Find Your First System

Write down the tasks, interruptions, and questions that keep landing on you, find the gap behind each, and pick the one to fix first.

Before you build a system, find the problem worth solving. For the next two to three days, write down what keeps landing on you: every repeated task, every interruption, every question someone asks you more than once. Don’t fix anything yet. Just notice.

Then look for the gap behind each one and pick the one to fix first. The same question coming up every week isn’t a people problem. It’s a system waiting to be built.

From the book: Maria’s bakery

Maria tallied the questions her team asked her: the discount code for catering orders, how to handle same-day cancellations, whether two people could swap shifts. Behind them were a process gap (no catering policy), a knowledge gap (nobody knew how to apply discounts at the register), and an accountability gap (no one owned shift swaps). Her fixes were simple: a one-page cancellation policy, a lead baker who approves shift swaps, and an online form for both.

1. What keeps landing on you?

One line each. How often and how long are your best guesses; they don’t need to be exact.

2. The five gaps

For each item, ask why it keeps happening. The book names five gaps:

Process gap: There’s no set way to do it, so it gets reinvented each time.
Knowledge gap: The team doesn’t know how, or where to find the answer.
Accountability gap: Nobody clearly owns it, so it comes back to you.
Structural gap: Decisions or approvals all route through you.
Resource gap: The right tool, time, money, or person isn’t there yet.

3. Pick one to fix first

Choose the one that comes up most often or costs you the most, and that you could fix in a week or two. Just one.

Write down at least one item above to choose from.

4. Decide the next step

What will you build or change?

A checklist, a script, a policy, an owner, a form. Keep it small.

By when

Most first fixes start as an SOP: open the SOP Template, which is open to everyone.

From The FORCE System by Zachary Maley · builtforcashflow.com/toolkit · Your answers save automatically in this browser only. They aren’t sent to us, and another browser or device starts blank. Print or save as a PDF to keep a copy.

The FORCE Toolkit

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The banking split, unit pricing, the six core workflows, tiered authority, meeting rhythms, core offer, culture code, and the ninety-day plan.