Want to find out how well your business systems are working? Change time zones.

I was recently in Thailand, and so was my operations guy. We were both here for a month. There was a 12-hour time difference between us and our people in North Carolina.

There’s nothing like a 12-hour time difference to highlight your system weaknesses.

Are there gaps in our systems? You bet. There are gaps in most systems, and they become particularly apparent when the people who know the answers are unavailable.

While I was there, we had an issue with American Express. Our client gave us her credit card to run her fee. We did so, and it was declined. We did it again, and it was declined again. She called the company and then asked us to run it again and, distressingly, it was declined.

That’s when the wheels came off.

American Express told her the charge had gone through. We couldn’t get our credit card processing machine (all team members have the app on their phone) to tell us the charge had gone through. The client was fired up and ready to go. We don’t like to get started until we’ve been paid.

Had we been paid? We needed to log in to our American Express merchant account online or talk to someone in the company’s processing center.

Who can make the call? Our bookkeeper tried, but she wasn’t authorized. Our operations guy is authorized, but he was sound asleep in Bangkok.

Could we get an answer to our question? Nope. We figured out that our system was broken.

How to Test Your Systems Without Leaving Your Office

How do you discover these issues and fix your systems before the pressure is on and the client is waiting for an answer?

Well, you could join us in Thailand (the sweet coconut sticky rice with mango on top is awesome). That’ll help you gain a few pounds and discover which systems are working and which are flawed. Vacation always reveals your operational weaknesses.

Or, if you’re not ready for a trip, you can simply delegate more and observe the outcome. You can become more of a manager and less of an employee.

The key is holding back on the urge to immediately jump in and solve every problem. You know that it’s more efficient to do it yourself. You know that it’s easier to jump in and deal with it rather than watch your team look up the systems documentation and fill in checklists. You feel the pressure when the client is waiting on an answer and you’re equipped to respond.

But you’ve got to resist your urge to deal with the problem (unless you’re willing to fly to Bangkok). You’ve got to let your team members do their thing if you’re going to grow. If you want to keep building a business that is sustainable regardless of whether you’re present, then you’ve got to trust your people to handle things even when you’re nearby.

Most importantly, you’ve got to resist the urge to answer every question. You’ve got to see each employee popping into your office or popping up on your messenger as an opportunity to test a system. Instead of answering the question, ask your employee how he or she might approach the problem if you weren’t around. Let your employee figure it out. That’s when you’ll find out what’s possible and what’s not based on the current state of your system documentation.

You can build your business without changing time zones. Stay home, if you prefer, or hop on a plane and come join us. Either way, focusing on systems will help you continue to grow.