System is a living being. Its home is your business office - your workshop - your factory - your store; even your desk. It lives on your work - devours your detail.
Your system is your creature. You fashion it yourself. You may make it do the very things you want it to do - or you may let it grow rank and suffocate your business. You alone can make it a good system or a bad system.
Your system should be your junior partner. If sickness keeps you at home, you need not worry, provided your system prevails in the business.
System is your second self - the self which works while you play; which catches the reins when you retire. Be studious of system if you would be sure of yourself.
When Opportunity Knocks, the Systematic Man Has His Hand on the Door Knob
The success of system in these minor things inevitably creates more system in larger ones. At his own desk, within his own affairs, the desk man finds the schooling that eventually makes the systematic course of action the obvious course in every problem he undertakes. "When promotion comes, he does not have to organize and train himself to fill it; he is an organized man when the big opportunity calls him; and his business or department becomes well organized in turn, because he knows no other way to direct his affairs so easily and profitably. All this is true and commonplace enough to all experienced office men. Yet how many employers have ever made any definite, persistent effort to school their clerks and assistants in method and organization?
An employer will eagerly and gladly pay thousands of dollars to have a corps of system specialists come into his business and put system into his books and his records, but who can name an employer who ever spent this money to put system into his Men? If any employer ever did make this expenditure he wouldn't find it necessary to call in experts to fix up his books, or to doctor his methods, for few businesses manned by trained, systematic, methodical men inside ever need "fixing" by outside specialists. In most houses it is thought fully enough to send around stereotyped and moss-covered mottoes, and to decorate the office walls with time-worn platitudes on "Doing It Right" and "Doing It Now," etc.-but seldom are there any definite system-plans and short-cuts given to the desk man to facilitate his routine and increase his capacity.
Develop the Human Machine and the Metal Will Shape Itself
In some businesses, a department of $5,000 experts and inventors is maintained solely to study ways and means of increasing the output of the factory machines. If some shrewd manager would devote a mere fraction of this expenditure to studying ways and means to increase the output of his human machines, he might easily reap more dividends than the worth of his whole machinery equipment. The arrival of a corps of business experts and the installation of new machinery often arouse animosity among employees, for they fear that their jobs are thus jeopardized. Rather than have all of the attention devoted to the machinery of the plant, the men would prefer that some notice be given to them.
Any one of them would be gratified to be shown a way to do his work easier and better. For while we are all more or less lazy, we take pride in work well done. Regardless of the development of the machines of the future, the man behind them will continue to remain the vital factor in production. Toward him, therefore, the employer must bend his energy. He must make him systematic, for that is the basis of profit-making productivity. A course of instruction in desk system can accomplish three definite and vital results. It can increase the capacity of each desk and thereby reduce the number of employees needed for any given piece of labor. It can increase the quality and accuracy of the work turned out. And lastly, it can train up and develop more valuable men for the future. But it cannot be done by platitudes or maxims, - by passing around "copy-book" instructions and "Do It Now" mottoes. It means a careful analysis of the exact classes of work handled by all employees, and actual specific schemes and short cuts worked out to expedite and accomplish this work, in the least time, with the best results.
Dividends on Mistakes
A mistake may be made the key stone of system - the foundation of success. The secret is simple: Don't make the same mistake twice. The misspelling of a customer's name - an error in your accounting method - an unfulfilled promise; these are valuable assets if they teach you exactness. Let your mistakes shape your system and your system will prevent such mistakes. When you discover a mistake, sit down then and there, and arrange the system to prevent its repetition. Paint it on your walls; emblazon it on your door; frame it over your desk; say it to your stenographer ; think it to yourself; burn it into your brain; this one secret of system, this one essential to success: DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE.
More tips on how to plan and organize your daily work at http://SystemizeWork.FunHowToBooks.com/
