The Growing Pains Podcast
Growing a business and a family? Join host Alyson Caffrey as she interviews mompreneurs who have scaled businesses and juggled life at home. Having it all may seem like a pipedream, but we are making it happen every day. Tune in and fold time in that carpool line!
The Growing Pains Podcast
How to Diagnose Problems in Your Business
Are you struggling to pinpoint what's holding your business back? Discover a simple yet powerful framework for diagnosing and solving problems in your company. In this episode, learn how to categorize issues into process, system, or people problems, and tackle them efficiently. Uncover the secrets to identifying root causes, implementing effective solutions, and fostering a positive work culture. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, this guide to problem-solving will help you navigate challenges and drive your business forward!
Topics covered in this episode:
- The three categories of business problems: process, system, and people.
- Importance of proper diagnosis before attempting solutions.
- How to approach conversations with team members about performance issues.
- The necessity of scaling a team for business growth.
- Creating timelines and solutions for identified problems.
RESOURCES FROM ALYSON:
The Kid-Proof Business Checklist
https://alysoncaffrey.com/checklist
Maternity Leave Planning Guide
https://www.mastermaternityleave.com/guide
Are you juggling the challenges of running a business while raising your little ones? Do you crave more ease in balancing your professional ambitions with the demands of parenthood? Well, sit tight, you're in the right place. I'm your host, alison Caffrey, and I understand the growing pains that come with building a business while nurturing a growing household. I understand the growing pains that come with building a business while nurturing a growing household. Think of this as a soft spot to land when you feel like your ambitions are starting to become just a little overwhelming.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Growing Pains. Hey, and welcome back to the Growing Pains podcast. I'm your host, alison Caffrey, and I'm going to talk about something that we don't actually usually talk about. We talk a lot about strategies and excitement around growing a business and a family together, you know really integrated, and something we don't talk a lot about is problems, because they surely come up inside of our business and I think a lot of times when we have wonderful guests on the podcast, you know they help us. You know kind of see the possibility and see the things that maybe they've struggled through, that now they're on the other side of, but a lot of us have a lot of really real problems inside of our business and inside of our life, and I know that I'm not a life coach. I'm not going to talk about all the possible life problems, because that's going to be way too much for one episode but something that I really do feel passionately about is helping solve problems quickly and elegantly inside of your business and having a system around how you do that, and one of the frameworks that I actually use quite a bit at Operations Agency, my company that I have now built for the last seven years is, you know, really focusing on the types of problems that exist commonly inside of businesses. So I'm going to break those three things down. There's also a really incredible blog that I just wrote at Operations Agency about this exact thing, and I've been getting a ton of really positive feedback on it. So I wanted to make sure and that I brought this to my mom community, because I know that although some of us may have bigger businesses, some of us may have smaller businesses.
Speaker 1:There's really kind of a universal truth when diagnosing problems in a business, at least in my experience, is that problems can really only exist in basically one of three categories. We either have a process problem, a system problem or a people problem and those should be addressed in sequence. And so what I mean by that is, if you have a problem, see if it's a process problem first and then move to system and then move to people. Because I think a lot of times, especially as I help companies grow teams and as we grow our team and operations agency, there's a lot of times where we really want to point the finger at other people. Right, we want to say, hey, this is your fault or you didn't get here on time or whatever this looks like. But if we start to go through and flow through these steps of diagnosing the problem, it becomes a little bit easier. And actually I was inspired to write more about this because it does exist inside of our core framework operations simplified at operations agency. But I was really inspired to talk more about this recently because, if you guys have been following along with my personal side of my life, my husband actually recently had an eye surgery and it was actually really challenging because what happened was is he started seeing some floaters in his eye and he we were doing a lot of renovating because we were trying to put our house on the market and he was like, is this just stress or debris or something in my eye, because I had, you know, been doing lots of this work, and so we kind of put it off and was like I don't know about this.
Speaker 1:Then it kind of started hurting. He was like, oh man, I kind of got this, you know, this headache right behind my eye and I'm not sure what to do. And so he went over to the ER and he was like, hey, listen, I just want to make sure like this isn't crazy, like I don't have a brain tumor or not the case. And so they did the tests and they ran everything, they sent him to the specialist, and then the specialist sent him to the retinal specialist. And so this is now like three weeks worth of time that has passed by where we've had this issue. And the retinal specialist was like we need to do surgery now.
Speaker 1:So the kids and I are like gallivanting around town waiting for dad to get out of this eye surgery, and we didn't know he was having surgery at the time. So we were like, oh, he's at his eye appointment. And so we're like adult Navy went to Panera Bread like did the whole thing, and then we came back and Steve's like, yeah, no, totally. They operated on my eye and I was like what? I was like are you okay? Like how is this going? What's the aftercare? So I start peppering him with questions. I was like how long did this take? I was like we weren't gone that long and he was like it took three minutes and I was like, oh, okay, and I mean, listen, if you've had eye surgery, I personally haven't but after hearing about what that was like from Steve, it sounded like it was a really intense and painful three minutes, like incredibly painful, and for the most part, this all happened because of proper diagnosis, right. So we were able to rule out some of the major issues and then we were able to go from specialist to specialist to basically tell us, okay, yeah, this is the issue, and then they fixed his eye in three minutes time.
Speaker 1:So the important thing to remember here is that with proper diagnosis, we can really often see simple solutions and really easily implementable solutions to our problems. And I think that, especially as a mom and a business owner, there are things that happen in our personal life that totally affect our business, and there are things that happen in our business that totally affect our personal life and what we need to do is start to diagnose problems healthily inside of our business and in our life. So is this a process problem, a system problem or a people problem? Am I just having a bad day? Is that what's happening? And I think sometimes what we do as business owners is we wake up and then we make the list, and then we try and conquer the list and then we wonder why Some days we feel like we're on and some days we're like well, I don't know. And if you actually are wondering a little bit more of a system about this, I have another podcast episode with an incredible mama that we talk about like the moon cycles and our actual like menstrual cycle to help us like stay in pattern with the times that we feel really productive, which I thought was a really cool conversation.
Speaker 1:But this is really for you know. You know that for sure there's a problem and you know you need to figure out what it is and how to kind of get to the root and solve it. So I'm going to break this down for you guys Process, system, people. So, in sequence, the process problem is the most common problem.
Speaker 1:Transparently and I don't say this because I am an operations gal. This isn't a hammer and a nail thing. This is actually an issue that a lot of businesses have is that they haven't fully identified, okay, what is the process for this, or what are the standards that this thing needs to meet. And I see this all the time when managing teammates or even like building marketing systems or building marketing consistency. You want to generate more leads and get them in the door, but you don't know what the best process is. You don't know what somebody did to fill out an application and buy from you on the spot, because you haven't actually processed that out, you haven't looked and taken an actual keen eye to how that's going, and so you can't effectively say oh well, such and such system isn't delivering me leads or such and such person isn't actually closing deals for me. It's like no, no, go up the river and take a look at where the source of this issue is, and it's because the process hasn't been properly identified. So the process in and of itself needs to be there right, so it needs to be written down, centralized, accessible to your people. That is all needing to be true.
Speaker 1:The second big thing that you want to look at when diagnosing problems is? Is it a system problem? So the system is basically the environment in which the process and the people create the results. Right, so think of it like your technology A couple of weeks ago when technology went down on all those major airlines. Right, so think of it like your technology. You know, a couple of weeks ago, when technology went down and all those major airlines, right, their major system went down, that is a system issue, right? I mean, you can have all the processes in the world and the best people in the entire universe, and that now, all of a sudden, we're in a position where we can't do our job because the environment is off. Right, we can't do that. If we come to the business and there's a fire, then we can't do our job because the environment is off. Right, we can't do that. If we come to the business and there's a fire, we can't do our job because the environment is off, then we need to then go ahead and do that. That is your problem, right? And so some of the system problems are pretty obvious.
Speaker 1:But a lot of times, too, what happens inside of businesses is they have system problems because the system hasn't been set up properly, and so they do this thing and I do this too and we all are victims and or guilty of this is that we get into a position where we get this piece of technology where we think it's going to support and or change the life of our business. Let's just say, you get a product management tool or this social posting scheduler or whatever that looks like for you, and you think it's going to just change the world. But if it doesn't, if you're like, oh, I have a system problem, I would actually argue that you have a process problem. Right, the process has not been defined so that the system can just amplify the process. Right, and so really what we want to do is make sure that systems are set up properly, that they're available and that they are informed by our process. Right, and managed by our people.
Speaker 1:So the third big bucket is people. You want to make sure that you don't have a people problem, and so the people are the last line of defense. Right, they're the people. Those are the folks who are doing the manual efforts, who are doing the intangibles that only the people can do, and our process and our system should support for people. Right, the process tells us how and then the system tells us when, right when to do something, and so we need to make sure that we don't have a people problem. And so if the standards are there with our process and the system is up and running and good to go, then we should be in a position where our people are able to be trained and then so really, what we want to do is make sure that our people understand those two things and can actually perform to the level that we want them to. So creating key performance indicators and standards of operating there for our people, the same way as we did for our process, is really, really important, because otherwise we get into this I feel type of vibe, right, we're like, oh well, I feel like you know, you're just not meeting expectations, or I feel like you never take the opportunity to go above and beyond and it starts to actually be more about how you feel in the moment than it does the actual black and white of managing human beings. Right, and I think A lot of the conversations I've personally had and that I've coached other folks through at Operations Agency really comes down to do we have what we need to make some of those informed decisions, or have some of those informed conversations.
Speaker 1:If I tell somebody that they need to be making 20 cold calls a week or something in that vein, and I come to them every single week and I'm like, great, how many cold calls did you make this week? And they're consistently telling me that it's under 20, then I look at my process. I say okay, wow, okay, I did actually outline this. We have a cold calling system and it's set up properly and they can easily use it, and we have a list of people that we need to call and it's populated with people. So then, yeah, we definitely have a people problem, right? That person isn't self-motivating, and so having a conversation with them and saying, hey, listen, here's the process, here's the system and here is the expectation in terms of, like, the output that you need to create, I'm just wondering like, how's it going? You know what's going on here, and so how's it going is a really good opener, because oftentimes we don't.
Speaker 1:In my experience, we don't really get past the how's it going phase. I have rarely had to put folks on performance improvement plans, which is like kind of the last and final before you start talking about termination. But at the end of the day, right, most people really want to do a good job, and if they have the information or the tools that they need to do that, then all that needs to happen is be like hey, listen, this is how you've been performing, like it's black and white, right, you're consistently making under 20 calls a week. What would need to be true for us to get you to 20 calls a week, or even get to 25, right? What would make your confidence high enough to be doing these 25 cold calls? And so it's really really incredible to take a look at some of this stuff and be able to actually properly diagnose your problems, because if you think that you wanna go straight to the person and you're like, hey, listen, why aren't you doing my 20 cold calls? And then you look at some of the systems in the process and you're like, oh, this actually looks kind of broken. It's really unfair to look at that person and they probably feel that. So then they go on the defensive and then that's how animosity builds inside of the business, especially if you're trying to grow a team, which, in my opinion, if you want to scale a big business, if you want to help a lot of people and generate an incredibly large impact. You know, scaling a team is not optional, right? It's not something that you can kind of check the box yes, I want this or no, I don't. It's really, really not an optional thing. So I think that creating opportunities for you to actually accurately diagnose your problems inside of your business and then be able to act on them really elegantly and efficiently and efficiently, excuse me and be able to actually solve the problems is actually going to be easy. Diagnosis is like.
Speaker 1:Most of the actual issue is that we don't actually properly diagnose what's going on inside of the business or where the problem is actually rooted, and then that leads us to a cascading amount of events, a lot of finger pointing, a lot of I feel, a lot of I think, and instead what we want to do is we want to have things in black and white. So how we diagnose problems. If we use this system, then we can easily identify where the problem is and where we need to go to triage it, because if it's a person problem, we might handle it a little bit differently, of course, than we would handle a process problem. Right, we just need to get something down on paper and we need to make sure that things are clear. A system problem might also be a little bit more of an overhaul, right, if something's not set up properly or if something breaks and then all of a sudden we can't use it again and we have to try out a new system or migrate over to another system, that's going to be something that's going to take some time. So when you're solving these problems and doing this process or this system for solving problems, the biggest thing you want to do is think about okay, what is the solution, and then how long might it take us to actually arrive at that solution? So, whether you are writing a new process and defining the standards, or whether you need to set up a new piece of technology or amend one that hadn't been set up properly, or work with a coworker or an individual contributor on their performance, and how long is that going to take so you want to clearly define the problem, come up with a solution that actually will meet the standards and kind of push things in the right direction, and then define the timeline of the expectation right. When do we expect that this problem will be solved, ie, a process, doc or some standards are created, the system is up and running and operating at full capacity or the person has now met standards for their performance.
Speaker 1:I hope this was helpful. I know this was a really operational, heavy type of podcast, but sometimes when folks come to me and they ask these types of questions, I love unpacking really complex concepts, because we see problems all day in our business. I think we wouldn't still be alive and thriving inside of our company if we didn't have a high threshold or capacity to solve problems. And sometimes and I know this is true for me I get so overwhelmed by how many problems I need to solve and or be kind of opening at any given time, like I need to be like okay, I know this problem isn't solved, but I need to be able to continue with my life. And so applying this really incredible strategy and really a framework right For for problem solving or diagnosing problems has been really, really helpful for me, because then I start to actually give it to my team. So then when my team comes to me, they understand already what the problem is and then they've already kind of defined a solution or a couple that we can kind of go back and forth on what exactly to do, and then we kind of arrive at what the timeline looks like. So they're doing a lot of the heavy work here and it's really really incredible for me, as the owner, founder, who's really looking at growing the business and making sure that the systems are set up properly and that we have incredible people that we don't get too bogged down with the problems that thing, right, because then that creates a negative feedback loop and your culture starts to degrade and people start to point fingers at one another and it's just not super fun, right. So I hope this was helpful for you.
Speaker 1:If you liked this episode and you want to hear more stuff like this, send me a DM on Instagram. It's at Allie Caffery. I'll put it in the show notes. It's really helpful for me to like hear what you guys want to hear from me on the podcast, either in these solos or for future guests that we bring on, because I just want to make sure that you guys especially as we have the summer kind of lying down and we're back into the thick of school and all the things that happen in the quarter four of the year that you guys have access to some of the most amazing tools that I know of and can curate to make sure that you guys are winning. So, without further ado, thank you so much again for joining me on an episode of growing pains, and I will see you guys next week.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of growing pains. I know that you have so many things vying for your attention right now, so I am so grateful that you just spent the last hour or so with me. So I hear all the time from mompreneurs Allie, allie. What systems do I need to have in place in order to thrive in business and in parenthood? If you go over to allisoncaffreycom slash checklist, you can grab my kid-proof business checklist and it will get you started in the right direction around making sure that you build a business that doesn't steal all of the time away from your family. If you loved today's episode, I would be so, so, so honored if you would leave a review on the podcast. It helps us reach even more incredible mompreneurs just like you and give them the resources they need to be wildly successful in business and wildly present at home with their families. Be wildly successful in business and wildly present at home with their families. Thanks so much again and I'll see you next time.