In my family, we are space nerds (in addition to the rest of our endearing nerdiness). As a teenager living in Florida, I was able to see two live launches up close, and it was incredible! Traveling back to the Kennedy Space Center as an entrepreneur was enlightening. There are so many parallels between what NASA accomplishes and what we work on daily in our businesses. (Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep the “launch your business off the ground” metaphors to a minimum!) The key to success at NASA and in our own business is a documented, replicable standard operating procedure, or SOP.
Space Travel & Entrepreneurship
In 1962, John F. Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the Moon…We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”
It’s easy to see where “building a business” could be substituted for “go to the moon” in this quote. It is like a rallying cry for entrepreneurs everywhere!
When you first enter Kennedy Space Center, you are greeted by a stellar rocket garden that is a physical history of space flight. As I looked around, I was impressed with the scale of everything NASA has accomplished.
The rocket that impressed me the most was the Space Shuttle. But it wasn’t the size of the rocket or how far it had traveled that struck me (although those presented unique challenges in and of themselves). When NASA built the shuttle, it was the first time they had built a rocket that could be reused! They were doing something brand new; there was no handbook. As they scaled, they discovered new problems that needed innovative solutions. I think business owners can relate on a small scale. We too build something from the ground up, often without knowing what it’ll take to build from the start…and yet we build anyway.
Build a Replicable Process
We can learn a lot from NASA about building a replicable process. As they discovered and created, they documented what they were building. The process―not the individual worker―was the knowledge base for success. This checklist shows just a few of the macro processes that need to be done just to prepare the shuttle for the next launch.
When looking at all of the combined steps, it takes 750,000 hours of work and over a million steps to prepare an orbiter for its next flight! They have to be sure they document what works and what does not so that they have a clear path to navigate to success. NASA’s process development and documentation is truly a matter of life and death!
While your business and my business are not quite as complex as successfully launching a team of astronauts to the moon, are you documenting your processes so that they’re just as replicable?
Processes Are the Key to Success
Having all of your business operations knowledge in the heads of a few great employees is a big risk factor! If those employees leave, they will take with them your recipe for success. You will be left to painfully rediscover how that part of the business should be run, this time on your own.
It is okay to start where you are with your process development and documentation. Do not get hung up on perfection–NASA did not have it all on paper before starting to build either. Document as you build and recognize that your processes will change and develop as the business does. That is just the nature of business! So invest now to protect what you have built.
Do you need some help getting your processes off the ground? (See what I did there? 😁) We are here to support you with done-for-you process development and SOP documentation. A documented process is the gateway to a scaleable, replicable business. Let’s talk―you can book a slot on my calendar here to discuss your needs.
Erin Mathie