How to get it right, every time

During the school holidays and my son (who I would consider a gamer) shows me this game he was playing online.

It was called StarCraft 2 and I noticed that you could win some serious money on the e-sports circuit.

StarCraft is a strategy game and you win by defeating your enemies on a map.  You start with one command centre, and you have to collect resources and then build and develop your army.

We teamed up to play online, where the two of us were up against two others.  Unfortunately due to my ineptness in the game, our team got slaughtered inside 3 minutes.

Second time around, we lasted a bit longer till 3.5 minutes.  Not much of an improvement.

The game is complex.  And to win, you need the right strategy and right sequence of moves to win.  Being a live gameplay environment any mistakes will cost you.

After 5 more games, we got up to survive for more than 10 minutes!  No wins yet – but much better than losing inside 3 minutes.

What I noticed in the game was our opponents developed their resources faster and more efficiently than us.  They did this in a certain sequence of events.  Sort of reminiscent of a “racing line” in motorsports.  Deviate away from the line, and you lose.

Just like becoming successful at owning a mortgage broking business.

What struck me about the similarities in winning at StarCraft and business was that you have to get things right.  Get the right things done, at the right time.

Deviate from that optimal sequence, and you lose traction.  In StarCraft, losing time meant losing the game.  Probably not so dramatic in mortgage broking – but it had similarities.

Checklists are critical

In business, to get the right sequence of events done at the right time we use a checklist.

For instance, we recently started using our new Mercury CRM.  And like anything unfamiliar and complex it can take a while to learn to use it correctly and efficiently.

Like learning anything new, I put a new checklist to allow me to track what I had done and to get the hang of using the new CRM more effectively.

Get it done quicker

By listing the sequence of steps, it saved me time as I didn’t have to backtrack on items I had already tried.  Writing down the sequence in a checklist also allowed me to analyse any mistakes.  As a trial and error testing tool, having a checklist allows you to get there quicker.

Save time and brainpower

For repetitive tasks like loan submissions, having a checklist makes it easier to process loan applications.  You don’t have to think too much as to what to do next.  Similar to the pre-flight checklists that pilots perform before taking off, it will ensure that you have not missed any critical steps in your loan submission process.

Allows for consistency

Once you have worked out a sequence, locking down that checklist will make your processes consistent.  It means that for a complex task, such as a loan submission, you will have a defined sequence of events and tasks.  With a checklist, you can perform complex tasks consistently.

Allows you to delegate

If you choose to, having a checklist will allow you to delegate tasks.  And makes it easier to train your staff too.

Checklists are critical to the success of our business.  Some examples of checklists we use:

• Responsible Lending and Compliance Checklists
• Supporting Document Checklists
• Mercury Task Checklists
• Pre-qualification checklists
• Customer Review Checklists

Summary

If you want to perform complex activities and get them right, every time, you must use a checklist.

As Atul Gawande in The Checklist Manifesto points out: no matter how expert you may be, well-designed checklists can improve outcomes.

In the complex nature of running an effective mortgage broking business successfully, checklists are essential.

And in StarCraft, using a checklist, we managed to get our survival time at StarCraft up to 10 minutes.  No wins yet – but going in the right direction.

To get your mortgage broking business working more effectively and profitably.  Contact us to find out more.

But if you want to know more about gaming, you are better off checking here.