I promised myself I’d switch off on holiday.
No spreadsheets.
No client questions.
No talking about KPIs.
That lasted until the airport.
As we walked through the terminal, I found myself watching what was happening around me. Thousands of people all trying to get to different places, yet somehow it all (mostly!) worked.
Here’s everything that happened to us before we even stepped onto the plane, that just proves how processes and procedures for everything can have a near-perfect outcome.
→ We’d already checked in online a few days earlier
→ We used machines to check in our luggage and produce our luggage tags – guided by experienced and helpful staff
→ We loaded them onto the unmanned conveyor belts, and they ended up on our flight (admittedly, this can sometimes go wrong)
→ We used machines to scan our boarding passes and headed to security
→ There were digital signs everywhere telling you what to do in security
→ Despite the thousands of people trying to go through and catch hundreds of different flights, the staff were efficiently directing everyone to the various available queues, which all moved really quickly
→ A machine did a full-body scan whilst another checked your hand luggage
→ The departures board was kept constantly up to date, even to say ‘Please relax’ if no gate had yet been assigned to your flight
The pilots, cabin crew, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers and ground staff all have different jobs, but they’re working from the same plan with the same end goal…
To get everyone to where they needed to be, as quickly and efficiently as possible. It’s easy to forget just how many moving parts there are.
Of course, delays happen. Technology fails. Storms roll in. But the reason airports cope surprisingly well, most of the time, is that they don’t rely on people remembering what to do.
They rely on systems, processes and people.
And that’s exactly what I see in successful small businesses. The businesses that grow aren’t necessarily the ones with the cleverest owners.
They’re the ones where everyone knows:
→ What needs doing
→ Who’s responsible
→ When it needs doing
→ How it needs to be done
→ Where the information lives
→ What happens if something goes wrong
Take a look around your business and see what you can improve and how. You’ll be surprised how even the smallest changes can have a big impact.