One of my favourite quotes is from Scott Adams:
Losers have goals. Winners have systems.
Scott Adams is the creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip, which many would say provides perceptive insight into how many businesses are run today and the personalities inside them.
This systems based approach lines up with some recent articles I’ve written:
Every business today is a software business
and
because, probably the place where I see the least use of systems is when it comes to employing and training staff. Most businesses cast a random net looking for people with unique skills and experience, but when they employee people they find, they largely don’t develop them further in any structured way. They hope that they will ‘accumulate’ knowledge throughout their time and apply to the business adding value along the way. That is a pretty haphazard approach to probably the most important resource in a business.
I think a far better model to emulate is brought to us from the military. They take recruits, from all walks of life and experience, then put them through standardised training to get people with the skills they need. They have done this successfully for thousands of years. It is a proven model for results. Why don’t more commercial businesses take this approach?
I had a recent conversation with a technology provider who was having trouble finding a high level cloud technician for a role. Given the the constantly changing cloud technology field, how would you ever expect to find someone like that I asked? To attract such a candidate the business is going to have a huge salary package, well above what the small business could afford. But he insisted that this is exactly ‘what his business needed to succeed’. No it doesn’t! That approach to me is completely bonkers because you are putting all your eggs in a single basket with someone would could choose to leave at any point in time, including immediately after starting.
I suggest that a far better approach would be to build a ‘training system’ to produce the candidates you require. You can take people with much lower skills sets and put them through a largely continuous automated training process to give them the skills needed. If the candidate resigns or ‘drops out’ of the system at any point, you simply feed the next candidate into the start from which, again, out will pop exactly the person with the skills that you need.
The other advantage with an ‘employment system’ like this is that the business owns it, manages it and controls it. It isn’t reliant on someone who could leave a the business at any stage.
When you speak with most managers they say they employ on attitude and develop skills but that is definitely not what I see executed, especially in IT reseller businesses. Most get rushed into selecting a candidate because they have a desperate need and then hope against hope that they will work in that role. In the majority of cases, they don’t, which means it’s right back to recruitment stage again.
The challenge with systems is that don’t grow on trees or magically appear when you rub a lamp. They need to be designed. They need to built. They need to be maintained and they need to be automated. I’ll go back to one of my other favourite quotes I’ve used before recently:
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.”
― Albert Einstein
and say that compound interest ONLY works when you invest FIRST! All you need to do is start and keep working at it. Too many people focus on the end result rather than what they need to do NOW to move the ball forward.
I’ve spoken before about:
Core Microsoft Cloud IT Professional skills
and
It would also be hard to say that there is not an abundance of training available today from many, many sources on just about any topic you can name. Leverage these, put a program together, track people’s process and enhance it over time. If you are smart, you’ll get those who are undertaking the training to provide feedback and even adjust it for you. Thus, each new employee is helping to improve your training system.
Many employers incorrectly fear that if they train employees, they will leave. Many studies show the reserve is actually true. Employees prefer businesses that provide training and invest in their careers rather than those that don’t. Besides, as I said earlier, if an employee chooses to leave, you just insert another one into the system you have created.
The chances of you obtaining a suitably qualified candidate in the market today is pretty low. Instead, do what the military does and has done for thousands of years to great success, take anyone and put them into a system that creates the desired end result. By doing so you gain independence and you build another item of unique value in your business. Be a winner, build an employment system.
CIAOPS 