Peter Lohmann's Mailing List - Issue #33

Free Process Webinar, Annual Solo Retreats, & more

Cultivating a Process Mindset

I'm doing another live process event! It will be an interactive, practical discussion on how to develop a process mindset. Jordan "JP" Peine from LeadSimple will be joining me as we discuss:

  • Tips on building processes that work

  • What not to do when creating a process

  • Developing a systems-oriented way of thinking

  • When you don't need a process

  • Getting team buy-in

  • What to do when the software doesn't do what you want it to

  • How to get started with processes

  • Where to learn more about systems & process

  • Lots of Q&A

Last time I announced a process webinar, it filled up in 19 minutes. Oops. I've tripled the size (to 100 spots), but I expect this one to fill up pretty quickly again. Don't wait to register (registration is required). Just like last time, I'll send out the video recording to this mailing list afterward.

You can register here.

Annual Solo Retreats

I highly recommend getting away for a 2-day solo retreat around New Year's. I've done this for 3 years running now, and it has been transformative. This is where I'm headed in a few weeks:

I modeled this after Bill Gate's Think Week idea. Here are the ground rules:

  1. Get out of town

  2. No technology

  3. Go alone

  4. Think

  5. Read

  6. Plan

That's it. You won't believe how energizing and restorative this is (and I'm an extrovert). I usually look for a cheap Airbnb about an hour out of town. And the good news is, Airbnbs have gotten a lot cheaper and more available in the past few months (sorry, STR friends).

I'll make one more suggestion. While you're there, complete this exercise. Click through; it's not very long and there is ONE key question you want to answer in great detail:

Customer Service as a Measure of Defects

I recently discovered Cedric Chin's writing (hat tip to Jordan Muela for getting me hooked with this), and immediately devoured a bunch of the articles on his website, Commoncog.

He recently tweeted something very interesting from an interview with Colleen Byrum (early Amazon):

The reason Jeff (Bezos) and I got along so well is that we saw customer support the same way: every single negative customer contact is a measure of a failure somewhere in the org. All of those defects must be measured and delivered to the team responsible.

BOOM. That's precisely how I think about customer service within property management, and why I'm so fanatic about measuring NPS and reading the comments from our residents and property owners.

Customer service is debugging for a service company. It's how you find out where your process is breaking down for your customer.

Closing Thought

This Week’s Newsletter Is Sponsored By: Kris Kaplan

EOS & Business Operating Systems

My company RL Property Management self-implemented EOS about 5 years ago. This year, we brought in professional coach Kris Kaplan to tighten up our systems in BIG way.

Our leadership team kicked off the year with a 2-day offsite conducted by Kris, and we’ve held quarterly offsite planning meetings all year.

Results have been outstanding and our revenue is up 29% year-to-date, in no small part thanks to our work with Kris.

Kris is finalizing his schedule for 2023 and has room for just three property management clients.

The deadline to apply to work with Kris is December 16th. Simply reply to this email for an introduction.