Use This Simple Technique to Eliminate Discombobulations and Create a Smooth Running, Profitable Business

August 11, 2023
Category: Management

Have you heard the term, discombobulation? Discombobulations are all those things in your business that aren’t working right; the fires that crop up every day, the places where you’re inefficient, where there’s waste and confusion.

Discombobulations devour your day and force you to spend way too much time fixing problems and babysitting your crews rather than working on the hundreds of other things that you need to do to create the growing, profitable business and balanced life that you want.

So, I want to share with you a simple, but powerful technique, that I call a “Post Up,” that you can use to ferret out and fix the discombobulations in your business. This Post Up technique is a simplified version of a technique used by some of the world’s top companies – companies like Marriott, Honda, and Toyota – to gather input from their employees to make their businesses run more effectively so that you can have more time to grow your business or spend a little extra time with your family.

Here’s how you do your own Post Up: 

1. Map out the steps that you follow to sell and deliver your services. 

Keep it simple. You really don’t need a lot of detail. For our purposes, less than 10 steps will do. Here is what I typically use with my clients:

Sell work 🡪 Schedule and Prep 🡪 Complete the Work 🡪 After Job.

That’s really all you need.

2. Hold a “Post-Up” meeting with your team. 

Schedule a 1½ or two-hour meeting with your team. I suggest that you invite your management team and the folks in the field. Get a room big enough to hold everyone. Get a big piece of paper, maybe 2’ x 6’ (use butcher paper or a white paper roll from Staples) and tape it up on a wall. Write the steps that you use to deliver your services across the butcher paper on the wall. You will also need enough pens and 2”x 2” post-it notes pads for everyone coming to the meeting. 

The actual meeting is very simple. When your employees arrive, tell them “The purpose of the meeting is to find ways to make the business run better.” 

Then give everybody a pad of post-it notes and a pen and say: 

“You are working in this business every day and I want your help to identify the biggest sources of problems, fires, inefficiency, waste and wasted time in our business. I’m going to give you 10-15 minutes and I want you to think about the problems that you see in our business and write one problem per post-it note Write as many problems as you run out of ideas. Please be honest and don’t hold back.”

When everyone is finished writing, ask each person to share a problem from one of their post-it notes, then take the post-it note and post it up on the butcher paper at the appropriate step in your sales and service process. Often, several people will have identified the same problem, so gather all those post-it notes and put them all up. Several people identifying the same problem, means that it’s a common problem and maybe a costly one. Continue until there are no more problems to share. 

In about an hour, you’ll now have a clear view of some of the biggest problems causing waste, inefficiency, fires, and customer problems in your business. These problems are probably costing you thousands of dollars in profit and wasting hours of your time each day. When I facilitate Post Up meetings, I typically get between 30 and 100 ideas up on the wall. 

The Post-it notes will tend to cluster in specific areas. These are the problem areas that were causing the most fires and eating up the most time in your business. 

3. Prioritize the problems and fix them. 

If there is time at the end of your meeting, take one or two of the problems that you find and get your team’s help in finding the causes of the problems and developing solutions. Create procedures for the solutions and put them into practice in your business. Check back to make sure that the solutions worked and adjust them if they didn’t.

You don’t need to solve all the problems in one meeting. Solve a few more problems each week and week-by-week you will see your inefficiencies and your fires will go away. 

The Result

The result of the post-up will be a smoother running, more profitable business. And with fewer fires, problems, and interruptions, you’ll have less stress and more time to do the other things you need to do to grow your business.

Imagine how great your business could be if you used this simple Post Up technique once a quarter! So, pull out your calendar and schedule some time to have a post-Up with your team. Go ahead. Give it a try. It will make a big difference in your business!

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