Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Let's talk about the most expensive rule in the business. And that's the rule that is undefined.
That's the Florida rule. So it's not labor, it's not materials, it's the rules that no one owns that cost you the most. So. So we're going to talk about the real expense of fuzzy accountability and then how to fix it. So in a previous episode we talked about hiring people for outcome.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Not necessarily for a list of responsibilities that they own. Right.
So what happens when there's nobody in your organization that actually owns a specific role or an outcome?
[00:00:54] Speaker B: You know, it's like an open ended question.
People migrate to.
You may have a non strong person feel obligated to do a task they're not qualified to do.
You have more than one person talking about what they think the task should be. So each time it's not defined, it's minutes and that leads to hours, that leads to loss of productivity. So having defined outcomes with defined players really is a recipe to set up to make profit happen.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: You find yourself in this situation where everyone kind of owns everything.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: And we've talked previously about there are certain tasks that will fall through the cracks. There's blame that starts to get passed around and it just kind of creates this situation where owners start firefighting a little bit and it's frustrating and owners value per hour is not the same as other tasks. You know. So when you get an owner that has to get involved in certain tasks, their value per hour starts to go down and they're spending time on things that they could hire out that which. And it also burns up their time from being able to grow the business and being able to grow and develop their people to help run the business.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Plus interrupting thoughts. If they're in a strategic thinking mind and they have to go to some task that they weren't prepared for, it just.
It is, it dilutes their value quite quite quickly. When looking through processes and defining who's responsible for what is pre planning that pays back time and time again.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Totally. But why do so many business owners or businesses outgrow their org chart but they never update it?
[00:03:05] Speaker B: That's a really good point.
The flexibility. People inherently just migrate to places where they're consumable and billable and that leaves holes. Well is that hole really evaluated and how are we filling the hole properly? And you're right. It goes back to our episode where we talked about having the right people coming on board when they're hiring.
The other side of that is what is the outcome. Has the outcome been explained to the team? This is what we're. What's the definition of done? How. How does this look? To get to the end result so they can use their own skills to fill in those unavoidable gaps that the owner shouldn't have to come and babysit.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: I love that. What is the definition of done?
Like, at what point can you say across the finish line, we're done with this.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Slower execution equals lost revenue as well. So when you've got those vague tasks that need to be done, nobody kind of knows who's supposed to do leads to slower execution.
You've got the high performers on your team that really want to drive the business forward. So they jump in whenever they see something that needs to be done. Well, that just leads them to burn out faster. Right, Right.
Owner. If the owner has to jump in, sometimes it's a bottleneck, not the most efficient thing. And then you've got decisions sometimes that are made in a very reactive way rather than proactive planning like what you said.
And so that leads to a lot of expenses that maybe we don't necessarily need to incur.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Change can create cost really quickly if it's not executed properly.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Right.
As much as you can preempt that as possible, the better off we're all going to be.
Can you explain the difference between an org chart and an accountability chart?
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Boy, that's a great question. Because they. They can look similar, but they have different functionality. The accountability chart almost pares down to the execution side of it. Not so much the who's in what box.
So when you know your team and you set up an exit executable chart or an accountability chart, you know who's going to do that task. And it kind of dovetails into our earlier questions.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: You hired them for an outcome.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: And so you match your chart to. To pair up with that.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Right?
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: And you know that when you're bidding it. And if you have the wrong accountability chart, doing the wrong accountability, how you bid it. It's a profit lead, really quick profit lead.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: An org chart equals titles and hierarchy. And most business owners, especially in today's world, are not.
They're not really caught up in that.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: No.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
An accountability chart is who owns what outcomes. So we talked about that.
Every role has to be tied to a measurable result. So a specific client experience or an account receivable within 30 days, things like that.
So. But a little pro tip for the smaller business owners, one person can wear multiple hats.
It's just that There isn't a single hat that goes unworn. There's. There's no, you know, just open floating tasks out there.
There is one person that can own multiple outcomes and. But they know that they have ownership of that and they know what done looks like.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: And communicating that is key.
A lot of people will rely on the fact of. Well, they'll use common sense to figure this out. Are you willing to sacrifice profit, wondering if common sense will prevail?
Chances are what they're thinking or you're thinking aren't in alignment. And you're the one that put the number on the paper.
So making sure communications are clear and you're right, multiple tasks can be done from one accountability box.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: So our challenge for the week is to take your org chart, draw your accountability chart. Not just outcomes, not names. Don't assign names to it. Just assign an outcome that you're looking for on your accountability chart. And now ask, are they clearly assigned?
Are there any floating tasks that you're not thinking of? Put that org chart in front of your team or the accountability chart in front of your team and ask, what am I missing? Who's. Who's doing something that is not defined here?
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Or what did I miss?
[00:07:48] Speaker A: What did I miss?
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And then just pick one of those roles and assign it and let somebody own it this week. So get that ball rolling. Make sure that every. Everything that needs to be done in your business has somebody that knows that they own that task and they know what done looks like.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: And the presentation of ownership to a employee will probably give you some surprising outcomes. That ownership is going to just motivate some people.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah, that's right.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Great topic.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that one. This week.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: All right, well, take it. Cool.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Taker. Cool.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: It's all going to be fine.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: It'll all work out.
Thanks again. Have a great week.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Have a great weekend.
