Watch Out for Moving Parts
February 3, 2010
I was talking to an old “office neighbor” – the guy who had the next office from us where we used to be located. He owns the master franchise for North Carolina for the “Anytime Fitness” chain, and we were talking about the complexity of operating all the units he has throughout the state, in addition to the new locations he’s constantly opening.
The key, he said, was to try and avoid “moving parts.” Puzzled, and wondering if perhaps he was suffering from oxygen deprivation as a result of working out too hard himself, I pointed out that virtually every piece of equipment in every one of his locations was chock full of moving parts.
He smiled, and pointed out that the key to managing an enterprise of this scope is to have as much of it on “autopilot” as possible. Yes, there are a lot moving parts in the machines themselves, but he isn’t personally responsible for maintaining them – there was an outside group he hired to do that. There is a person (sometimes more than one) at each location who is the on-site person for registration of new members, personal training, etc., but he didn’t do that either.
What he did was to create systems and processes which could be duplicated and deployed as he opened each new unit, effectively reducing the number of “moving parts” he had to deal with on a day-to-day basis.
By creating a set of well defined processes, you can also free yourself from the overwhelming burden of having too many small details to take care of. It can make your life at work a whole lot easier, and give you enough free time to do something fun…like visit Anytime Fitness!
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