MA Business Success 94: Change In Your Business

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Graham: Good day everyone and welcome to the martial arts business success podcast I'm on 94. Graham McDonnell.

Phil: Phil Britten.

Graham: And, we've got some really awesome stuff we're gonna talk about. Look, I think this is something that, in some way show perform I think that everybody understands it but it's really important that you kind of get the need to change things up on a regular basis. So, change is good, it's not a bad thing. What have we done recently that has turned the snow-dome upside-down from, let's say, a staffing level rather than an organization top level? What have we got?

Phil: Well as I say, change is as good as a holiday, and for our level what we've done, you know we, as you all probably know, is we have three rather large locations. One is, obviously quite big, with 802 members, and that school there has two managers running it because it's almost like two schools within one to some degree. We've also got the other two schools which have 400 plus members in it as well, and they have a manager at each. Now, what we've found is that the instructors or the managers they get comfortable. And they get comfortable they just fill into their groove and I think that they stop growing at some level, and they get comfortable, they stop growing, you know, I think...I don't know, like I think it's the students and even the staff that are under them, get into a...trying to get to it like a state of comfortableness where they just aren't growing left or right, or up or down, You know what I mean?

Graham: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Phil: What we did recently was shuffle things around. So, Jay, what did we do?

Graham: Look, I think it's important to understand here, we talk about good enough is not a standard. We expect excellence in everything. That's something that we base our standards on for our crew. So, when they've been on location, as you pointed out, for a number of years, when they walk into the office, things are just as per normal. So, they're not looking for the dirt on the floor. They're not smelling the place from a critical point of view. They're not looking at their desk or their work space in the same eyes as a brand new person would walk in judging for the first time. So, what we've done is we've actually moved a couple of managers to different locations for a period of time. And this started with our two Renshis. So, we changed it for a month just to get their understanding, have them be mental about their different managers.

Now we're shifting the actual branch managers. And what's really been great is, I benefit from different schools to go...from an owner's point of view, it's a shake up for them, but also to make sure our systems are being consistent across all the board. And it's been a really great and exciting time where we've identified between one location to another, although majority of the design, there's still a few variances there that shouldn't be there. So, we've been able to rectify that, whereas when you kinda just have a location running, you've got the same team in there as much as we check all the figures and numbers and the way things done, when you have someone, we walk in and just fresh out of eyes, there's some pretty obvious differences. So, again guys, I go back to it, it's that critical analysis of your business, sometimes you need somebody else to do that for you, and they see things that you...just become the norm. And I guess I...it's quite funny and there is an actual...there's a...I like to put it this way, and I'm gonna cover myself a little bit.

Phil: Graham's having a little bit of a laugh, internally here.

Graham: I'll have a little bit of laugh because there is a medical condition when a husband goes to the fridge and the wife's asks for something, and it's right in front of you, and you have a man look and it's not there. Seriously there's got to be a legit condition for that.

Phil: I've got the prescribed medication for that.

Graham: Yeah. So, I think that again the same thing goes for when we've got staff who have something occur right under their nose, and they just went, "Man, I completely missed that." So, that's then just being too comfortable and complacent. So, what this is doing is leading me into telling you guys in the, obviously, online context there's some really great checklists that are gonna give you a chance to go through say your facility, and look through it as if you were a brand-new client. You know, how does it look? How does it smell? Where's the bins? Where's the paint job? That sort of stuff. And what I would do, it was that I would encourage you to do, and I'd encourage some of your staff to do it, you know. Even better is to actually go and get some of their parents to do it for you, as well. So, that way you're not just marking it the way that you see it, you've got other people marking it and their opinion as well, too.

Phil: So, just if I ask you a question Graham, what is the benefit to the actual manager to go to a different school? If you just...the personal benefit of the manager.

Graham: Look, what it does sometimes when you establish a persona in a particular place, the students love you and that's fine, that's good and dandy. The staff, though, come to know you as a particular way, and it's very hard sometimes to level up as a increasing manager, as a, even an instructor, if you're in the same place. So, for example, when I was the student at our first martial arts school, you're always a student. Now, you train with people, and then suddenly you become the manager or a two Renshi or a lead instructor, and those friends you trained with will always see you as just that friend.

So, that's sometimes a challenging thing for some of those fledgling leaders to be looked upon as a leader. Whereas, when they go, same position, go to a different location, nobody knows them other than that leader. So, it's a really great way to reaffirm their abilities and also a great way for a self-devote unite. Before, I probably wasn't looked upon as that level. Now, for the same person, different location, they shine a hundred times more.

Phil: And what about, I guess now on the flip-side, what would be the benefit of the student to have this brand-new instructor? Is it a pro or is it a con?

Graham: Look, I definitely think there's pros to that and us, as an organization, we love guest instructors to come in, we love different instructors. Because, what it does, it opens up the minds of your students because sometimes the different learning styles are really important. How I teach is different to Phil. Some people like how I do it, some people like how Phil does it. But having the chance to have a mixture of instruction and a mixture of skill-sets, the students benefit massively. So, I can't encourage it enough. When you, we'll say inbreeding, there's a lot of instructors and that are very incubated, and their students are kept in their own little world. And when they finally strep out of it, they're actually become quite critical of, potentially, the instructor, going, "You were holding back on me. You didn't share this."

A lot of the instructors will be fearful that their students, if they get guests to come in, will actually leave. And there's a...there was a crowd here and I guess I'm gonna relate this back to probably students as well too, rather than just being a staffing thing. But Richard Branson said that it's great quite. He says, "Train your staff so well they'll leave, treat them so well they'll stay." And, I guess what you gotta remember too, as a student, you gotta train them so well, and allow them to explore different people and their different training styles, that, you know, yeah, they could leave, they may jump ship, they may wanna do that. But treat them so well as a family that they're just gonna stand be loyal forever. So, that's one for me.

Phil: Cool. And then I guess the meat in the sandwich so we go on, the benefit is for the manager? What's the benefits for the students? What about the staff, so that the staff is under the manager, and I guess, like attracts like. So, for example if you've got a mono-tone instructor...manager who, you know, is talented but they let you off to a certain degree as a employee, then like attracts like. They'll become that, as well. So, by flipping the snow-dome, so to speak, and getting a different, more charismatic instructor coming in, they go, "Oh, I'm allowed to be like that."

Graham: What I found what works really well with that is the...I guess the manager being moved to the different location has to learn to adapt to the personality at the top of that team, for example. So, it's not like come in all guns blazing and everyone needs to conform, they need to understand about HR, human resource. And, again also, we say this installs the chameleon effect. If you're gonna get the most from your team, you still need to be you, but you also need to understand your team. You need to have a little bit more insight into how they operate and that is, sometimes, as you pointed out, when you're a bit more of a quieter person, you may need to rise and level up, when you go to the next team, you know, at that next spot. Or if you're a bit of a loud mouth, you know, and you're really are quite charismatic, you may need to tone it down initially, until such time as, you know, the other team members can accommodate. Otherwise, you can just be that stone in the shoe, who is a great flip, but it didn't really benefiting anybody.

Phil: Cool. All right guys well, as we wrap up a couple of house keeping things, don't know for you guys who like to get more information than just from the podcast, got a great bunch of people in the TIMA Mastermind, which is a group of people who get to access us live on Facebook, live Q and As. They get to see behind the doors in this room here as Graham runs the managers meetings. They get access to the online content. All that type of stuff, just for $99 a month. Now, if you just wanna just have a peek behind the curtain and look under the bonnet, if you go to that membership on our website tima.com.au and go to that course, complete martial arts business solution, type in promo code "Try five" and you get an access five days for $5, just so you can have a peeky boo.

Graham: Guys I'm gonna insist and encourage you guys to start getting some questions from back from these podcasts as well too, because it's content we're delivering to you, but I don't want it to be a one-way conversation. I wanna make sure that if you've done any swaps, could be staff that moved around, what are the pros, what are the cons you've have, what are the experiences. Because, at the end of the day that's also what the Mastermind is doing and I encourage you to be there because it's live, but even on this podcast when you re-listen or people may get on this in weeks to come, whatever that may be, I'd love to hear some feedback from you guys. Both, on the actual site, so whether it's iTunes, whether it's Sound cloud, or any other way that you guys have hooked up on this, and even more so, drop some comments, right next to this you got the online stuff with TIMA and you've also got the Facebook stuff as well too.

So, don't forget guys, anyway you get us some feedback on these podcasts, these vlogs, we'd love to hear it, love to know about it, so we can continue to deliver world-class content for you guys.

Phil: All right guys, well thank you for joining us once again, and we'll see you next week guys, have a good day.

Graham: Take care.