How To Use Systems (Without Turning Into A Heartless Zombie)
By Mark Silver
You can tell as soon as you pick up the phone before the other person has even
said anything. That little silence, the clattering in the background, tells you that
it's a telemarketer on the other end of the line, and there is nothing they have to
say that is worth your precious time.
The business that hired the telemarketing firm is trying to achieve their goals
using systems. Many of the systems large companies use that we come into
contact with like automated 'help' lines, telemarketing firms, spam-like
mortgage offerings that feel completely devoid of heart and personality.
With those experiences, it's easy to have strong opinions about using systems,
and to avoid them like the plague in your own business.
Don't let a world full of bad apples keep you from the sweetness, and support,
that is possible with systems.
Systems help you stand up.
The word 'system' comes from two Latin words: 'syn' and 'histanai' meaning to
cause to stand. Merriam-Webster (www.m-w.com ) defines system like this: "a
regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole."
Kind of like your bones, muscles and brain all working together to help you
stand up. Or your heart, mind, and soul working together to show your family
how much you love them.
If you have Thank You cards, address labels, and postage sitting in your desk,
and every time you write a card you put it out for the post: that's a system. And
whoever the lucky person is who receives the card is grateful, whether they
know it's a system or not.
Like the body, systems have conscious and unconscious parts.
Chances are you don't think much about breathing. You breathe in, you breathe
out. Your heart pumps, and the blood and oxygen go 'round and 'round,
keeping you alive moment to moment.
Thankfully, you don't have to pay conscious attention to that system: "Okay,
right and left atriums: pump! Right and left-ventricles: pump! Okay, diaphragm:
tighten and flatten!" Try directing all of this, dozens of times a minute.
Wouldn't leave a lot of room to get much else done, would it?
Are you thinking about every breath your business takes?
I'm betting that there are plenty of places in your business that could use a
system to help you stand up. How about getting bills paid? How about keeping
your office stocked with business supplies?
A system can be as simple as having a stack of blank inventory lists of what
your office needs to operate smoothly, a monthly alarm in your calendar that
reminds you to take ten minutes and check your inventory, filling out your
inventory list of what's needed, and scheduling a trip to Office Depot, or
ordering what you need online.
Voila! A system has just handled your office needs, and now you won't ever be
stuck at 10pm at night before a big deadline with empty printer ink cartridges.
That's fine for office inventory, but what about the telemarketing call we
received in the beginning of this article?
A 'heart-less' system is a zombie.
Systems are, by nature, repetitive. By handling the repetitious aspects of your
business, they can leave you time and energy for truly enriching, heart-centered
interactions.
The telemarketing company unfortunately thought everything about the call is
repetitive, and doesn't allow for real human interaction. As a result, there is no
space left for us to engage with the telemarketer as a person- they become a
zombie. And who wouldn't hang up on a zombie?
'Zombie' refers to a corpse that has been re-animated by evil powers. If you are
going to systematize your marketing, which I highly recommend, you'll want to
identify which actions are repetitive, and which are creative and unique. But, to
avoid creating a zombie, you'll want to do more than just systematize the
repetitive. You'll also want to bring your presence to the unique, and put your
heart into both.
Everything in this world has a spiritual presence to it, which means that no
system, engine, or machine need truly be 'cold and heartless,' as one client put
it. Your veins and arteries aren't just tubes, but they are imbued with life. The
same could be said of your autoresponder, accounting software, or email.
Take a moment now in your heart and ask to be shown the presence and life
within some part of your business that you consider to be zombie-like: 'cold and
heartless.' Once you recognize the life that is present within your business
systems, they will function more effectively for you. And your customers may
enjoy them more as well.
Sounds simple, but it may not be obvious.
Keys to Heart-Centered Systems
* Pick one thing you'd like to happen more often and more easily.
Taking a moment to breathe and check in with your heart, identify some place in
your business that you know it would be really helpful if it happened more
often or more easily. You may have several ;), but for now, just pick one.
* What are all the bite-sized pieces to it?
Even if it's a list of 20 things, break it down into little bite-sized tasks. For each
task, identify if it's a repetitive task without much creativity or personal touch
needed (applying postage, for instance), a task that needs creativity once, but
then can be repetitive (a welcome letter you mail out, that can be copied), or a
task that needs creativity every time (responding to a personal request for help
from someone).
If it needs creativity every time, you can't systematize it. But, the rest you can
put into a system that delivers, does, or reminds you to do the task in question.
* A Heart of Business Example.
We decided, for several reasons that have to do with both supporting people
and supporting the business, that we wanted people to actually read and use
the free workbook we give away: Getting to the Core of Your Business.
We also knew that many people would download it, but forget about it.
There is no way that I could possibly follow up with each subscriber personally
to remind them to check out the free download. However, what I did do was go
in my heart, and ask for what was one bit in the free workbook that would be
very helpful to someone who was relatively new.
When my heart was clear with that, I wrote a -very- short email, and put it in our
email autoresponder system. After someone has been subscribed for two weeks,
the email goes out automatically, reminding the new subscriber how to get the
download, and to look at a specific page, for a specific bit of help.
We get thank you emails all the time from folks who have received that email,
and enjoyed what they read there.
Although the email goes out automatically, without me thinking about it (heart-
pump! diaphragm- breathe!), the responses that come back fall into the category
of needing creativity every time.
So I respond to those emails personally, quite happily. If I had had to think
about every step until that point: manually adding someone to the subscriber
list, sending them the free workbook, sending them the reminder email- I would
be exhausted, cranky, and unable to do much else in my business.
But, because the rest of it is in a system, and Heart of Business is off the
respirator and breathing on its own, then I do have spaciousness and creativity
available to respond with heart to those who do write to me.
Your next step: What is one heart-centered system you can add to your
business this month?
About the writer:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money,
Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to
Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around
the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free
chapters of the book online: www.heartofbusiness.com
By Mark Silver
You can tell as soon as you pick up the phone before the other person has even
said anything. That little silence, the clattering in the background, tells you that
it's a telemarketer on the other end of the line, and there is nothing they have to
say that is worth your precious time.
The business that hired the telemarketing firm is trying to achieve their goals
using systems. Many of the systems large companies use that we come into
contact with like automated 'help' lines, telemarketing firms, spam-like
mortgage offerings that feel completely devoid of heart and personality.
With those experiences, it's easy to have strong opinions about using systems,
and to avoid them like the plague in your own business.
Don't let a world full of bad apples keep you from the sweetness, and support,
that is possible with systems.
Systems help you stand up.
The word 'system' comes from two Latin words: 'syn' and 'histanai' meaning to
cause to stand. Merriam-Webster (www.m-w.com ) defines system like this: "a
regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole."
Kind of like your bones, muscles and brain all working together to help you
stand up. Or your heart, mind, and soul working together to show your family
how much you love them.
If you have Thank You cards, address labels, and postage sitting in your desk,
and every time you write a card you put it out for the post: that's a system. And
whoever the lucky person is who receives the card is grateful, whether they
know it's a system or not.
Like the body, systems have conscious and unconscious parts.
Chances are you don't think much about breathing. You breathe in, you breathe
out. Your heart pumps, and the blood and oxygen go 'round and 'round,
keeping you alive moment to moment.
Thankfully, you don't have to pay conscious attention to that system: "Okay,
right and left atriums: pump! Right and left-ventricles: pump! Okay, diaphragm:
tighten and flatten!" Try directing all of this, dozens of times a minute.
Wouldn't leave a lot of room to get much else done, would it?
Are you thinking about every breath your business takes?
I'm betting that there are plenty of places in your business that could use a
system to help you stand up. How about getting bills paid? How about keeping
your office stocked with business supplies?
A system can be as simple as having a stack of blank inventory lists of what
your office needs to operate smoothly, a monthly alarm in your calendar that
reminds you to take ten minutes and check your inventory, filling out your
inventory list of what's needed, and scheduling a trip to Office Depot, or
ordering what you need online.
Voila! A system has just handled your office needs, and now you won't ever be
stuck at 10pm at night before a big deadline with empty printer ink cartridges.
That's fine for office inventory, but what about the telemarketing call we
received in the beginning of this article?
A 'heart-less' system is a zombie.
Systems are, by nature, repetitive. By handling the repetitious aspects of your
business, they can leave you time and energy for truly enriching, heart-centered
interactions.
The telemarketing company unfortunately thought everything about the call is
repetitive, and doesn't allow for real human interaction. As a result, there is no
space left for us to engage with the telemarketer as a person- they become a
zombie. And who wouldn't hang up on a zombie?
'Zombie' refers to a corpse that has been re-animated by evil powers. If you are
going to systematize your marketing, which I highly recommend, you'll want to
identify which actions are repetitive, and which are creative and unique. But, to
avoid creating a zombie, you'll want to do more than just systematize the
repetitive. You'll also want to bring your presence to the unique, and put your
heart into both.
Everything in this world has a spiritual presence to it, which means that no
system, engine, or machine need truly be 'cold and heartless,' as one client put
it. Your veins and arteries aren't just tubes, but they are imbued with life. The
same could be said of your autoresponder, accounting software, or email.
Take a moment now in your heart and ask to be shown the presence and life
within some part of your business that you consider to be zombie-like: 'cold and
heartless.' Once you recognize the life that is present within your business
systems, they will function more effectively for you. And your customers may
enjoy them more as well.
Sounds simple, but it may not be obvious.
Keys to Heart-Centered Systems
* Pick one thing you'd like to happen more often and more easily.
Taking a moment to breathe and check in with your heart, identify some place in
your business that you know it would be really helpful if it happened more
often or more easily. You may have several ;), but for now, just pick one.
* What are all the bite-sized pieces to it?
Even if it's a list of 20 things, break it down into little bite-sized tasks. For each
task, identify if it's a repetitive task without much creativity or personal touch
needed (applying postage, for instance), a task that needs creativity once, but
then can be repetitive (a welcome letter you mail out, that can be copied), or a
task that needs creativity every time (responding to a personal request for help
from someone).
If it needs creativity every time, you can't systematize it. But, the rest you can
put into a system that delivers, does, or reminds you to do the task in question.
* A Heart of Business Example.
We decided, for several reasons that have to do with both supporting people
and supporting the business, that we wanted people to actually read and use
the free workbook we give away: Getting to the Core of Your Business.
We also knew that many people would download it, but forget about it.
There is no way that I could possibly follow up with each subscriber personally
to remind them to check out the free download. However, what I did do was go
in my heart, and ask for what was one bit in the free workbook that would be
very helpful to someone who was relatively new.
When my heart was clear with that, I wrote a -very- short email, and put it in our
email autoresponder system. After someone has been subscribed for two weeks,
the email goes out automatically, reminding the new subscriber how to get the
download, and to look at a specific page, for a specific bit of help.
We get thank you emails all the time from folks who have received that email,
and enjoyed what they read there.
Although the email goes out automatically, without me thinking about it (heart-
pump! diaphragm- breathe!), the responses that come back fall into the category
of needing creativity every time.
So I respond to those emails personally, quite happily. If I had had to think
about every step until that point: manually adding someone to the subscriber
list, sending them the free workbook, sending them the reminder email- I would
be exhausted, cranky, and unable to do much else in my business.
But, because the rest of it is in a system, and Heart of Business is off the
respirator and breathing on its own, then I do have spaciousness and creativity
available to respond with heart to those who do write to me.
Your next step: What is one heart-centered system you can add to your
business this month?
About the writer:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money,
Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to
Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around
the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free
chapters of the book online: www.heartofbusiness.com
Home Office Weekly is a BackPorch Publishing site Marcia Passos Duffy, Publisher & Editor Author of Be Your Own Boss Contact |
home|your business|your office |your time |your home life|yourself |art|books|tools|site map|about us
| Home Office Weekly Your guide to successfully living & working under one roof! |
home|your business|your office |your time |your home life|yourself |art|books|tools|site map|about us