What's the Difference Between a System and a Process?

And how well aligned are your processes and systems to get you results?

I was recently at a breakfast where we all started talking about what we do. With some of the shifts Productive Flourishing has undergone in the past few years, my cocktail line isn't nearly as awkward as it used to be. I mentioned that our company helps small businesses get through the awkward, constricted stage of business where they get stuck and can't grow.

Tom — the gentleman to my right — perked up when I said that. As it turns out, he was in a business with exactly that problem. He asked a few great questions, and before long I commented on what it takes to get through Stage 3 — getting the right people, processes, systems, and positioning in place.

But, he asked one question I wanted to answer at more length here.

It was: "What's the difference between a system and a process?"

A process is a conceptual sequence of events that enables a people in a business to do what they do.

Most of the time, you're not aware a process exists until someone like me comes in and starts making them obvious.

For example, the way a support request gets handled is a process. There's an input, some work sequences, and an output.

Let's make that more concrete. In our company, Steve handles our customer care requests. A customer may write and ask for us to send them the download link to a product they bought after they lost or misfiled their purchase. Steve locates their order record, confirms they've bought it, sends them the link, and then ensures they got what they needed. All of that is a process. (And, yes, processes can have sub-processes.)

Systems are what's used to execute the process.

Let's use the same example as before to discuss the systems we use here at Productive Flourishing, alongside our processes. So, we receive the request via email (GoogleSuite), then Steve locates the record in ThriveCart (our shopping cart system) to confirm purchase, and sends the customer the link to where the product is stored on Amazon Web Services so they can download it.

As a general rule, “processes address effectiveness, whereas systems address efficiency."

If you're doing the right processes slower than they could be done, work on your systems. If you're working fast but not really getting anywhere, work on your processes. Default to processes if you're not sure either way.

Fairly straightforward, right? Well, not so much. One of the things I have a keen eye for is when processes and systems aren't supporting the people or other processes and systems within a given business.

To give you an idea, let's imagine that part of our customer service process I already described, but that instead of Steve, I get the customer care requests and feel I must personally respond to each customer. If the requests are representative of how many businesses I've worked with and we assume that Steve is still in the process somewhere, putting myself in the process adds at least three steps — and delays the customer getting served. For what gain?

As you could tell, it would be far easier to streamline the process and eliminate unnecessary agents and steps — but it's often the case that owner-executives won't do that. And they won’t because they believe they need to be involved in "essential" business processes.

You could also see that systems changes can have a positive effect on business performance, too.

Dropbox, for example, removes some of the awkwardness of either traditional file sharing or sending a bunch of files via email. The Dropbox system makes the process of sharing and collaborating on files easier.

In an ideal world, systems support processes, which support people.

Needless to say, most of our businesses aren't ideal in this way. People get crushed under processes, systems require a lot of maintenance, and meta-work can be more resource-exhaustive than the work that really needs to be done.

And it’s often harder to find, train, and retain the right people than it is to develop the processes and systems those people need to collaborate together. The right people can often create better processes and systems, as well — or simply eliminate bloated ones that are adding work to a business without adding a commensurate level of value.

I’ll leave you with these questions: How well aligned are your processes and systems? Which process or system, if improved, would make the biggest difference to your results?

This post was originally published on Productive Flourishing.