Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Big Boss Show. It's a new show where we come to you every week, somebody that may have not always been a big boss, but shares his or her perspective that we can learn from. Today I'm joined by a very special guest. We have Chris Gwynn, CEO of Great Lakes Advisory. Chris built his company around documenting processes. Welcome to the show, Chris. Thanks for having me, Devon. Okay, awesome. So tell me a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess probably helpful just to share my entire entrepreneurial journey and kind of a short kind of quick story, but it all started a little over probably about eight years ago. At the time, I was in a completely different industry, but at the same time, my dad is a business owner and was really struggling to keep his head above water. He was constantly putting out fires, dealing with internal issues, employees not following tasks the correct way, employee turnover, you name it. Overall, it was a struggle. And so he approached me and asked me if I wouldn't mind taking a look at some of the operations to see if there's any opportunity to make the business a little bit easier to manage. And I mean, he's my dad. I've got a lot of loyalty towards family. So I was more than happy to take a look. As I began to dissect the operations, interview some of their employees, I come to find out pretty quickly that they had absolutely zero documented processes, zero standard operating procedures, and zero formalized training of any sort. It was essentially throw the employees to the wolves and see if they can figure it out on their own. And so to me, it made a ton of sense why employees weren't following tasks the correct way. I'm using quotation marks here because it really wasn't the correct way to be able to do anything because nothing was defined. And so my initial thought process around trying to make this business a little bit easier to manage was that if we can clearly define all of the processes within the organization and create standard operating procedures that would outline the step-by-step instruction leading to a specific result or outcome, and then build training around all of those processes, standard operating procedures, responsibilities, tribal knowledge, all into one centralized location, that hopefully this would make the business a little bit easier to manage because all of the underlying employees would be better prepared to be able to facilitate and perform all of their daily and monthly and weekly obligations and responsibilities. And so I took it upon myself to facilitate interviews with absolutely every single one of their employees to gain a deep understanding of what does it actually take to perform your job? What are all the different processes and responsibilities you need to perform on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis? And what's all that other tribal knowledge that you wish you knew you had coming into this position that would have truly set yourself up for success? And so it took me several months to be able to facilitate all of those interviews and ultimately take those conversations, boil it all down into super simple, easy to understand terms, and then build out documented processes, standard operating procedures, and training modules around it all. But after I finished that project, I noticed something very impactful that happened. I noticed on the operations side, because we now had all of these clearly defined processes and systems in place and there was a correct operating procedure to be able to guide and really remove all of the guesswork within the operations, I noticed that tasks no longer started to fall through the cracks. There was an overall more consistency in the operations, which in turn actually increased the overall profitability of the business and actually make the business easier to manage. But I also noticed the entire impact on employee morale. And as I shared before, there was absolutely zero training, zero documented processes, a lot of confusion, and probably, to be fair, a lot of insecure employees because it doesn't exactly make you feel extremely comfortable as an employee to, I guess, play your hand, if you will, and let your boss know that, hey, I don't actually know how to perform this task or this workflow when it's technically my responsibility. But because we now actually built out this centralized resource that equipped all of these employees with all of the standard operating procedures, the processes, training, all that know-how, information, one centralized location, the employees began to feel that the company and the organization was investing in their professional development and ultimately positioning them for success. And so I noticed that employee morale increased, but I also noticed that it actually improved overall employee retention. And so overall, the operations became more profitable, easier to manage, more consistent employee morale, increased employee turnover decline, which all of the above wildly exceeded my expectations. But I also noticed the entire impact that happened with the business owner, the entrepreneur, management, or in my case, my dad. And my dad's a little bit overweight. He suffers from some heart complications. He's gone through multiple rounds of ablation surgery. And much of that is likely stress-induced. The fact that up until this point, the business is heavily reliant on the business owner or management to actually manage the daily operations. But because we now have all of those clearly defined systems and processes in place, the business is running on repeatable processes, that allows management or the business owner to effectively remove themselves from the daily operations and actually delegate many of those responsibilities. And so I noticed in my dad's case, it allowed him to actually reduce the number of working hours in a given week, focus a little bit more on exercising properly, alleviating some of that stress, and just increasing his overall health and well-being. And so taking a step back and realizing what an incredible impact that processes, systems, and training could have on an organization, I realized that there was certainly a much larger need for the solution outside of his business. So I opened up Great Lakes Advisory a little over three and a half, four years ago to address this specific need. So it's a little bit about us. Other than that, I was previously a portfolio manager. I'm a CFA charter holder. I have more of a traditional background accounting, finance, investments, and kind of operations. And so, yeah, it's a little bit about myself and a little bit about Great Lakes Advisory.

Speaker 1: That's awesome. I love that. What kind of business was your father's business?

Speaker 2: He ran a medical practice. So it was a kind of a surgery center for... It sounds super nerdy, but otolaryngology, which in everyday terms is ear, nose, and throat. So kind of helping customers or patients, rather, breathe properly and just sleep better.

Speaker 1: So what are some standard operating procedures? What is a...

Speaker 2: What is a standard operating procedure or what's like an example of one? Or I guess, can you maybe elaborate a little bit further on what you're looking at or what you're asking?

Speaker 1: Yeah, just like an example.

Speaker 2: So a standard operating procedure is essentially a series of steps or like a work instruction to be able to eliminate all of the guesswork and solve a repeated problem or workflow consistently. So like, as an example, you might have a standard operating procedure on how to set up Google ads or how to set up Facebook ads, or maybe how to set up Instagram, LinkedIn, or any of those types of ads. There's a series of steps involved in how to actually maybe select the audience, how to create a copy, and how to actually create the creative behind that ad, and actually how to launch a particular campaign. Another example, just very simple example is that, hey, I think everyone has probably had maybe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or maybe something similar like that, but you could just create instructions that would walk you through the step-by-step, each of the steps involved in creating the desired outcome in that activity. You follow all those steps. It outlines each of the written instructions as well as maybe any visuals or images or videos that you need to follow when completing those instructions so that by the end of it, it removes all of the guesswork from your employees so that they can consistently operate and perform those workflows or those processes and deliver a consistent experience for your customer or just create more consistency in the overall operations. So it's going back to, I guess, McDonald's or creating like a Big Mac. McDonald's is probably arguably one of the biggest brands in the entire world. I think you could find a McDonald's in just about any country worldwide. And if you go to one in London or go to one in New York or LA or Chicago or anywhere in the world and you order a Big Mac, that Big Mac is going to be the same. And it's going to be a very similar experience. It's probably going to be very similar turnaround time or delivery when they actually deliver your food or kind of service you. And the reason it's consistent is because McDonald's has absolutely ironclad SOPs and training around how to actually service all of their customers. And that creates more scalability in a business because it'd be very challenging if you had a thousand different ways to be able to create a Big Mac. You might have some restaurants that have extremely luxurious versions of Big Macs. And there's obviously some gourmet burger restaurants out there. And you could have a gourmet version of a Big Mac at some locations that are not very extremely profitable at a very high price point. Other ones are very cheaply and poorly made. And maybe it's not that great of a Big Mac. But that doesn't really create great customer experience because a customer expects to receive the same Big Mac regardless of what location they visit. And so it creates more consistency in your operations. It creates the ability to actually scale and replicate those same operations if you have those standard operating procedures in place.

Speaker 1: Okay, great. And who are your clients? Who's an ideal client for you?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so ideal client is going to be a small business, typically north of a million and probably under $50 million. It's typically going to be B2B services, other professional services, logistics, supply chain, marketing and advertising, some SaaS businesses, home trade services. But really standard operating procedures, training and processes kind of relates just about to every single industry and vertical. So we've got clients just about all across the map, different industries and retail shops. We've got other medical practice clients, dental practice. We've even had a few kind of huge data warehouses. Just about any type of business underneath the sun, we've probably served. But just to name a few.

Speaker 1: Okay, great. So, I mean, it's one thing to have processes and documenting them, but it's different to have the people actually follow these processes. So how do you confirm and make sure that the employees are following the processes?

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. So it really all starts with the initial onboarding experience. And so from onboarding, you go through and really set the stage for what these processes are and actually train your employees on those processes. And so the importance there during the training is really to communicate the why behind the importance of following that process and practice. And I like to always use the example. I don't know if you happen to have any children and anyone in the audience happens to have any children, or if you happen to remember being younger and maybe you get into the car and your parents kind of ask you to buckle up your seatbelt. And if that's the only instructions that they provide you is just buckle up your seatbelt. Well, you might become maybe defiant or kind of dismissive of the overall importance of buckling up your seatbelt because that's all you know, you just buckle up your seatbelt and there's no real true why behind it. But if you communicate that you need to buckle up your seatbelt because that seatbelt is actually a lifesaving device. And if we ever were to get into a car accident, that seatbelt would actually protect you from bodily harm. And I care about you overall as a person and I love you. And it's super important that every single time that you get into a car or a vehicle while we're driving that you always have your seatbelt buckled to be able to protect you from any type of catastrophic event. And so it's super important that you always buckle up your seatbelt. And that's really the true why behind the importance of buckling up your seatbelt. But the same principle or concept applies to your processes. That your employees need to understand really the true why of the importance of following that process and practice. Then you need to actually confirm through all of the training and through kind of knowledge outcomes and quizzes that they actually understand the curriculum at hand. And then you need to actually create systems of checks and balances or really kind of systems of accountability that verifies that those processes and SOPs are followed in practice through accountability scorecards or kind of metrics and reporting.

Speaker 1: And I know a lot of companies right now are going remote. What are your thoughts about remote? Maybe talk to us about that.

Speaker 2: In regards to what?

Speaker 1: Well, you know, in Twitter, you know, they're all working remote right now. And, you know, Elon Musk was trying to buy Twitter just recently said that he wants everyone back in the office. What are your thoughts on following processes in a remote setting?

Speaker 2: I think it actually emphasizes and really heightens the level of importance to actually have those processes documented and actually have it all in place. Because if all of the employees are remote, you don't really just have the luxury of just going over to the water cooler or just going over to someone's desk and saying, hey, would you mind kind of showing me how this is done? If you're all remote, you have to ping someone or kind of have to call them their direct line. They have to kind of set up a meeting and then they have to take away time from their day to actually walk you through how that process is done or kind of train you on that where if you have all of your processes, your standard operating procedures documented in one centralized location, the alternative is that, hey, we can just reference this centralized playbook or this resource guide to kind of walk me through all of those instructions so that there's less reliance on management and other key individuals to be able to actually walk you through how to perform all of those questions. And ultimately, it really kind of allows you to remove all and really answer all of those key questions and keep your employees as productive as possible. So I think as far as the importance of training and the importance of documented processes, I think it's even more important in a remote kind of work environment or hybrid work environment. As far as my beliefs on remote work, we operate a hundred percent remote company. I think that remote work is here to stay. I think, or at least there is a, I think if you don't go a hundred percent remote, I think that it's important to have a hybrid option or at least make the option available to some employees. Certainly, I don't think that it's appropriate just to, and we've kind of done this a little bit in our own company, but I think that unless your employees, if you previously were in a a hundred percent in-person work environment, I don't think it's necessarily fair to foist a hundred percent work environments without really receiving the buy-in from some employees or from all of your employees, because it is a dramatically different work environment culture when you are working a hundred percent remote. But I think offering employees the option, the flexibility to certainly go into the office or maybe having a shared workspace can certainly be a resolution or solution around that or workaround solution around that. But overall, I think that most employees and kind of today's labor market, I think, expects to have at least that type of flexibility because ultimately it does provide for better work-life balance. And overall, I think I personally find that we're more productive and there's less overhead in the form of commercial real estate and kind of some expensive rental units if you don't have that in-person element. But it does kind of also, you need to kind of counteract some of that with some additional culture and team-building exercises if you're not able to just spend some time over the water cooler, because that's often the one area that is kind of missed within a hundred percent remote environment.

Speaker 1: It's very interesting. And I know a lot of people are maybe listening and right now they're running all the day-to-day operations. How do you remove yourself from those day-to-day operations in your company?

Speaker 2: I think you need to be able to get everyone else. You need to create more accountability in your organization. And it starts really from the top down and removing all of the tasks that only you can perform and removing those from your plate. And the way to be able to actually effectively delegate those responsibilities is that you need to very clearly define the outcomes that should be achieved in performing each of those responsibilities. But you also need to document the standard operating procedures and the processes that relate to each of those responsibilities. And you need to provide training to those employees, because ultimately it's going to be challenging to remove yourself from those responsibilities, those tasks. If ultimately they're constantly coming back to you and asking you for questions or guidance and directions on how to actually perform that. So you need to first start to delegate the tasks, the responsibilities that other folks that are junior to you can actually perform and without impacting the overall quality of your work or without impacting your overall level of customer service or just your product or demand. And so starting there and then documenting all those processes, building up training around how to perform those responsibilities, and then creating a form of kind of checks and balances to actually verify whether or not those responsibilities are actually performed consistently. And this could be managed through checklists. It could be managed through scorecards and data that maybe you're tracking specific KPIs related to those processes, or you can even use a project management system. We use Asana to manage all of our projects. And so we can actually outline all of the series of responsibilities and set them up and kind of reoccurring templates and tasks so that they're performed consistently. And you can actually receive kind of real time kind of feedback and insight into whether or not those processes are being performed.

Speaker 1: Okay, great. How do people reach out to you if they want to work with you?

Speaker 2: Yeah, feel free to reach out to me directly. You can reach out to me. My email is c.guinn, g-w-i-n-n, at Great Lakes Advisory, g-r-e-a-t-l-a-k-e-s-a-d-b-i-s-o-r-y.com. Or you can just reach us at www.greatlakesadvisory.com. We're on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. So feel free to reach out to us or subscribe to our newsletter to receive real time insights, advice, tips, best practices around documenting your processes, training, instructional design, or operations.

Speaker 1: Okay, awesome. Anything else you want to mention or add?

Speaker 2: Yeah, we're hosting a webinar. We've got a series of webinars. I don't know when this podcast is being released. We've got one on this Thursday on improving financial outcomes and really solving chaos in your business. So feel free to sign up for that webinar. We're also hosting a webinar next month around kind of getting the right people in your organization and kind of ensuring that they're properly aligned and really up to speed. And we've got one on really kind of improving the overall customer experience and on sales. So we've got a four part webinar series that we're launching this month. So if you're available, it'd be great for everyone to attend.

Speaker 1: That sounds great. Definitely, we'll look into putting that in the description if anyone wants to check that out. All right. Appreciate it. And thank you for coming to the Big Bar Show. Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. Take care.