Anything left unmanaged will fall apart. It won’t last. It will unravel, and you’ll end up rebuilding it from scratch.
Case in point: We created an office procedures manual. We spent months on it and involved most everyone in the firm in its creation. We used it to train employees and monitored employees to make sure they understood what was in the manual, followed the enclosed checklists, and kept a copy handy for reference when they had questions.
Time goes by.
Employees know the manual almost by heart. They do their jobs, and things work like clockwork. They don’t need the checklists, so they go by the wayside. They never refer to the manual because they know the procedures. The manuals get shoved behind things on the shelves. No one talks about the manual anymore because it’s unnecessary. It slowly drifts out of date because procedures change and the manual isn’t updated.
A new employee comes on board and she’s trained by an old employee. The manual isn’t referenced in the training because the trainer knows how things are done and passes them along to the newbie. The manual is out of date, so it isn’t helpful anyway.
The next thing you know, it’s like we don’t have an employee manual. Anything left unmanaged will fall apart. The manual fell apart.
Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda
What should have been done?
The manual should have been treated as a living, breathing, essential part of the business.
- It should have been discussed at weekly meetings.
- It should have been reviewed monthly for necessary updates.
- The checklists should have been required by supervisors.
- The manual should have been the first document reviewed by the new hire.
- The manual should have stayed front and center and had the attention of everyone involved.
Allowing your procedures manual to fall apart isn’t the end of the world. You can expend some additional energy and get it back on track. But the manual is just an example to illustrate the principle that anything left unmanaged will fall apart.
- It’s true of marketing programs, and when the marketing falls apart, the revenues decline.
- It’s true of the staff, and when the staff falls apart, the work doesn’t get done, and the clients turn ugly.
- It’s true of technology, and when the technology falls apart, the data gets lost, the Internet stops working, and the work doesn’t get done.
- It’s true of the lawyers, and when the lawyers fall apart, they stop billing time, collecting fees, and winning cases.
How to Prevent the Wheels From Coming Off the Bus
Management is kind of boring. There’s little drama. It’s not much fun.
But dull, tedious, diligent management is what’s required to keep things from falling apart. It’s the glue that keeps things together. It’s the only way to preserve and build on your progress.
You expend energy to make things better, you build systems and processes, you hire excellent people, and you develop referral relationships, but if they’re left unmanaged, they will fall apart.
