Operations & Systems
If the business stops when you step out, the work is stored in the wrong place.
Many owners are the only person who knows how an order is priced, how a delivery is checked or what to do when a regular customer is unhappy. Nothing is wrong with them. The way of working simply lives in one head. This session takes the operational side: find which routines depend on you, write the first one down, hand it over, and see whether it holds.
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A business that needs the owner for every routine cannot take a break, or grow, safely.
In a small business the owner usually built every routine, so the owner is the only one who knows the exceptions: which customer gets a special rate, which supplier needs a reminder, which batch needs a second look before it leaves. Staff then wait, or guess, or ask. The owner becomes the busiest and slowest part of the process.
This session looks at the process side of the problem: documenting routines, checklists, handover and simple systems. The wider questions of leadership, trust and delegating authority are a separate conversation under People & Leadership. Here the focus is narrower and more practical: what, exactly, needs to be written down, and how do you know it works.
What the session covers
29 topics across 6 areas. Six steps, in the order an owner can do them.
Finding What Depends on YouMake the dependence visible first.5
- Listing the questions staff ask the owner most often
- Listing what has gone wrong when the owner was away
- Separating decisions from routines
- Spotting the routines only one person knows
- A one-week log of interruptions
You cannot hand over what you have not noticed you are holding.
Choosing What to Hand Over FirstStart small and frequent.5
- Frequency: how often the routine happens
- Risk: what it costs if it is done wrongly
- Clarity: how easily it can be explained
- Starting with a routine that is frequent, low-risk and clear
- Leaving the hardest judgement calls for later
Writing the Routine DownShort, specific and used.6
Illustration (hypothetical): a shop owner writes, step by step, how an order is packed and dispatched. The first version is eight lines. The second, after a new employee follows it and asks three questions, is better.
- Doing the task once while writing each step
- Who does it, when, and what triggers it
- What a finished job looks like
- Checklists versus longer written procedures
- Photos, screenshots and sample files that save words
- Keeping the document in one place everyone can find
Handing It OverA handover is a short project, not a sentence.5
- Show it, let them do it while you watch, then let them do it alone
- Agreeing what they decide and what they bring to you
- A named backup for when the person is absent
- What the owner will and will not check
- A review date, so the checklist is improved rather than forgotten
Plan to be asked questions. Each question is a missing line in the checklist.
When the Checklist Is Not EnoughExceptions are where the real knowledge sits.4
- Recording the usual exceptions and how they are handled
- A simple rule for when to ask, and whom
- Logging the exceptions that come up, then adding them
- Telling a one-off from a pattern
Checking It Works Without YouTest it by stepping back.4
- A planned day or week with one routine fully handed over
- What to look at afterwards: errors, delays, complaints
- Fixing the document rather than taking the task back
- Choosing the next routine
What participants leave with
- A dependency list for their own business
- A first checklist for one routine, in plain language
- A handover plan with a review date
- A blank template for documenting the next routine
- A short list of questions to ask after the first week of handover
What this session is not
- A session on leadership style or delegation psychology
- Software selection or an automation workshop
- A promise that the business will run without the owner after one session
- A substitute for hiring, training or supervision where those are needed
How the session runs
A working session built around one real routine from each participant's own business. Participants list their dependencies, choose one routine, write the first version of its checklist in the room, and plan how and when to hand it over. Where a group wants to practise, pairs swap checklists and try to follow each other's instructions, which shows quickly where the steps are unclear.
What your students leave with
- A list of the routines that currently wait for the owner
- One routine written down as a short checklist someone else can follow
- A simple way to rank which routines to hand over first
- A handover plan for one routine, with a date to review it
- A first look at what to do when the person following the checklist gets stuck
- A one-page record of who decides what, so fewer questions come back to the owner
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Write down one routine this week, and let someone else run it next week.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.