A business is a system of systems within systems. That may sound like gobbledygook, but it's not. Systems are the foundation of business excellence and the best way to make simplicity out of complexity.

Systemizing your business is the surest way to getting the reliable, consistent, high quality, and cost-effective results that are necessary for success. Systems are the primary tool for building a business that delivers value for everyone.

At the heart of most business frustrations are one of three causes:

• Lack of written policies or procedures
• Faulty documented policies or procedures
• Documented policies or procedures that work if they are complied with, but are not being followed.

A basic principle of business development is the documentation of key policies and procedures to ensure that important aspects of your business are performed the same way every time. This provides everyone that has an experience of your business with consistent outcomes and certainty about what to expect.

Where most small businesses have trouble is knowing how to document their policies and procedures and having the time to undertake a task that seems overwhelming in its scale.

Like all big projects, having a plan and the right tools allows the job to be broken down into smaller tasks that can more easily be accomplished.

The key to success with policies, procedures and systems is simplicity. Some points to consider when documenting policies and procedures in your business are:

• Clearly define expected outcomes or results on every document
• State which position in your organisation is resposible for producing the outcome or result 
• Keep policy documents short and to the point
• Don't mix several policies into one document
• Consider whether a checklist, form, flowchart, diagram etc can replace a narative document
• Keep work steps in action plans or work plans short and to the point
• Number work steps
• Identify resources required to produce the expected result
• Clearly identify expected performance standards and key performance indicators, where necessary.

There are a number of software tools that are now available to help make your business documentation easier.  These include TKO Business Modeller and Touchstone Business System.

These types of tool allow you to:

• Organize your whole business and all its key work into Systems & Procedures
• Produce your own fully customized Operating Manual
• Create a Dynamic Organizational Chart with integrated Job Descriptions
• Develop & Control your business with Action Plans, Checklists, Forms & Policies
• Produce the framework for your professional management system.

No matter whether you use a software tool as described above, or you document and organise your policies and procedures in some other way, the key message is to get started. If necessary, seek help to get it done

Life can be very painful at times, especially when legal rights and defences are concerned.  For want of documentary evidence a right or a defence can fail, often with painful monetary consequences.

In the last year I have had to assist several businesses to defend themselves against claims where they had kept insufficient or inadequate documentation to support their argument or position.  It becomes very difficult to construct a defense when the evidence is largely anecdotal and verbal. 

Often the person or organisation prosecuting a case can support their argument with written contracts, meeting notes, correspondence, diary entries etc, and even though the moral ground may strongly be in favour of the defense, their argument can fail through lack of documentary proof.  Procecution lawyers and revenue authorities thrive on these situations.

The fundemental tenet here, and one that business people need to adhere to at all times is "if its not written, its not real". 

Its the same with business systems.  If you want want the people in your organisation to perform key tasks in the same way every time to achieve the same results every time, your systems need to be written down.  Some benefits of written systems are:

1. There can be now doubt about what is required to be done
2. Routine tasks can be dealt with quickly and easily
3. Performance measures can be easily understood by all
4. Performance can be measured against written standards
5. Documented systems form part of position agreements
6. There is transparency about what is required.

There is a moral here.  Next time you don't get the results you expect or have to defend your position in a complaint or action against you, look for the written documentation to support your point of view.  Whereever you find a gap, remedy it, especially if a material consequence could arise from its omission. Without written evidence your life will inevitably become more difficult.