Future State COO
helping small business start, improve, grow

thoughts on

closing the gap

Future State is dedicated to providing emboldening insight on optimizing small businesses for sustainable growth. Our focus is on organizational alignment between targets and functions - closing the gap between present reality and vision, between current and future state.

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”
— Peter Drucker

Systemizing: From Good to Great (Part 1)

Systematization of a business enhances organizational value through optimized, sustainable results. Such as, when organizations create systems for things like business operations or goal management, or even hiring and developing talent, they become more efficient, therefore more productive and profitable. Systems can expand and contract as needed, and are often overlapping and comprehensive. Good systems are cross-functional and facilitate inclusion, visibility, and clarity. They are also dynamic and should evolve with the vision and strategy, and scale with the revenue and structure. Regardless of how robust, or interwoven, systems inevitably simplify organizations so they can focus and achieve desired results - some of the benefits include...

  • increasing consistency, productivity, efficiency, & profitability

  • improving communication, knowledge transfer, & problem solving

  • enhancing organizational learning, innovation, & continuous improvement

  • achieving sustainable growth & scaling profitably

Systems and processes are the key to going from good to great and building a sustainable business - an organization where people want to work and who people want to do business with. They help reduce complexity to overcome the growth paradox, enable a sustainable business model, and ultimately make it possible to scale, fund, or sell the business. But, the often overlooked driver behind successful systems and processes is people. In fact, people are necessary when building systems and processes, but more importantly, systems and processes are imperative to developing people and teams - and high performance teams are essential to building great companies. To truly leverage systems and processes organizations must be capable of managing change and operationalizing strategies - the best way to do that is by building a learning organization through a Team Development System (TDS) which drives performance, innovation, and impact. Effective team development results in accountable, growth mindset cultures, as well as productive, profitable, and scalable operations, all of which are necessary to becoming a great business. 

If you stop thinking of systems and processes as robotic, rigid, or automated, and maintain a people-centric approach then you can become a great business. Small business owners often share an aversion to systems and processes due to flawed thinking which presumes they limit peoples potential, creativity, problem solving, innovation, and/or development. But, the reality is, these things are all improved by systems and processes as they instill focus, discipline, and accountability, not confinement. When done properly, and comprehensively, they produce continuity, collaboration, and consistency, not restrictive control - think construct not constraint . Furthermore, when the right people are involved and empowered, they continue to make your processes and systems better - producing 10x (exponential) results across the vale chain.  

It starts with inclusive leadership, where all stakeholders are engaged when analyzing, improving, documenting & implementing processes (or systems). It is counterproductive, in the long-run, when processes are handed down. Processes should only be documented as high level road maps for team members to execute and manage individually - meaning they are encouraged to continuously improve the process (navigate a better route), not follow it blindly. If you do not try to capture every step, instead provide an inclusively designed framework, you empower your people to optimize execution and leverage front-line experiences to contribute to the perpetual enhancement of the process. Processes are connected across and by systems, and these intersections require the most attention regarding consistency and communication. While systems and processes allow people to be more autonomous, they also encourage collaboration which leads to innovation and growth. Collaboration, and inclusive leadership, enhances trust, buy-in, and capacity for change - maximizing results for all strategic initiatives. 

READ PART 2 “Leveraging Systems to Build High Performing Teams”


Chad G - FSC