Do you promote the “Shop Way” of doing something?
This could be with how you quote, answer the phone, or even box up an order. Outlining these steps and making them into a Standard Operating Procedure can go a long way to ensure continuity in your actions and tasks.
In this article we’ll take a look at a few simple steps to build this into how you manage your shop.
Start with Clarity
Clarity mean there shouldn’t be any ambiguity or lack of detail with instructions. Have you defined what success looks like?
Don’t assume.
These days it is really easy to record a video or take a picture with your cell phone to show someone how a task should be performed, or built. Where does the shipping label go? How do you mix ink or coat a screen? What’s the difference between hooping a performance golf shirt or a work jacket?
Demonstrate how to do things. Make it easy to understand.
Communicate this often.
Ask for Help
Your crew knows how to do their jobs. Or at least they should.
What are they struggling with and can you give them the tools or training they need to elevate their performance?
You won’t know unless you have that conversation. Ask them for help in determining “how” something should be handled.
What are the best practices and reasonable amount of time for an action to be completed?
Can they help you outline where and how failure occurs? Is there a grocery list of stuff they need to do their job better?
Turn Them Loose
You should focus on the “what”, not the “how” things are completed. This is sometimes hard to grasp.
Let your team figure things out. You can guide them, but at the end of the day you should care about the results more than the pathway.
However, once that gets defined you can make that into your “Shop Way” of doing something. This turns that hazy idea into a solid foundation for training.
Get everyone on the same page.
Ask Them What They Need
This was one of my favorite questions to ask when walking the floor everyday. “Is there anything you need to make your job easier?”
Such a loaded question.
Sometimes they simply need an extra hand. Or maybe some training. Some sort of gizmo.
But what you really want to define is their expectations of you. How can you contribute to the outcome as a leader? What do they need from you on a continual basis?
Seek First to Understand, Then To Be Understood
This is Habit 5 of Steven Covey’s famous “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.
To elevate performance and build Standard Operating Procedures do you know your staff and customers point of view? Their underlying problems or concerns?
Dialing this in can help you outline what you need to do.
This all comes down to communication. Ask more questions.
Foundational Expectations
Your shop should operate on a set of Core Values. These are those unbreakable tenets that your company is built upon.
You know these.
Integrity.
Honesty.
Quality.
Fun.
Teamwork.
Those are some common ones. Yours may be different. Your “Shop Way” of doing things must be built upon these foundational ideas.
When you are discussing this with your team be sure to review and integrate your company’s Core Values into your Standard Operating Procedures.
Accountability
What happens when things go sideways? Mistakes are bound to happen.
What then?
Is there some sort of retraining? Do you write people up and possibly suspend them? Part of building this into your “Shop Way” of doing something is outlining what happens when things don’t go as expected.
You need a procedure or process that deals with this. In writing.
This has to be communicated to your team. Everyone needs to know the rules.
Flexibility & Open Mindedness
Lastly, when thinking about creating that “Shop Way” of doing something, you have to leave room for change.
New technology, processes, people, even consumables can make the old way not as effective or functional.
“This the way we’ve alway done it.” can lead to a host of problems.
Instead, test a theory out. Shoot bullets not cannonballs.
Get everyone’s opinion. Does it work better?
Don’t be afraid of change.
Water that doesn’t move stagnates.
