Systems Need Visuals To Be Effective

Hey there childcare boss! Are you a childcare business owner and you have created your staff handbooks, but they are still not as effective as you would like? Are you training your new staff through the handbook, but yet they still don’t comprehend what you want to be done? In today’s blog post, I’m going to talk to you about how to create effective systems that actually work, and how using visuals to be effective in your childcare handbook and operations is the key to success.

If You Show It To Them, Then They Can Do It!

I believe that several childcare owners enjoy creating their handbooks, and I also believe that childcare business owners who like to look for the easy way of getting handbooks created and done. I’ve been in the shoes of wanting to get it done and over with, but I learned along my journey that visuals are the most effective way to actually cause my systems to work. I train my coaching clients to create visual systems that can be followed by anyone in their organization; if we show it to them, then they can do it.

Several childcare business owners cringe at the thought of having to use visuals in their management systems, but what I’ve found out to be true that when you use visuals, it causes you to level up in a major way in your management processes and systems. One of the most overwhelming tasks that come along with creating visuals is knowing which visuals you need to have included inside of your training manuals. One thing I know for sure is that I can show you, in my 8-week academy program, what systems are necessary to have visuals for. Let us chat a bit to find out if I’ll be the right coach to help accomplish these systems. Contact me now by clicking here.

Here’s a known fact:

Many of us are visual learners. There are signs, graphics, words all over the world – the streets we walk on, the doors we open, the business cards we pass out, the T-shirts that we wear. Everything around us is pretty much a graphic because we are visual learners. Even those of us who are not, we still use visuals as a powerful memory device. Several of you may say, “Well, coach, I’m a hands-on learner,” and the reason why you say that is because you like to be told what to do and do it one time, and then you have it, but, honestly, what has happened is you’ve visualized it in your mind, and that’s why you’re able to do what you see in your mind. I want to give you four top secrets to creating your handbooks to be a system that works.

Number one: Your handbook should include diagrams. Diagrams are so important because it will give you the visual of what something should look like, what the amount of something should be, measurements of what something should be, and setups for how things should be laid out.

The next one is flowcharts. One of the most important flowcharts that we have in our organization that we never knew was a flowchart was our daily schedule. Your daily schedule would be much more effective if you use images.

The third strategy is photographs. One person has said that pictures are worth a thousand words, and I would like to claim that pictures save you a thousand words. Instead of you having to repeat yourself over and over again, utilize pictures in your handbook and throughout your manuals so that individuals can get a picture of exactly what you’re talking about. Screenshots are one of the most important ways that I utilize my childcare administrative operation manual. When I use screenshots, I am empowered to take a shot of the screen of what I see and place the information on the form of how they are to complete the screenshot or how they are to follow directions. Screenshots help that person see what you see in real-time as to what your lesson or training is about.

Number four: Create signs that can be altered, printed, and used again and again. Signs should be utilized in your childcare business. I truly believe that staff should not make their own signs, but that it should come from your own cultivated procedures and standards. Here are my final to-dos.

# 1: Make templates, like the one that includes your procedures for others to follow and use to mark their progress.

# 2: Save everything in both electronic and paper formats.

# 3: Create your binder. In each procedure, let it have its own tab with the most important procedures placed upfront.

# 4:  Insert your table of contents upfront.

# 5: Finish with a section called troubleshooting – a sheet containing two or three common problem scenarios for each procedure that you’ve described. These troubleshoot areas are how you will either solve them or find someone who can, to help someone continue to move forward with completing your policies and procedures.