Systemology is author David Jenyns’ second book. It details a 7-step framework to get you thinking about how to systemize your business and remove yourself as the primary bottleneck for all operational decisions and problems.
The Methodology
Step 1 – Define
- As a first step, David suggests you conceptualize a sales flow using his Critical Client Flow (CCF) tool.
- Essentially, you list out the steps of the client journey from initial contact to sale to repeat business.
- This helps you target the initial, mission critical “systems” (processes) that need to be systemized.
- This tool had vibes of the Michael Porter’s Value Chain and/or the Business Model Canvas . Both are existing tools you can use to abstract your business model on paper.
Step 2 – Assign
- Once you have a high-level value chain defined in your CCF, you want to define the different teams/departments/functions within your business. You list roles and responsibilities as it relates to the activities listed in the flow your picked in step 1.
- For example, marketing is responsible for the initial contact with potential customers.
- This will help you identify who your responsible departments (process owners) are.
Step 3 – Extract
- Once you have a good idea of what the relationships between key activities and responsible function are, you can work on documenting how things actually work today (your As-Is).
- David suggests having a systems champion dedicated to the activity of capturing (e.g. a business analyst type resource) who simply documents what the designated responsible for the system/activity is doing step-by-step. That way the person working can concentrate on their work instead of having to start/stop to document.
- Once the “system” is captured, the champion documents it in a standard format that will be used for all other systems.
- Repeat for all activities in scope.
Step 4 – Organize
- This step is about what to do with your “systems” (processes) once documented. Primarily, how to find a “software home” for them.
- This can be as simple as a shared drive and and can quickly become more complex. Especially if you are looking at fit for purpose process management applications. However, the point is that just having a place to house your systems and a set of conventions for how people should use them is key.
- Similarly, David recommends having project management software in place so you can run your operations out of e-mail and in the application while referencing the appropriate systems documentation when assigning a task to someone; especially if they are doing it for the first time.
- Best quote from this step: “Extraordinary leverage is created any time you create something that can be sold more than once with minimal additional work”
Step 5 – Integrate
- Once you have a “critical mass” of documentation, you need to start building a culture around the regular use and maintenance of systems as your business evolves over time.
- Essentially, you need to manage the change in how you run your business today vs. how you want to run tomorrow with documented systems in place. The work itself doesn’t change but how people think about their work needs to change.
Step 6 – Scale
- Once you have a “critical mass” of systems documented AND people who understand how to interact with them, it is time to extend this effort to all other parts of your business that may or may not be on the Critical Client Flow (CCF) you defined at the outset.
- For example, your recruiting and payroll processes should also be documented to ensure they run smoothly but are not client-facing.
- Identifying and prioritizing the documentation of these “systems” is the next step to getting the system culture embedded across your business.
Step 7 – Optimize
- Once you have your systems documented, you can work on defining key measures for each one. This enables monitoring of system health and will help you target areas of improvement.
What I liked About Systemology
- It delivers, as advertised, a methodology for small businesses to tackle business process management in an approachable, easily implementable way. Templates and guides are provided at each step to help structure the exercise.
- It’s easy to understand and David writing style is very approachable and filled with real world examples.
What Could Have Been Better in Systemology
- In many ways, David’s content is not new at all. Business Process Management has been around for 30+ years. There are all sorts of methodologies and tools already available for business owners to do what David has rebranded as Systemology. Instead of capitalizing on existing tools within his methodology, he invented a new set of tools.
Rating: 4/5 for small business owners; 3/5 as a general business book.
Conclusion
Overall, after reading the book cover to cover, what I can say is that David does a great job with Systemology. He puts together a methodology and framework that’s easily digestible and implementable for business owners without a formal background in business. However, if you’re at all familiar with existing process management principles, this book won’t bring you much new information. It does however have a few funny anecdotes and stories that will make this a fun read.
Personal Library Worthy? No. Not for mine… But that’s because I’ve been doing process and systems work my entire career… This is a great book as an introduction to process management and its benefits. If you have a small business, don’t have a business background and want to stop being the bottleneck for everything happening in your business, this is a good book for you.