential for keeping businesses healthy, profitable, and sustainable.

You’ll learn:

• Why capturing issues is the first step to real improvement
• How involving your team in problem solving increases buy-in and follow-through
• What LEAN and DMAIC actually look like in day-to-day business operations
• How to use simple data, even a clipboard, to stop guessing and start improving
• Why documenting and controlling new processes is critical for long-term success

This episode is especially helpful for service-based business owners who want less chaos, stronger systems, and a team that feels heard and engaged.

Ginny also invites listeners to explore a companion blog post that includes a printable tool your team can use to help uncover the true root cause of recurring problems in your business.

If you’re ready to stop reacting and start improving with intention, this episode is for you.

Thanks for listening to The Outcome Academy Podcast.

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Your outcome isn’t a wish. It’s a decision.

Transcript

You don't need to work harder to solve your business problems. You need to slow down just enough to fix the right thing.

Welcome to the Outcome Academy Podcast. I am Ginny Seeley. I'm a business strategist and longtime process improvement expert, and I also co-own an appliance service business and a coworking space with my husband Joe, so I understand what it looks like to juggle growth, leadership, family, and big dreams all at once.

If you're a service-based entrepreneur or executive who wants to stop putting out fires and work on your business—and build momentum with systems, smart marketing, and practical tech—you are in exactly the right place.

I want to start today with something that feels almost too simple to matter, but in practice, it changes everything. One of the things I really appreciate about Gino Wickman's work and his book Traction is his concept of the issues list, especially as part of the Level 10 meeting structure. Because what that concept really does is it gives leaders permission to do something we're not naturally great at doing.

It lets us notice when things aren't going right and capture that information without immediately trying to fix it. And that piece is important. Because as leaders, when something feels off, our instinct is to jump straight into solution mode. We don't pause, we don't observe, we don't collect information—we react.

But an issues list says: not yet. Let's write it down first.

At Cavalry, we take this idea really seriously, and we do it in a few really practical, very human ways. First, Maggie, our office administrator, personally calls every client a few days to about a week after we complete an appliance repair. She checks to make sure everything's still working as expected, and she asks about their experience. And if there's any level of dissatisfaction at all—with the repair, the communication, the scheduling, anything—it gets captured. Not escalated, not dramatized—just captured.

We use a simple Google Sheet with columns for the date, the issue, the resolution, and the date it was resolved, which comes later. And that same issue also goes up on our communication board in the office, where we keep a running list of all the open items that we're going to discuss at our next team meeting.

Secondly, we empower our entire team to write issues directly on the whiteboard in the office. No hierarchy is required. We don't expect perfect language or exact punctuation—just get the idea on the list. If something feels clunky, frustrating, confusing, inefficient—it goes there.

And third, anytime something doesn't go quite right—a breakdown, a bottleneck, or a why is this so annoying? moment—you guessed it: it goes on the issues list.

And here's why this matters more than people realize: just capturing problems is crucial. It slows the chaos down. It gives shape to frustration, and it creates a pause between noticing a problem and reacting to it. And there's a bonus effect that I think is really, really important.

When your team is invited to share what's not working, and then they actually see those issues revisited in weekly meetings—something shifts. They feel heard. They feel respected. They feel engaged. Suddenly, meetings aren't just us talking down to them, giving them all the updates and things they need to do.

It becomes a collaborative space. It becomes somewhere meaningful, where they are fixing real things together as a team.

Okay, now let's talk about the how. Because capturing all those issues is only the beginning. As leaders, we're usually super good problem solvers. We see issues early, we connect the dots quickly, and we put out fires efficiently and right away.

And normally that feels like a really awesome gift. But here's the hidden downside to that strength: when you're building a team, if we solve everything ourselves too quickly, we unintentionally remove the other people from the process. And when people don't help to create the solution, they're far less likely to follow it.

For over 10 years, I led regulatory, quality, and process improvement efforts for a hospital laboratory in Maryland. And like any healthy organization, we had a wide range of adopters on our leadership team. Some people were energized by change. They loved new ideas, quick pivots, and experimentation. I can think of exactly my favorite person to work with about new things because of that trait.

Others were more cautious. They wanted to investigate options, think through risks, move methodically. And sometimes, to be honest, that can feel annoying to somebody like me—and probably you—who's used to solving everything quickly and pivoting and moving on.

But here's the truth: both of these personalities are necessary for high-level quality improvement. The fast thinkers help you move forward, and the methodical thinkers help you avoid costly mistakes. It feels uncomfortable. It feels frustrating when you already think you know the answer and you want to move forward. But it's really hasty sometimes, and it can cause more problems in the long run.

Where things broke down for me was when I let my own superpower run too far ahead. My brain moves fast—new idea, who's involved, here are five things that could go wrong, okay, we're going to do it this way. All of that can happen internally in seconds. And when I didn't pause long enough to let anyone else see that process unfold, it created frustration—especially for my methodical, slow adopter.

It was frustrating not because my solution was bad, but because they weren't a part of building it. So the real leadership question becomes: how do we fix things efficiently without sidelining the people who actually have to live with the solution?

And that is where the real growth for me as a leader during my time at the hospital came. It was from blending those super-fast adopters with the methodical slow thinkers and then putting together a process to make solutions naturally flow in a way that works best for everybody—especially the people you're serving.

This is where Lean and my favorite acronym, DMAIC, come in. And before we go any further, I want to give you a little context for why I approach problem-solving this way.

I'm a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. And yes, I know that can sound super nerdy. But a very long time ago, when I started working at the hospital, I had just finished my master's work in leadership and management, and I felt like something was missing. I had worked on my Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and I learned so much about quality improvement that it just sounded so interesting to me.

Basically, what I launched through my Lean Six Sigma work is that there is a scientific method or process about problem-solving. And that's kind of been the background of how I run our business efficiently. And taking all of that science-nerdy stuff and breaking it down—making it work in a way that helps our business—has now become my new superpower in the business world.

My actual superpower is not jargon or certifications. It's translation. I take very technical, high-stakes concepts and break them down into the most usable, human, real-world steps possible. And my students and clients have told me that over and over and over again. They're like, "Ginny, I came to you, I felt so overwhelmed, and then you shared this with me—and now I feel empowered."

And so that's my goal here for you today. I want to take something that sounds kind of nerdy, kind of structured, really dry and boring, and I want to make it really practical so you can take this away and run with it in your business.

In healthcare, we don't get endless chances to get things right. Six Sigma is defined as 3.4 defects per million opportunities. That means the expectation isn't mostly right—it's almost never wrong. My favorite place to work in the lab when I was actually doing the lab testing was the blood bank lab. And in the blood bank, if you know anything about blood typing, giving somebody the wrong blood type can be fatal. So we don't have a chance to try things over and over again before we get them right.

When systems fail in healthcare and we don't fix them quickly and correctly, people die. And while business might feel a little less dramatic on the surface, the stakes are actually very similar. If broken processes don't get fixed in business, customers leave. Your very best team members burn out and walk away. And eventually, if those things keep happening, the business itself dies—just more slowly.

DMAIC—Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control—exists to help you fix things quickly, without guessing and without burning out your people.

D-M-A-I-C: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control

We’ve already talked about part of the Define step, which is capturing the issues. But there's a little more to it than that. Once you've got your things on your issues list and you bring it up in your meeting, that's where the definition really takes place. You read the issue out loud and you ask:

• What does this actually mean?
• What actually happened in this situation?
• What caused you to put this up there?
• Is this something that's annoying?
• Is it happening all the time?
• What's the actual outcome of this problem?

And we want to have that little bit of discussion out loud, and we want to feel the pain of what actually happens in that issue. So that's your Define step. You're just going to write out exactly what the problem is.

Next is Measure.

Right now, I'm going to run through this acronym with you with a real example that's going on in our business. We talked about defining the problem. As I sit at my desk here in the coworking center, I have a clear view of the front parking lot, and a few times over the past few weeks, I've seen one of our technicians zoom into the parking lot, dash into the building, dash back out, and zoom back to his calls.

And it feels to me like it's happened several times now. And it's annoying, because I'm thinking to myself, Why are you forgetting things every day that you're supposed to be working?

If you noticed right there, I have some emotion behind it. Because maybe I had a grumpy morning that day. Maybe I had a headache. Who knows? But sometimes when we notice an issue or a problem, there's emotion that goes with it. You might have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. You might have had a flat tire on the way to work. Your kids might have missed the bus. They forgot their homework for the tenth time—whatever it is.

You get to work and something happens and you're like, This constantly happens! I'm so sick of this thing. It's really annoying. It's frustrating.

And if you leave it right there, then you may go into problem-solving mode for a problem that really isn't actually happening.

So the next step after Define is Measure. And right now, it might feel like our technicians are forgetting their parts or their Cavalry Request Club gift boxes at an annoying rate. Or maybe it's just me already feeling irritated when I see him zoom into the parking lot and zoom out.

But here's the key question: Is this actually happening often, or were there like two or three times I just noticed it and it was an anomaly?

Measuring is what tells us. Now we can track how often it happens. We can track what was forgotten. We can track what day of the week it happened and why it was forgotten. Any qualitative or quantitative data you collect is a win.

Qualitative data is just a big word to say things like what day of the week it was, or whether it was morning or afternoon, or something like that. Quantitative data is anything numeric that you're collecting.

I know nobody loves the word data. It sounds boring, dry, overwhelming. But data doesn't have to mean dashboards and spreadsheets. Sometimes data is a clipboard. Sometimes it's tally marks. Sometimes it's a checklist. Data is simply information that helps you make better decisions.

So that's the second step—we're going to collect the data. We're going to find out if it's because Ginny's annoyed that day or whether it's really an issue.

Next is Analyze.
This happens after a defined period of time, and you can be the one to make that call about how long you want to actually measure something—not in the heat of the moment.

And this is where AI tools shine. You can upload all that information you are collecting over the past week or month just to see if this is something that's happening, and then you can ask ChatGPT to tell you if it sees any patterns. That’s something that AI is fantastic at. It doesn’t have feelings—so it’s not grumpy, its kid didn’t do something, its dog didn’t pee on the floor—none of that stuff happened.

So AI can analyze all of that data that you guys put together and then let you know if there’s a pattern there or if it really is truly a problem.

If you’re not a fan of AI or that feels scary to you, you can use graphs or pivot tables in Excel and you can analyze it yourself.

Only after we’ve properly defined, measured, and analyzed do we move into the Improve step.
Because if you don’t really know what’s going on, you can’t really solve the problem.

Right now, this is the creative part. Some people think you should only try one improvement at a time. Others believe you should test multiple ideas together to benefit from a synergistic effect. I say: go with your gut. Talk it out with your team. Try what feels promising—and you can always adjust.

For example, if the data shows that what’s being forgotten isn’t parts at all—but it’s our new Cavalry CRE Club member gift boxes—then that might be the system that needs improvement, and not your parts management.

So good news: you don’t have to go out and buy new part bins for every truck.

And finally, the last step is Control, and this step is critical.
Once you establish the best way to do something, you absolutely must document it, communicate it, and train all your new team members to that process so that you can all be on the same page, doing the same things together.

That’s how improvements stick.

So one more time:

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

And here's your takeaway for this episode:
You don't need to work harder to solve your business problems. You need to slow down just enough to fix the right thing.

And when you fix things together with structure and intention, your systems improve, your team buys in, and your stress goes down.

If this resonated with you, I want to invite you to read the blog post that goes deeper into this process. It includes a tool to get to the root cause of any problem, and you can use that to uncover the root causes of the issues that you discover in your business.

You can find it at https://www.outcomeacademy.com/blog/dmaic.

Thanks for spending this time with me today, and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.

As you think about this week, notice where this shows up in your own business.
If you want to go deeper into this work—including the Summit Club Mastermind and other ways we support service-based business owners—you can explore everything at OutcomeAcademy.com.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.