Does Your Business Suffer from Disorganitis?

By Philip Beyer, president, Beyer Printing and Ebiz Products (Nashville), and author of System Busters Disorganitis? You may have heard it called Reworkitis or Noclueitis, It’s even  been referred to as This-is-Normalitis, within the printing industry. This is a disease that is difficult to cure, especially if you don’t recognize the symptoms -- or are in denial that you have it. Symptoms may vary from mild to severe: HEADACHES over recurring mistakes HAIR LOSS due to losing money from wasted time & resources PANIC ATTACKS from missing deadlines ULCERS from making excuses to customers  INSOMNIA from long hours training & retraining personnel  RED EYE from over working and no personal life ANGER OUTBURST keeping your business clean and orderly MEMORY LOSS from constant interruptions with the same questions CONFUSION from the chaos in your business So where do you start to regain your health? You start by facing the truth—recognizing you have “disorganitis†(chaos in your business), and admitting you need help bringing your business to order! Now, you must make the decision to STOP the chaos … or continue the pain. Chaos is NOT “normalâ€â€”you can GET OVER IT! What Is the Cure? Systemization will heal business Disorganitis. Your Prescription: Checklists are not unique in bringing a business to order. Many of the budget-killing mistakes that risk customer loyalty can be dramatically reduced or eliminated by putting together simple checklists, and having everyone follow them. Ah, there's the rub, you say!?  There is a way! Consider the following who have implemented checklists that have saved entire companies from disaster—they have saved money and time, but also many lives. Medical Checklists Disturbed by the thousands of needless deaths in hospitals, due to infections, renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital critical-care specialist, Dr. Peter Pronovost, put together a simple five-step checklist 10 years ago for installing lines in the human body during care. Almost immediately, infection rates plummeted at Johns Hopkins. Sadly, Dr. Pronovost could not get hospitals interested, primarily because physicians felt they didn't need checklists to do their job. Sound familiar? Finally, Dr. Pronovost got the State of Michigan to try his simple checklists in a handful of the worst hospitals in the country. Results? In December 2006,  the Keystone Initiative published its findings in a landmark article in The New England Journal of Medicine: Within the first three months of the project, the infection rate of Michigan ICUs decreased by 65 percent. In the Keystone Initiative's first  18 months, the hospitals saved an estimated $175 million in costs and more than 1,500 lives. Downloading Begin creating a checklist system for all the processes in your business that need to be performed consistently (i.e. setting up a new account for a customer): how your company operates. All the processes of your business will remain in your head if you, as an owner or manager, have never taking the time to download that information—out of your head into written documents (i.e. checklists, procedures, policies and other documents). These documents should then be assembled and organized into an Operations Manual. Quality and Service Control Checklists Quality and Service Control Checklists are crucial to any company that wants to guarantee quality and  service. Every company and organization has a product it is selling or promoting. Your product may be a service, but it should be a high-quality service. A verbal commitment to quality and service is about as predictable as bubbles in the air. Without a checklist system, you cannot  guarantee or prove quality or service because you are a fallible human being, and you can't remember to complete every process consistently. Have you ever read something and it turns out you’ve read it wrong? Or, you were supposed to do something and it turns out you didn't, but you "just knew" you had? My point exactly! We're human, and we don't see or do things the same way every time. Our minds may be thinking about numerous things, or something major, and overlooking something “small†that turns out to be important. Imagine your next business trip, and how your airline pilot might be focusing on the weather or passengers, when he misses a small light alerting him his landing gear is up or down. Thankfully, airline pilots use detailed  checklists that keep you and me safe from such mishaps! Daily Routine Checklists for Personnel The Daily Routine Checklist is like the job description, developed into a detailed checklist of duties in the order a person performs them, from the time they arrive at work until they leave. It is to be prominently located for easy use, either on an employee's desk or a clipboard by their workstation. With this document you, the owner or manager, also have for your reference a list of everything each employee does. Daily Routine Checklists are your eyes to see every task and duty performed in your organization, from taking mail to the post office to mopping the floors. These checklists, followed correctly one step at a time, stop errors from being repeated and virtually eliminate procrastination and chaos. A born entrepreneur, Philip Beyer realized his calling to business and leadership roles while still in his teens; establishing his first business in his early twenties. As founder and president of Beyer Printing Inc. and Ebiz Products LLC in Nashville, Tennessee, he is now a business  systems consultant and analyst; also the author of System Busters: How to Stop Them In Your Business, and InterTech award-recipient for designing and developing System100â„¢ business process management software. Contact Beyer at philip@eBizProducts.com.