The Magic Wand System: A Proven Way to Make Any Process Better

Can you remember the first time you experienced something and thought it was “magic”?

For me, it was the first time talking to a person overseas via Skype. It felt like magic to talk with someone face to face from thousands of miles away.

Other times, magic happened as I watched someone perform an incredible feat. I would pick up my jaw off the floor and wonder, “How in the world did they do that??”

That’s the kind of magic I’m going to teach you about today, and that magic comes in the way of making any process better.

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You know, sometimes processes are exceedingly helpful, optimized to deliver the exact results you want.

You roll out of bed and immediately make up the bed. You start your day with a win, and that feels good.

This process that ensures your day starts by taking action and seeing something to completion. It’s a great system that rewards good behavior and should be left alone.

And other times, processes are exceedingly harmful, optimized to deliver the opposite results you want.

You begin to feel stressed at work and bite your fingernails. You ruin your hands to alleviate the stress, and it works temporarily. But the system rewards bad behavior and should be improved.

These examples are simplistic yet instructive: every process, no matter how big or small, is created to achieve a predictable result.

But if you want to alter the results, you’ve got to change the process.

Over time, I’ve developed and refined a system to do this. I call it the Magic Wand System (yes, it’s a cheesy name, and yes, it works).

When you use it, it feels like waving a wand, casting a spell and magically fixing a bad process.

Quite literally, magic!

Key Takeaways

• The Magic Wand System is a proven system to make any process better (and accelerate your career in return).
• Determining the measure of improvement is often the most important yet most frequently skipped step in the system.
• The “Never Again!” trap is a tempting solution to fix issues within a process, but its results are often deadly.
• Anyone can implement this system and experience repeatable positive results. If you are looking to expand and accelerate your career, you must internalize and use it!

Why Do You Need a System of Improvement?

Let me share a familiar (and painful) tale from both sides of the coin.

You’re a customer at the bank. You just want to get a new account open so you can take advantage of a special promotion. You’ve already been sitting in the waiting area for 20 minutes, and now you’ve divulged your life story, given 3 different forms of identification, signed 7 different documents and are waiting for a manager to come over and review your application. You think, “I’m just putting in a minimum deposit. Is this even worth it? No way I’ll recommend this to anyone.”

You’re a manager at the bank. You’ve been at this bank for three years, and you’ve watched a key account creation process evolve from a quick, hassle-free checklist to a bloated, painful project. The time it takes to open a new account has ballooned from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. The customer frustration is palpable, and it stings to know you’re not going to get any referral business.

Sounds familiar, right?

What went wrong? How did this happen? And how do you fix it?

As a proactive employee / manager / leader / executive, a powerful differentiator that can set you apart from your peers is your ability to quickly analyze poor processes (like the one mentioned above), discover the inefficiencies, rework the steps and deliver a better, more resilient system that produces repeatable results…and delighted customers.

Doing this is not as difficult to do as you might think!

You just need a system that can deliver. The Magic Wand System is that system.

Let me introduce you to the Magic Wand System.

Introducing the Magic Wand System

The Magic Wand System is a proven system to make any process better (and accelerate your career in return).

There are 6 simple steps, and anyone can follow them to experience consistent, “magic” results:

1. Define the Problem
2. Establish the Baseline
3. Determine the Measure
4. Evaluate the Steps
5. Implement the Changes
6. Celebrate the Results

Let’s break down each step and discover why the Magic Wand System is a must-have system for any smart person looking to become a genius process problem solver and establish their influence amongst peers and higher-ups alike.

1. Define the Problem

You can’t solve a problem you don’t understand.

So if you want any chance at making a process better AND knowing how to do it repeatedly, you need to clearly define the problem you are solving.

A common mistake well-intentioned people make is to actually define multiple problems disguised as one.

“The process to create a new account is cumbersome and takes too long and leaves the customer with a bad taste in their mouth from day one.”

That’s probably all true, but now you’ve made a critical error: you’ve defined three problems that need to be solved, not one. And, you’ve just increased your odds of failing to solve the real problem if you address the wrong one.

So, sometimes it’s helpful to list all the “problems” hidden within the “problem” so you can solve the real “problem”:

• The process is cumbersome.
• It takes too long.
• There’s too many duplicate signatures required.
• The customer is frustrated.
• The new account open success rate is only 70%.

Don’t overcomplicate it. Pick the real issue, then prioritize clarity and brevity over clever jargon. If the actual problem is the process takes too long, state it as fact: “The process to create a new account takes too long.”

Now you are exceptionally clear on what problem you are solving. Only then can you move on to step 2: establish the baseline.

2. Establish the Baseline

Unless you have the hard data already in hand (and sometimes you do), you’ve still got work to do.

You must establish the baseline.

Why? You can’t consistently improve what you don’t measure.

And you need those measurements if you want to influence decision-makers to agree to your process adjustments.

If you’ve been using a process long enough, you can likely intuit how long that process takes. But most people, when having to make decisions along with or on behalf of others, prefer to have hard data to match their gut instinct.

Let’s go back to our new bank account example. You know the process as it stands takes about 30 minutes. Now it’s up to you to get the cold hard facts.

Figure out what you need to do or who you need to talk to. Gather the data in whatever way you can so that your problem definition is airtight.

Sometimes it’s easy to grab the data, and sometimes it’s not. Don’t let difficulty prevent you from finding clarity. Bad decisions are made with fuzzy details.

Let’s say that after a couple of weeks, you’ve managed to gather enough real-world data to validate your intuition. The new account creation process (on average) does in fact take 30 minutes to complete.

You’ve got what you need to move on to step 3: determine the measure.

3. Determine the Measure

Keeping with the example of a slow account creation process, you’ve defined the problem clearly and succinctly: it takes too long.

And, you’ve established the baseline: on average, it takes 30 minutes to open a new account.

Now, even the most junior employee can spot the same problem and share it with someone else. It might take a next level employee to go further and actually gather the evidence that the problem is as bad as it seems.

But because you’re smart, you don’t stop there. You go to the next step to determine the criteria that solves the problem.

This step is one of the most critical steps in the Magic Wand System, yet sadly it is the one most frequently skipped.

You must determine the measure of success.

Sure, you know that anything to speed up the account creation process would be helpful, but a lack of boundaries stifles creativity and gives you zero insight on how well you solve the problem.

Just like an engineer who’s giddy about a challenging design because he knows the constraints in which he must operate, you too must determine and work within a set of boundaries in order to build simple, effective solutions to the problem.

You know that the current account creation process takes 30 minutes to complete. You need it done in 10.

There are a few ways to articulate the boundaries of success:

1. State the negative boundary: “The account creation process must not take more than 10 minutes to complete.”
2. State the reductive boundary: “The account creation process must be shortened by 66%.”
3. State the positive boundary: “The account creation process must be done in 10 minutes or less.”

Why the different articulations?

Different people respond to different ways of positioning. You need to be able to articulate at least these three positions.

If the people you are influencing come from a financial background, they’ll probably respond better to the reductionist boundary.

If they come from a product background, they’ll probably respond better to the positive boundary.

If they come from an engineering background, they’ll probably respond better to the negative boundary.

Your goal is to clearly determine the measure and sell it to decision-makers.

“The account creation process must be done in 10 minutes or less.”

Wonderful. You’ve now defined the problem (the process is too slow), established the baseline (it takes 30 minutes) and determined the measure (it needs to work in 10 minutes or less).

The next step is where you have the chance to go from average to hero: evaluate the steps.

4. Evaluate the Steps

Can I let you in on a secret?

Everyone on the planet does some form of defining the problem (step 1). A similar number can establish the baseline (step 2).

A smaller number can determine the measure upon which to base success (step 3).

Here’s the kicker: the delta between those who can determine the measure and those who can properly evaluate the steps is enormous.

It separates leadership (think Directors, VP’s, C-Suite executives) from other forms of management and contributors.

But if you look at it on the surface, evaluating the steps in a poor process seems simple, right?

Actually no, because if it were so simple, you wouldn’t find yourself in the slow account creation process to begin with. Somewhere along the way, someone (but likely multiple people) failed to do this step, and you are suffering the consequences in return.

So how do you properly evaluate the steps?

It begins with a dangerous question: “What problem does this step solve?”

I call this a dangerous question because most people are afraid to ask it. They are afraid to ask it because change is the most likely outcome, and sadly most people would rather turn a blind eye than endure the possibility of change-induced risk and pain.

But not you, because you are smarter and more disciplined than that!

“What problem does this step solve?” gets to the heart of “why” the step exists in the first place. Remember, you can’t solve a problem you don’t understand.

Once you ask this ominous question, you are forced to lift the veil and see a better glimpse of reality.And when this reality comes into full view, it often leads to the discovery of common errors in judgment that ruined a (likely) one time good process, the most common of which I call the “Never Again!” trap.

The “Never Again!” Trap

As your company grows, the appetite for risk naturally decreases.

A downstream consequence of this appetite shift is that you unconsciously begin to favor people with a low tolerance for risk – either that they don’t take risks for themselves OR they don’t pose a risk to your company.

Why? It’s predictable, and predictability is a great antidote to risk.

But there’s something interesting about people who have a low tolerance for risk: they have a high need for security.

And what’s more secure than a process that has no room for mistake or error?

Process is natural for the risk averse, so it’s no wonder that as your company grows and the appetite for risk decreases, these people you hire introduce new processes and update existing ones to add blankets of security.

Unfortunately, these people often fall into the “Never Again!” trap.

You remember that new account creation process? Back in the day, it probably took 10 minutes or less to complete.

But somewhere along the way, someone made a mistake. A small mistake mind you, but a mistake nonetheless.

It might have been brushed aside when the company was small, but as it grew, the mistake happened again, and this time the low tolerance army swooped in and “saved the day” by adding new steps, new checks and balances into the process.

And as your company has grown, this has happened over and over and over.

“Never Again!” they said as they added the extra blanket of security. They thought they solved the problem, but they didn’t realize they borrowed heavily against the future.

Now you are paying the painful price.

They optimized for solving silly, low cost, recoverable mistakes (that don’t do any real harm) to keep the business going vs. optimizing for calculated, high potential decisions to keep the business growing.

You’re caught in the trap, and now it’s time to get yourself (and the people in your circle of influence) out of it.

Fixing the “Never Again!” Trap

So how do you get out of this “Never Again!” trap?

Well, like I said before, you first must establish why the step in the process exists in the first place.

The bad process (and bad steps) were most likely added to prevent recoverable mistakes. It’s why creating a new account takes 30 minutes instead of 10.

But a great process helps talented, calculated risk takers get more done in less time – like creating a new account in 10 minutes or less.

It’s your job to either remove, replace or automate those bad steps and transform the poor process into a great one.

Here’s the first approach you should take:

• If the problem the bad step solves no longer exists, remove the step from the process. You’d be surprised how often this is the case.
• If the problem the bad step solves happens very rarely, still remove the step from the process. Document that it can happen and then move along.

Now, if the problem the step solves happens often or enough to be frustrating, you need to ask this question:

“What’s the better way?”

I intentionally ignored asking the question “What’s the best way?” because it is often not helpful. You’ll spin your wheels trying to find the perfect replacement and unintentionally fall right back into the “Never Again!” trap.

“What’s the better way?” gives you permission to experiment and discover options to meet your measure of success without bolting on the internal pressure of perfection.

The better way is to automate or replace the bad step.

Automation is the best option because it 1) eliminates human error, and 2) can be done much faster than a human can do.

But if automation isn’t an option, the next best one is to replace the bad step with something better.

Jot down possible replacement steps, experiment with the implementation and measure the progress to determine if any get you closer to your goal.

Do this over and over until you get the result you are looking for.

Summing up the Evaluation Process

Now that I’ve explained how to evaluate the steps, let’s summarize the flow:

1. Look at each step and ask the question, “What problem does this step solve?”.
2. Determine if the step exists to prevent a recoverable mistake. If so, it’s likely that step can be removed, replaced or automated.
3. If it can’t be removed, ask the question “What’s the better way?”.
4. Experiment with “better” ways until you find one that gets the same result faster.

Once you’ve done this, compare the “new” way vs. the “old” way and determine if it meets your criteria for success.

If it does, great! You’re ready to move on.

If not, revisit the steps above and keep experimenting until you get the results you are looking for.

(In the example we’ve been using, an account creation process that takes 10 minutes or less to complete)

And as you take this approach over and over again, I guarantee that you will:

1. Find ways to make the process better.
2. Look like a superstar to your co-workers and higher-ups.

Now what?

The good news is you’ve done most of the leg work. It’s time to move to the next step: implement the changes.

5. Implement the Changes

You’ve hit your goal: the new account creation process takes 10 minutes or less to complete, down from 30 minutes.

And, because you’re smart, you’ve documented and detailed the method along the way.

In fact, this is necessary!

You need to sell the “why” behind both the problem and the solution to the problem. You can’t simply say, “Hey, I made this account creation process so much better by reducing the time to open by 66%”.

Now you’ve got to package everything up and present it for implementation.

This is you waving the magic wand and casting the magic spell.

There are 3 different ways you can present your discoveries and requests for change:

1. Topics. You can frame your presentation based on 2-3 key topics. In this example, it could be speed of account creation, customer experience and impact to the bottom line. While there are a number of topics you could focus on, it’s best to pick 2-3 and drive the point home with them with stories and data.
2. Problem-Cause-Solution. This method of presentation focuses on the Magic Wand System itself. “Look, here’s the problem…let me back it up with data…” Qualify the problem and data with a story, sharing vivid detail along the way. Then, highlight the cause: “Here’s the real cause that’s often overlooked…” And wrap it up with your solution: “Here’s the solution that gets x result in y time…”
3. Time Horizons. Frame your pitch based on where you’ve been, where you are now and where you’re going. “When this company was founded, it stood on the principles of speed and value. But somewhere along the way, we wandered off the path and shunned our guiding principles. Now, we are returning back to the foundations that set us apart in the beginning and are blazing a trail for future success.” Then, you couch your methodology and solution within that storyline.

If you follow one of these 3 presentation “frameworks”, your chance of implementing the changes (especially if the final decision is not made by you) greatly increases.

And, you’ll look like a superhero in the process.

Which brings me to the final step: celebrate the results.

6. Celebrate the Results

Congratulations – you did it!

You managed – through the Magic Wand System – to reduce the new account creation process from 30 minutes to 10 minutes or less.

That’s a big improvement worthy of celebration.

How do you celebrate?

Apart from the typical ways you might celebrate (party, internal memo, *huge promotion* 😎), I encourage you to celebrate in these ways too:

• Reflect on the Magic Wand System. Make sure you understand how it works so that your eyes fully open to all the processes where it can be used. This is akin to an After Action Review.
• Teach the Magic Wand System to someone else. Until you can explain it clearly and simply to someone else, you don’t fully understand it. Teach it to someone and experience the joy of their “magic” discoveries.
• Re-use the Magic Wand System to make a big impact. Don’t be a one-hit wonder. Drill this methodology into the fabric of who you are by practicing it over and over again.

Remember, the Magic Wand System is a system, not a goal. It needs to be used over and over again if you want to experience the magic of consistent, repeatable results that bring smiles to many faces and accelerate your career in return.

Benefits of the Magic Wand System

If the benefits of the Magic Wand System are not already clear, I’m going to make them clear for you now.

1. It’s a powerful mindset methodology based on first principles. This system gets to the core of why a poor process exists and how to solve its problems at the root.
2. It’s like magic. Seriously! Imagine a magic spell that you can cast to make anything better. The Magic Wand System is like that. I’ve used it so many times with exceptional results, and it’s amazing how often people marvel at how I did it. It may as well be magic to them, and it can be magic for you too.
3. It’s a career accelerator. Many can tell you a problem exists. Less can tell you the criteria to fix it. Fewer can come up with the solution, and still fewer can implement it successfully. I guarantee that you’ll stand out when you use this method to solve problems in your workplace.
4. It’s the antidote to the “Never Again!” trap. Because you’ve learned the method, you’ll be more likely to avoid the perilous “Never Again!” trap that looks shiny and innocent on the outside but is full of rot and danger on the inside.

To those who wield the Magic Wand System successfully, their ability to influence and make things better is limitless.

Wrapping Up

The Magic Wand System is a proven system. It just works. It allows you to analyze any process, discover weaknesses and patch them up with solutions that make it 10x better.

The six steps are simple to follow and produce incredible, “magic” results:

1. Define the Problem
2. Establish the Baseline
3. Determine the Measure
4. Evaluate the Steps
5. Implement the Changes
6. Celebrate the Results

And those who are trained by it are destined to do great things.

To better problem-solvers who make magic happen,
Thomas