In this episode of the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast, Dr. John Dentico interviews Adam Schweickert, founder of Build the Process and creator of DocuLaunch. Adam shares his journey from Peru, Illinois, to becoming a key player in business systematization, focusing on helping service-based businesses document their processes effectively. He discusses his 20/80 documentation method, the importance of a process culture, and how artificial intelligence is integrated into DocuLaunch to streamline operations. The conversation highlights the challenges companies face with process documentation and the transformative impact of a strong process mindset on business scalability.
00:00 Welcome to Throttle Up Leadership Podcast
00:06 Meet Adam Schweickert: Founder of Build the Process
01:14 Adam's Early Life and Influences
04:45 The Birth of DocuLaunch
07:19 Leadership as a Process
08:05 The Role of AI in Process Documentation
13:00 Challenges with EOS and Process Documentation
28:30 The 20/80 Documentation Format
31:19 Final Thoughts and Magic Wand Question
37:02 Closing Remarks
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr John Dentico (00:05):
Welcome to the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
Our theme for 2025 is The Futureof Work: Meaning is the New Money!
In a world shaped by rapid innovation andconstant change the pursuit of purpose
and impact has never been more important.
I'm Dr John Dentico your host,bringing over 30 years of experience
(00:28):
in leadership, strategic thinkingand purpose-driven innovation.
Here we tackle the pressing challengesof our time-from the rise of
artificial intelligence to the growingneed for meaning in the workplace.
Together we'll uncover how leaderscan ethically integrate AI to enhance
decision-making and keep humanityat the heart of their organizations.
(00:51):
Remember amidst all thetechnological advancements in the
end, it's always about the people.
This podcast is your resource foractionable tools, thought provoking
discussions and inspiring stories.
It's time to go beyond leadershipdevelopment and focus on leadership
(01:11):
impact-creating workplaces where peoplethrive, innovation flourishes and
meaning truly becomes the new currency.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Now, let's Throttle Up anddive into today's episode.
Hello again and welcome theThrottle Up Leadership Podcast.
This is Dr John Dentico your host.
(01:34):
With me today is Adam Schweickert,the founder of Build the Process
and Creator of DocuLaunch a provenwhite glove framework designed to
help service-based businesses with 10to 50 employees document their core
processes the right way in just 90 days.
(01:55):
With a background in businessdevelopment operations and tech
systems, Adam has spent years workingwith growing companies, especially
those running on EOS, and he's seenone challenge come up time and again.
They know process, documentationmatters, but they can't seem
(02:16):
to get it done internally.
That's where DocuLaunch comes in.
Adam and his fractional team bringclarity and structure to chaotic
operations by aligning teams, facilitatingkey conversations and , capturing
tribal knowledge using a streamlined20/80 format all centralized in
(02:37):
one updateable source of truth.
Raised in a small town of Peru,Illinois by a stone mason and a realtor.
Adam learned early the value ofhumility, industriousness, and integrity.
He since built multiple businessesacross sectors like operations,
automation, and real estate.
(02:58):
All rooted in his passion for helpingcompanies scale through systemization.
Adam is a strategic coach, participantand OnDeck, No Code Fellow, always
learning and connecting with forwardthinking leaders, whether he's talking
about operational efficiency, teamalignment, or knowledge retention.
(03:19):
Adam Equips CEOs and operationsleaders with tactical strategies
to eliminate blind spots andunlock business scalability.
I am truly pleased and honored to havehim here with me today on the podcast.
Good afternoon, Adam.
How are you?
Adam Schweickert (03:37):
Good afternoon, Dr. John.
Thank you for having me.
What a beautiful introduction that was.
I'm gonna have to, get the recording ofthis and share that with my wife 'cause
I'm sure she'll love to hear that as
Dr John Dentico (03:48):
I'll send it to you and you can post it on the refrigerator.
How's
Adam Schweickert (03:52):
that.
I love that.
But it's good to be here with you.
Thanks for having me.
Dr John Dentico (03:56):
Oh, thanks for being here.
And by the way, just please call me John.
I appreciate that.
The, the doctor thing, but I only useit when I make dinner reservations
'cause it gets me a good table.
So let's start off with, a little bitof review and sort of my personal touch
this year in the podcast and this,you've already, I've already mentioned
that you grew up in per Peru, Illinois.
(04:16):
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
We know it's Peru it, and what aresome of the influences, in your life?
Adam Schweickert (04:23):
Yeah, growing up in Peru, Illinois, which is a small
town in North central Illinois,about two hours southwest of Chicago.
Growing up in that town gave me fantasticperspective, especially being raised by
my two parents, a stone mason, German.
My father had 12 siblings of which.
Eight, were in the trades of, masonry.
(04:46):
My mom, fantastic woman.
She is a realtor herself.
My grandmother was a realtor,so I've got a great tradition
of real estate in our family.
My mom also has had rheumatoid arthritissevere since the age of two, so , I've
grown up watching my parents workincredibly hard fighting through some
challenges when it wasn't always fun toget up, painful days, things like that.
(05:09):
She ran a nonprofit of, a charity calledThe Arthritis Foundation in my hometown.
So growing up with that perspectivejust really entrenched me
with the values I have today.
I had a lot of great perspective workingup on job sites, growing up on job sites,
probably, moving a few too many bricksthan the labor unions would like to know,
(05:31):
but that taught me a lot of things, whatI wanna do and what I don't want to do.
And so I, I think what we're here todo is, is talk about a little bit more
business automation, that side of things,which is clearly the opposite of what
I found I didn't wanna do, which wasmanual labor for the rest of my life.
So great values coming up with my parents.
Dr John Dentico (05:50):
Hey, I get it.
I understand, the lessons you learnin early life stay with you forever.
You know, certainly, there's thisperspective that a child's personality
form between the ages of three andeight, and so those early years matter,
they matter a lot, and I you carrywith it for the rest of your life.
(06:10):
Let me ask you this question.
You created the DocuLaunch frameworkto help small businesses document
their processes in just 90 days.
What inspired you to develop thissystem and why is documentation such
a common struggle for growing teams?
Adam Schweickert (06:29):
Yeah, well, really what inspired me is kind
of takes me all the way back to myfirst job out of school in college.
I went to the University of Iowa whereI was working at a wealth management
firm where they had a consultantcome in and that person said, who
knows how to do the things here,where are your processes documented?
And everyone just pointed to thatyoung guy in the corner and was
(06:52):
like, Hey, Adam does a lot of that.
So, he's the guy to talk to.
And of course, I didn'thave any of it written down.
So that's really, I was started bysolving my pain point the first time,
at my first job outta school, which was.
It's really powerful to have systemsand processes written down so you
don't have to be the bottlenecklike I was in that first job.
(07:12):
And so, from wealth management, Itransitioned to a, a few different
industries between real estate andthen into a consulting job for a
boutique firm here in Chicago where Iwas fortunate enough to see the inside
of many small business operations.
And while we were there toreally look at the whole house.
What I found was every single company,it all comes down to process, right?
(07:38):
And every single company was pretty muchin that same boat that I was coming outta
school where nothing was written down.
The engine moves.
It's maybe not the most tuned up enginelike businesses can get by despite not
having documented, well-oiled processes,but to really take it to the next
level, to capture those, get everyoneinto alignment on the best way to do
(08:01):
things and really create a cohesiveexperience throughout a process is
really what can turbocharge businesses.
And so I, I started outsolving my own problem.
Got into a few other companiessaw that they had the own the same
problem as I, and I was like, maybethere's a pattern here of which maybe
we need to build a service around.
(08:21):
And , so many companies get so overwhelmedthinking about writing their processes
down, documenting their processes.
How the heck do you even go about that?
It was my goal to oversimplify thatprocess and create a little bit more of a
structure teams could follow to actuallyget done this whole process, documentation
(08:41):
black box that nobody could figure out.
Up to this point
Dr John Dentico (08:45):
Great answer.
I, for me, leadership is a process.
Adam Schweickert (08:50):
it is.
Dr John Dentico (08:51):
Leadership is a process.
it, it has very little to dowith traits, charisma styles.
I know that's, that's heresy in theleadership world, but if you can, , and
I'm a very much a learn by doing guyif you learn how to do the process.
If you learn different practices,put them into implementation,
guess what you're doing leadership.
(09:14):
You're really you are taking an ideaand saying, here's the first thing
we're gonna do, and people are stymied.
I think from my experiencewith the how to.
How do you do this?
What do we do first?
Those kinds of things.
So I'm with you.
I'm on board with that.
That leadership is a process.
I, I have to ask you this questionat this point, and that is, what
(09:38):
do you see in your work is theimplication of artificial intelligence
in what you do and how you do it?
How is that gonna change yourbusiness or even DocuLaunch?
Adam Schweickert (09:55):
Yeah, I'd say that it's a two-pronged approach because
when we come into companies, we comein to mine the information out of
people's heads to say, Hey, subjectmatter expert, tell me about what,
what happens in your day to day?
So it's, it's the capturing of that,which is really what DocuLaunch is all
about, is capturing that tribal knowledge.
And so I. The advent, the advent ofAI as part of that captures, helped
(10:20):
us in a couple different ways.
Number one, when we start with clients,they provide us with their current
existing documentation and what theythink is their list of core processes.
We now have a custom GPT builton the backend of, we use Claude,
AI as our, our platform for this,where we've trained that GPT to say,
(10:41):
here's what good looks like afterwe take ,the existing documentation
from clients, it's all messy.
Take this information and kick out areally good starting point for us to then
facilitate a conversation with the clientso we don't have to spend, admitted.
We just spent like five, six hourslooking at this documentation going crazy.
Whereas now we spit that into ourcustom GPT, which we've trained to
(11:05):
give us a good output, and now wehave a really good basis to start.
So it's saved us a ton of hours juston our service delivery side of things.
Now when we take that list and wework with these clients using, like
Fathom or an AI transcriber basedon your, zoom meeting notes, things
like that has been fantastic for us.
It, it captures a ton of that information.
(11:27):
So that's been a great,use of AI for us as well.
And then once we're able to go throughthose live working sessions with
clients, capture their processes,package them up into that knowledge base.
It's then time to apply a lens whichgoes, call it DocuLaunch Plus of how can
we take now this well-defined processand poke holes in it to say, how could
(11:49):
this business leverage AI and theiroperation to turbocharge even further?
So you have the initial build out phaseof what the heck do we actually do here?
Let's get everybody on thesame page and capture that.
And then we have level two, which is afterDocuLaunch, how can we apply a lens to
say, you got a lot of opportunity in thisbusiness that you don't even realize.
(12:12):
But the first step was realizing thatyou even had the opportunity and you
couldn't realize that opportunitywithout getting these things documented.
So that's how AI is changing ourbusiness personally, and then our
client's businesses into the future.
Dr John Dentico (12:27):
Brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.
I, I think I had not thought about that,but, but capturing the information from
people and then having an AI assistantsay, this is what this looks like.
Adam Schweickert (12:41):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (12:42):
And right now, and this is how it could look, is brilliant.
It is a great idea.
I don't know if you're familiarwith the gentleman by the name of W.
Edwards Deming, do you know that name?
He was the creator ofstatistical process control.
The grandfather of SixSigma, those kinds of things.
And, and his, his route to qualitycontrol was map the process.
(13:09):
Map the process and figure outwhat's wrong in the process.
And if you do that, thenthe output will be good.
Don't so focus on the output that you'retrying to manhandle, if you will, the
output without going back and tryingto understand what's wrong with the
process that's giving you bad output.
So I absolutely see thatas a, a breakthrough.
(13:32):
Go ahead.
Adam Schweickert (13:32):
And I, and I think so many times in our day-to-day, as,
as business leaders, we're so used tothe, the firefighting that happens.
And you fight the fire.
You put out the fire, which is,you said, addressing the output.
Right.
You fix that problem today.
Great.
No one ever wants totake time to zoom out.
(13:53):
Go DocuLaunch level on it and say,let's be really objective around how
we even got to this point, and maybewe can figure out, our issue there.
So I completely agree.
And, and it's, it's just the day-to-daygets so fast and you're moving so
quickly that you are trying to controlthe outputs when you're really not
addressing the root cause, which is thefoundation of everything in your business.
Dr John Dentico (14:16):
All right.
Yeah.
You wind up being a firefighter ininstead of someone who's trying to say,
if we do this, we can avoid fires, thatwe don't have to worry about the fires.
Because , it'll be takencare of, so that's great.
You specialize in working withservice-based businesses running EOS.
Why do companies using EOS oftenhit roadblocks with process
(14:38):
documentation, and how do you helpthem overcome those challenges?
Maybe a bit redundant, but let'speel that onion back a little bit.
Adam Schweickert (14:45):
Yeah.
So EOS stands for the EntrepreneurialOperating System, which is based
on a framework laid out in the bookcalled Traction by Gino Wickman.
Now, EOS businesses aren'tnecessarily different than any
other business from just a, insand outs sort of a standpoint here.
But EOS businesses run on a certainframework where they structure
(15:09):
their meeting cadence differently.
They have a very structuredapproach to annual planning.
How they review data and metrics withintheir companies is very regimented,
within an EOS business, there aresix key components one of which
is called the process component.
And so it's not to say EOS businessesfind themselves in more trouble with
process than any other company runningthat's not on EOS, but what's different
(15:34):
about EOS businesses is that due to theEOS model, they truly understand why
process is important because it is oneof the six key components as laid out
in this model that tells them that youhave to be strong in all six of these
key components within your business.
So they tend to enjoy or not enjoy.
Nobody really enjoys process allthat much, but they tend to approach
(15:58):
process with the understandingthat it is important, rather than
trying to convince another businesswho's not on the same page running
on EOS that process is important.
So that's why we like to startwith companies running on EOS.
Now, the second half of that questionis what do they typically go wrong?
And like most businesses, likewe just talked about, it's it's
(16:18):
the firefighting, it's, it's justthe never stopping to back up.
And it's so cliche, work on thebusiness, they're always in the business.
And I'll no more cliches, I promise,but where companies go wrong is even
if they do want to stop backup and workon the business, they don't necessarily
have the right framework or lens to dothat through as it pertains to process.
(16:42):
So what you get is a lot of departmentheads in silos of the business and corners
of the business, trying to write downprocess the way that they see fit, the
way that they think is best to, conveyideas and material to their people where.
That's not just one cohesive,here's the formats you use.
(17:03):
Here's how we wanna do it.
Here's the right mindset tohave, and here's the timeline
that we need it done by.
Nobody thinks about that.
It's go over there and document yourprocesses and we'll see in a little bit.
And that's honestly more thana lot of companies have done.
So where they've usually go wrong as nothaving much of a framework to actually
capture their processes and get it done.
Dr John Dentico (17:25):
Process mapping the ability to.
Process mapping, that's where it's at.
I had a colleague of mine, Iworked with for a number of years.
We traveled the country, did some trainingtogether, but he was also, that was
his part-time job as you would call it.
And his full-time job was, he wasworking in security in the largest,
(17:45):
metropolitan transportation systemin the country , in New York.
And, I was, we were talking aboutprocessing mapping one time and he picked
up on it and, and he, it is a great story.
He goes back and he says to thesepeople, look, let's map out what we do.
Get a big piece of paper, put it on thewall, and let's map out the process.
(18:07):
And that's what he did.
He did process mapping.
Perfect.
Great,
Adam Schweickert (18:09):
Love that.
Dr John Dentico (18:10):
And then he said, okay, how would we change it to make it better?
What would we do that's differentand not from a, from specific
individual chunks that he took.
In other words, you didn'ttake the whole organization.
He said, let's talk about thisparticular aspect of what we do.
How does that happen?
(18:31):
And then, and that's what they did.
And then what he did, hestepped it up and he said, okay,
you've decided you've made this.
Change outlined what this change is.
Now what do we have to do to implement it?
And then, and he said, slowly butsurely, you could see the gains that
we were making even a little bit here.
Systemic, I call it systemicinference, make a change over here.
(18:53):
It kinda makes a change over every place.
So things were getting better alongthe way and, and he vested people
in the interest in the outcome.
Okay, this is, this is your project.
This belongs to you.
What do we do?
And great.
Created wonderful enthusiasm for it aswell, and made some really substantial
(19:13):
changes and saved the organizationsmillions of dollars by doing it.
Adam Schweickert (19:18):
That's
Dr John Dentico (19:18):
reflection on that?
Adam Schweickert (19:20):
Yeah, no, I think in the moment when you're, when you're
staring at this process problem in yourbusiness, to be able to zoom out, like
your colleague, map it out, and thenalso not eat the entire elephant at once.
You don't have to solve allyour problems in one day.
You gotta break it upinto bite-size pieces.
' cause that's the only way you can actuallyget this done and, motivate people to.
(19:42):
Take on this endeavor with you.
And so to your point there too,process mapping is step one.
Then it's how do we go from currentstate to where we want to get future
state and creating accountabilityaround that and the implementation and
change management that comes with it.
It's so many layers of complexity as towhy process change is so difficult for
(20:04):
many companies is just because we canwrite it down, but that doesn't mean
anything until we put people into actionand movement and actually take action
on what we talked about here and holdingthose people accountable and following up
to make sure that they made those changes.
It's, it can be exhausting, but I thinkthat's where, if you can install a strong
(20:25):
process, culture is what we like to callit at your company, which is where people
think in terms of process, they think ifAdam does one thing, what does John do?
Who's two steps away from me?
What, what is he gonna need?
What is he gonna wanna see?
What types of resources do Ineed to pass to him to make
sure that he can do his job?
Those are the types of ways wewant people thinking, right?
(20:46):
Or if something goes wrong.
Let's go back to the process andthink about that versus putting
on the firefighter helmet.
There's a lot that goes into it, butyou said, it's, it's the execution.
Once, once you've actually gotten theprocesses mapped, that really makes
a difference throughout the company.
Dr John Dentico (21:02):
Yeah.
And, and part of that is a, anyprocess, any new process is a learning.
You have to learn what's gonnahappen, what are the results.
We put this process in place.
So one of the things you wanna dois at some point in the back of your
mind, you have to build a criticalmass of belief in the process.
(21:23):
So exactly what you said.
So let's not hug the elephant all at once.
Here.
Let's take a little piece and let's build.
Let's learn from that.
Let's build belief that it works andwe're gonna get good results out of it.
Because part of that learning, part ofthat belief builds that critical mass.
(21:44):
When people say, you know what?
This stuff matters,
Adam Schweickert (21:48):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (21:49):
and, and you start to transform into a process culture, the
more believers you bring along, youknow, as I know, as you're shaking your
head, and I agree with you a hundredpercent, you've gotta bring them along.
You just can't say, here it is.
Go, no, here.
We're gonna learn together.
We're gonna move down the road.
We're gonna learn this process,we're gonna see what it does for us.
(22:11):
We'll make some, we'll tweak it.
We'll make some changes as, as we needto, but once people say it works and
it, it's really giving us somethingwe never had before, then there'll be
this rush to get behind it and say,we gotta do a lot more about this.
Any, any thoughts on that?
Adam Schweickert (22:30):
one.
Once people can feel they can see itand they can feel it, and how it changes
their day to day, they're like, wow.
That I like to say, the thing thatused to be really wonky isn't wonky
anymore and it actually works for us.
Is, I know you're all about, talkingabout real people , in their day to day
and how we can improve their day to day.
If, if my day to day is used technicalterms, less wonky and has a lot less
(22:54):
friction than it did, a month ago,then when we started this process,
then I can buy into that 'cause.
I feel that for me versus,oh, , this is something nice
for the greater company, great.
Maybe it's gonna savethe owners some money.
But people feel the momentum, they getthat building, you build that process
culture, and then it just self multiplies,amongst itself within the company.
(23:16):
So.
Dr John Dentico (23:16):
I agree and and what you're doing too as well is
you're igniting, from my perspective,the greatest motivation force
on the planet, which is meaning.
People say, I matter.
If we did this process,we made the changes.
I made some recommendations,we implemented it.
I matter.
I matter to the work.
Like you said, I get the feeling.
(23:38):
I know I matter.
I know I saw this thing transform.
I saw this thing change, and thereis nothing that turns that off.
I mean, that is a super, that's asupernova looking for a place to happen
in terms of how people feel and howthey want to now do more with it.
We're on the same page.
We're orbiting the same planets.
I absolutely agree with you.
(23:59):
Let me ask you this question.
You've built businesses in multipleindustries, including operations,
real estate, and automation.
How has that cross sector experienceinfluenced your approach to
systemization and scalability?
Adam Schweickert (24:16):
Yeah.
What I, what I really realizedtransitioning across so many industries
and businesses is that I say, while maybeit's a different model car, it's the same
chassis at the end of the day, right?
Our approach has really been moldedsince that first day I was tasked
to go document core processeswhere, for us it's the fundamentals.
(24:39):
It's getting the stakeholders whoknow how to do the things in one room
facilitating a conversation aroundwhat the process is, thinking in
terms of process handoffs, who's next?
Accountability, how are we tracking this?
Those sorts of things.
And really just to try to simplify asmuch as possible because what you can't
(25:00):
do is say, oh, this only works forthe real estate industry, or oh, this
only works for the finance industry.
You have to come up with a framework thattranscends all industries, and that's
really how we've molded DocuLaunch tosay is, look, here's the game board.
We'll call it a 90 day game board.
We're gonna meet on Tuesdaysand Thursdays for one hour.
(25:22):
We need subject matter experts in theroom thinking this, and using this
template to write their processes down.
That's about as across the boardas we could get when it comes
to, extracting that knowledge.
And so that's really been the biggestlesson is, you might think your business
is super, super special or complex,but at the end of the day, we're all
(25:43):
just filling the same game board here,and if we can fill this game board,
we can get to documented processes soit's that experience across all those
industries that's really allowed usto really cut to the most common vein
of getting these processes documented.
Dr John Dentico (25:59):
Yeah, and the things that you discover along the
way can be, as I'm sure you've re,you've, experienced eyeopening,
Adam Schweickert (26:07):
totally.
Dr John Dentico (26:09):
I didn't know you telling me we do this and then we do that.
Where did that come from?
We, we never, I never knew that.
You, I'm sure you've seen that, thatexpression on so many faces, right?
Adam Schweickert (26:22):
I think honestly, clients think that they're paying us to
help them document their processes, butI think that, we should really look to
get on approved for some insurance plans.
'cause we're a therapistat the end of the day.
Yeah.
And I think that's.
That's the aha moment they have.
' cause leading up to our engagementand getting started, they're giving
us documents, they're giving us theirold notes, and they're like, okay,
(26:44):
I think I know how this is gonna go.
And then we get to session oneand we have that first session
and they're like, ah, got it.
This is exactly what we're doing here.
And I see the value now because our teamwould've never had this conversation if
we didn't have a third party in the roomasking us questions we wouldn't have
(27:04):
thought to ask ourselves, forcing usto sit here and have this conversation.
Forcing is a little strong.
Everybody has a good time on thesesessions, I promise you that.
Just really facilitating from a thirdparty perspective, these blind spots in
our business that we didn't know we have.
And so it's a huge value out of it.
Is, is really the therapeuticrelease I think people get as
(27:25):
they go through this process.
With us, it's a double whammy and I thinkcreates so much nice cohesion through
the company once they're able to, kindof get on the same page with all their
teammates that they're working with.
Dr John Dentico (27:37):
Yeah, and I think the, the hidden ones, the invisible ones
to me, are worth their weight in gold.
Adam Schweickert (27:42):
Totally.
Dr John Dentico (27:43):
It's the surprise factor.
You know, you they discover somethingand they go, I didn't know we did that.
Bob, did you know, did you,Jane, did you know we did?
No, I didn't know we did that.
Adam Schweickert (27:56):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (27:57):
And all of a sudden there's enlightenment,
Adam Schweickert (28:02):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (28:03):
there's this realization that.
Oh, like you say, now I knowwhy these folks are here.
They just helped us discover that wedon't understand our own processes.
I was working with a company last year,a fence building company, and I have
developed a strategic thinking process.
Adam Schweickert (28:24):
Great.
Dr John Dentico (28:25):
And I, I've used on several occasions
and it's very successful.
And the difference, the difference betweenstrategic planning is you're looking
for answers to questions where strategicthinking you're making so sure you're
asking yourself the right questions.
Right.
Adam Schweickert (28:39):
Love that.
Dr John Dentico (28:40):
So we, we were in this conference, we're in this, this group
and we're, we're talking together andthey came to realize that they themselves
internally were not organized enough.
They had to go back andreorganize themselves to gain
greater levels of efficiency
Adam Schweickert (28:59):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (29:00):
in terms of organizing.
Most of the work that they did wasorganized with subcontractors and the
subs was stretched out in terms ofthe amount of time they needed to put
a fence in, and it was their fault.
It was the company's fault because theyhadn't got the materials there enough,
(29:24):
they hadn't got the lock systems in place,all those different kinds of things.
And once they realized that theywent to work now on redefining
their own processes, and theysaid we're the biggest problem.
And that was like, that was spiritual man.
Lemme tell you, it was spiritual.
They, in, in those terms.
So I appreciate that very much.
Adam Schweickert (29:44):
it's a reality check for many to go through this
filter, to go through your, yourprocess, go through our process.
It's, you're just holding up amirror sometimes for folks, and they
have that realization themselves.
You're just helping themget to that realization.
Dr John Dentico (29:57):
You emphasize the 20/80 documentation format.
Can you explain what that means andwhy it's so effective compared to
traditional documentation methods?
Adam Schweickert (30:10):
Yeah.
So the, the 20/80 method, not to beconfused with the the 80 20 rule,
the 2080 approach here is really anapproach prescribed by EOS to where
you're capturing the 20% of tasksthat create the 80% of results.
Now, why it's so important is becauseso many companies can go down.
(30:30):
It's really two rows thatwe see no documentation.
And the other road of Wow, we wroteourselves, basically the equivalent of
a Bible at our company that nobody uses.
And so it's striking a nice,happy medium between those two.
And so there's some examples up onour website and we have templates
if anyone wants to go check it out.
(30:52):
We give those templates out.
We use a visual chartingsoftware called Miro.
Totally free and available.
But really it's all about simplification.
And so when you use this templatethat's laid out, very simply, it allows
you to just capture the informationin three to seven words and what are
the major steps of this process here?
(31:14):
Okay, great.
Say no more.
We don't need to write anymore.
Stop.
Put your pen down.
Okay.
Now what are the steps that make upthese major steps of the process?
Again, we're writing three to sevenwords in these boxes, who's doing it?
And then two to three bullets of detail.
Why that's great in this 20/80 approachthat we take is that because it forces
(31:34):
you to fit within the guidelines andgutters, when you're bowling, right,
you can't mess it up, but you gotenough creative freedom to roll that
ball down the lane however you like.
I've seen many approaches to bowlingand still get to the pins, but at the
same time, not allow yourself to gototally off into the gutter where.
(31:55):
It's gonna be a total, wasteof time, gutter ball for you.
So that's striking that middleground balance is really where
retention comes in for folks.
So you're not having to spend hoursand hours on an onboarding session or by
yourself in the quarter on your first day.
It allows you to just come in,pick up any stakeholder, can figure
(32:15):
out what the process is, or pickout the level of detail they want
to ingest from the leadershiplevel down to the person doing it.
And so that's why we take that20/80 approach is it keeps
your blinders and guideposts on.
Dr John Dentico (32:27):
Yeah.
And I, and you have to limit itor else you can be overwhelmed,
like you say with the Bible.
It, it can be an overwhelming experienceand trying to forge your way through
that to try to find the necessaryinformation you need in order to
cogently make a decision is, it can be.
Can be challenging.
Well, we're getting to the end.
(32:48):
So I'd like to ask you my world famousquestion, and that is, in the world
of work that you deal in, if you hada magic wand and you could wave it
at any one of the issues specific towhat you do, what would that issue
be and why did you choose that?
Adam Schweickert (33:06):
Yeah, I think the, the biggest issue that we face is
not, is no longer around having aframework to go document your processes.
It's installing the process culture thatis so critical on the backend, right?
So it's getting people to think in termsof process when there's a breakdown.
(33:27):
Yes, we might have fire fought itin the moment, but let's go back
to our documentation to have anobjective conversation about this.
Am I thinking in a process mindset inwhich, like we talked about, I know John
is a stakeholder in this process and he'sgonna need to have, a few more materials
that I was really not thinking about hissuccess in the step that I'm completing.
(33:49):
Handoffs, what technologythis is being facilitated in.
So the ability to have a process mindsetand just click a button and install
a process mindset would be fantastic,but really you don't get to that
process mindset like we talked about,you have to go through the small wins.
Get the team buy-in, make sure theyunderstand how to have this mindset.
(34:10):
Make sure that they understand whyit's important, how it affects them.
Sometimes you have to tell people seventimes before they hear it the first time.
That is the mostchallenging part about this.
But if you can combine a really strongprocess, mindset, culture at your company
with a great framework to then actuallygo about and document your processes.
(34:33):
It self multiplies.
So this knowledge base where we putthese processes in, we build it out,
stand it up for the client, helpthem install that process mindset.
Then after that we'll check backin three months and the thing
will have just completely doubled.
Just based on the fact that folksunderstand what it's all about, they
(34:53):
now have the ability to go in andmake process changes as they see
fit, amongst their team, and theyunderstand what the true use and value
is of having a knowledge base withthese processes documented within.
If we could install thatovernight, that'd be my magic wand.
But , I don't know the pricetag that we would be able to
(35:13):
charge for something like that.
I think it would shock some people.
But you know, they have to go throughit and live it to see the value of that.
And that's why what we do is it can bedifficult on the sales side of things.
I get it.
That's a cool idea.
How does that affect my bottom line today?
Then you have to explain, there will besome ROI wins, but there's gonna be a heck
(35:33):
of a lot, you're not even gonna realizeabout going through this process with us.
You're gonna learn about your business.
It's gonna inspire confidence like agood golf club would, and really get your
people thinking in the right direction.
So if I could wave that wand,that's my magic wand right there.
Dr John Dentico (35:49):
Great.
Yeah, it's funny.
You should hit that on the number seven.
There's there's a psycholpsychological rule.
I remember reading years ago called,called the Issue of seven, or.
And what that meant was,or the rule of seven.
Stated that way, the rule of seven.
And that says that if you want tochange your behavior, you have to take
(36:10):
a deliberate intended action to overcomethat behavior at least seven times.
Before it sticks, before your brainsays, okay, that's a new behavior.
So it's very interesting thatyou hit on that and, and I think
it's, it's very worthwhile.
I, I'm on board completely.
Process to me is the key.
(36:32):
If you can, if I, in my workin leadership, if I can teach
people a process, this is howyou do strategic thinking.
This is how you can change cultureusing a three or four step formula.,
you know, those kinds of thingsthen people, you can do this.
See, that's the thing Iwanna put in people's hands.
(36:55):
You can do this.
You just have to want to do it andunderstand how important it is to do.
And once people get believed, boy,once you get them turned on and they
start to believe and they say, yeah.
Now I know I can do this.
I know it works.
Things magically start to happen.
You build that wonderful capabilityand the belief in the system and that
(37:19):
critical mass where people can take it,then they take it to the next level.
Adam Schweickert (37:24):
They think in terms of process and or frameworks, a thinking
framework, a thinking path, right?
And that's, if you can install thatamongst people and allow them to teach
them to fish through that lens, you'rereally creating a self-sustainable
company or, folks who can go outthere and fish for themselves, where.
You don't have to always be the person tohave to coach them through their problems.
(37:46):
They can think throughtheir problems themselves.
So you're enabling people to, createbetter outcomes for themselves.
Dr John Dentico (37:52):
And I hope and pray that it also teaches them that it's
okay to find mistakes or to findproblems and surface those, no blame.
We're not blaming anybody here,stuff happens all the time.
So we're not here to blame anybody.
We're here to say, oh, we discovered this.
(38:12):
We gotta change that.
Boom.
Let's do that.
Let's not look around.
Oh, you is you.
No.
We don't need any of that stuff.
We need, what we need ispeople to say, let's go action.
I like to say easy on thepeople, relentless on the tasks.
And I think you just haveto, you just have to do that.
So it's, it's really important.
Adam, this has been a joy to quoteClint Eastwood, you made my day.
(38:34):
And, I want to thank you so very muchfor taking the time today, here on
the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
I wish you all the greatestsuccess, you and your company,
your family in the future.
I hope all good things come to you.
Thank you so very much.
Adam Schweickert (38:49):
Thank you, John for having me.
It's been a pleasure.
Welcome to the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
Our theme for 2025 is The Futureof Work: Meaning is the New Money!
In a world shaped by rapid innovation andconstant change the pursuit of purpose
and impact has never been more important.
I'm Dr John Dentico your host,bringing over 30 years of experience
(00:28):
in leadership, strategic thinkingand purpose-driven innovation.
Here we tackle the pressing challengesof our time-from the rise of
artificial intelligence to the growingneed for meaning in the workplace.
Together we'll uncover how leaderscan ethically integrate AI to enhance
decision-making and keep humanityat the heart of their organizations.
(00:51):
Remember amidst all thetechnological advancements in the
end, it's always about the people.
This podcast is your resource foractionable tools, thought provoking
discussions and inspiring stories.
It's time to go beyond leadershipdevelopment and focus on leadership
(01:11):
impact-creating workplaces where peoplethrive, innovation flourishes and
meaning truly becomes the new currency.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Now, let's Throttle Up anddive into today's episode.
Hello again and welcome theThrottle Up Leadership Podcast.
This is Dr John Dentico your host.
(01:34):
With me today is Adam Schweickert,the founder of Build the Process
and Creator of DocuLaunch a provenwhite glove framework designed to
help service-based businesses with 10to 50 employees document their core
processes the right way in just 90 days.
(01:55):
With a background in businessdevelopment operations and tech
systems, Adam has spent years workingwith growing companies, especially
those running on EOS, and he's seenone challenge come up time and again.
They know process, documentationmatters, but they can't seem
(02:16):
to get it done internally.
That's where DocuLaunch comes in.
Adam and his fractional team bringclarity and structure to chaotic
operations by aligning teams, facilitatingkey conversations and , capturing
tribal knowledge using a streamlined20/80 format all centralized in
(02:37):
one updateable source of truth.
Raised in a small town of Peru,Illinois by a stone mason and a realtor.
Adam learned early the value ofhumility, industriousness, and integrity.
He since built multiple businessesacross sectors like operations,
automation, and real estate.
(02:58):
All rooted in his passion for helpingcompanies scale through systemization.
Adam is a strategic coach, participantand OnDeck, No Code Fellow, always
learning and connecting with forwardthinking leaders, whether he's talking
about operational efficiency, teamalignment, or knowledge retention.
(03:19):
Adam Equips CEOs and operationsleaders with tactical strategies
to eliminate blind spots andunlock business scalability.
I am truly pleased and honored to havehim here with me today on the podcast.
Good afternoon, Adam.
How are you?
Adam Schweickert (03:37):
Good afternoon, Dr. John.
Thank you for having me.
What a beautiful introduction that was.
I'm gonna have to, get the recording ofthis and share that with my wife 'cause
I'm sure she'll love to hear that as
Dr John Dentico (03:48):
I'll send it to you and you can post it on the refrigerator.
How's
Adam Schweickert (03:52):
that.
I love that.
But it's good to be here with you.
Thanks for having me.
Dr John Dentico (03:56):
Oh, thanks for being here.
And by the way, just please call me John.
I appreciate that.
The, the doctor thing, but I only useit when I make dinner reservations
'cause it gets me a good table.
So let's start off with, a little bitof review and sort of my personal touch
this year in the podcast and this,you've already, I've already mentioned
that you grew up in per Peru, Illinois.
(04:16):
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
We know it's Peru it, and what aresome of the influences, in your life?
Adam Schweickert (04:23):
Yeah, growing up in Peru, Illinois, which is a small
town in North central Illinois,about two hours southwest of Chicago.
Growing up in that town gave me fantasticperspective, especially being raised by
my two parents, a stone mason, German.
My father had 12 siblings of which.
Eight, were in the trades of, masonry.
(04:46):
My mom, fantastic woman.
She is a realtor herself.
My grandmother was a realtor,so I've got a great tradition
of real estate in our family.
My mom also has had rheumatoid arthritissevere since the age of two, so , I've
grown up watching my parents workincredibly hard fighting through some
challenges when it wasn't always fun toget up, painful days, things like that.
(05:09):
She ran a nonprofit of, a charity calledThe Arthritis Foundation in my hometown.
So growing up with that perspectivejust really entrenched me
with the values I have today.
I had a lot of great perspective workingup on job sites, growing up on job sites,
probably, moving a few too many bricksthan the labor unions would like to know,
(05:31):
but that taught me a lot of things, whatI wanna do and what I don't want to do.
And so I, I think what we're here todo is, is talk about a little bit more
business automation, that side of things,which is clearly the opposite of what
I found I didn't wanna do, which wasmanual labor for the rest of my life.
So great values coming up with my parents.
Dr John Dentico (05:50):
Hey, I get it.
I understand, the lessons you learnin early life stay with you forever.
You know, certainly, there's thisperspective that a child's personality
form between the ages of three andeight, and so those early years matter,
they matter a lot, and I you carrywith it for the rest of your life.
(06:10):
Let me ask you this question.
You created the DocuLaunch frameworkto help small businesses document
their processes in just 90 days.
What inspired you to develop thissystem and why is documentation such
a common struggle for growing teams?
Adam Schweickert (06:29):
Yeah, well, really what inspired me is kind
of takes me all the way back to myfirst job out of school in college.
I went to the University of Iowa whereI was working at a wealth management
firm where they had a consultantcome in and that person said, who
knows how to do the things here,where are your processes documented?
And everyone just pointed to thatyoung guy in the corner and was
(06:52):
like, Hey, Adam does a lot of that.
So, he's the guy to talk to.
And of course, I didn'thave any of it written down.
So that's really, I was started bysolving my pain point the first time,
at my first job outta school, which was.
It's really powerful to have systemsand processes written down so you
don't have to be the bottlenecklike I was in that first job.
(07:12):
And so, from wealth management, Itransitioned to a, a few different
industries between real estate andthen into a consulting job for a
boutique firm here in Chicago where Iwas fortunate enough to see the inside
of many small business operations.
And while we were there toreally look at the whole house.
What I found was every single company,it all comes down to process, right?
(07:38):
And every single company was pretty muchin that same boat that I was coming outta
school where nothing was written down.
The engine moves.
It's maybe not the most tuned up enginelike businesses can get by despite not
having documented, well-oiled processes,but to really take it to the next
level, to capture those, get everyoneinto alignment on the best way to do
(08:01):
things and really create a cohesiveexperience throughout a process is
really what can turbocharge businesses.
And so I, I started outsolving my own problem.
Got into a few other companiessaw that they had the own the same
problem as I, and I was like, maybethere's a pattern here of which maybe
we need to build a service around.
(08:21):
And , so many companies get so overwhelmedthinking about writing their processes
down, documenting their processes.
How the heck do you even go about that?
It was my goal to oversimplify thatprocess and create a little bit more of a
structure teams could follow to actuallyget done this whole process, documentation
(08:41):
black box that nobody could figure out.
Up to this point
Dr John Dentico (08:45):
Great answer.
I, for me, leadership is a process.
Adam Schweickert (08:50):
it is.
Dr John Dentico (08:51):
Leadership is a process.
it, it has very little to dowith traits, charisma styles.
I know that's, that's heresy in theleadership world, but if you can, , and
I'm a very much a learn by doing guyif you learn how to do the process.
If you learn different practices,put them into implementation,
guess what you're doing leadership.
(09:14):
You're really you are taking an ideaand saying, here's the first thing
we're gonna do, and people are stymied.
I think from my experiencewith the how to.
How do you do this?
What do we do first?
Those kinds of things.
So I'm with you.
I'm on board with that.
That leadership is a process.
I, I have to ask you this questionat this point, and that is, what
(09:38):
do you see in your work is theimplication of artificial intelligence
in what you do and how you do it?
How is that gonna change yourbusiness or even DocuLaunch?
Adam Schweickert (09:55):
Yeah, I'd say that it's a two-pronged approach because
when we come into companies, we comein to mine the information out of
people's heads to say, Hey, subjectmatter expert, tell me about what,
what happens in your day to day?
So it's, it's the capturing of that,which is really what DocuLaunch is all
about, is capturing that tribal knowledge.
And so I. The advent, the advent ofAI as part of that captures, helped
(10:20):
us in a couple different ways.
Number one, when we start with clients,they provide us with their current
existing documentation and what theythink is their list of core processes.
We now have a custom GPT builton the backend of, we use Claude,
AI as our, our platform for this,where we've trained that GPT to say,
(10:41):
here's what good looks like afterwe take ,the existing documentation
from clients, it's all messy.
Take this information and kick out areally good starting point for us to then
facilitate a conversation with the clientso we don't have to spend, admitted.
We just spent like five, six hourslooking at this documentation going crazy.
Whereas now we spit that into ourcustom GPT, which we've trained to
(11:05):
give us a good output, and now wehave a really good basis to start.
So it's saved us a ton of hours juston our service delivery side of things.
Now when we take that list and wework with these clients using, like
Fathom or an AI transcriber basedon your, zoom meeting notes, things
like that has been fantastic for us.
It, it captures a ton of that information.
(11:27):
So that's been a great,use of AI for us as well.
And then once we're able to go throughthose live working sessions with
clients, capture their processes,package them up into that knowledge base.
It's then time to apply a lens whichgoes, call it DocuLaunch Plus of how can
we take now this well-defined processand poke holes in it to say, how could
(11:49):
this business leverage AI and theiroperation to turbocharge even further?
So you have the initial build out phaseof what the heck do we actually do here?
Let's get everybody on thesame page and capture that.
And then we have level two, which is afterDocuLaunch, how can we apply a lens to
say, you got a lot of opportunity in thisbusiness that you don't even realize.
(12:12):
But the first step was realizing thatyou even had the opportunity and you
couldn't realize that opportunitywithout getting these things documented.
So that's how AI is changing ourbusiness personally, and then our
client's businesses into the future.
Dr John Dentico (12:27):
Brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.
I, I think I had not thought about that,but, but capturing the information from
people and then having an AI assistantsay, this is what this looks like.
Adam Schweickert (12:41):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (12:42):
And right now, and this is how it could look, is brilliant.
It is a great idea.
I don't know if you're familiarwith the gentleman by the name of W.
Edwards Deming, do you know that name?
He was the creator ofstatistical process control.
The grandfather of SixSigma, those kinds of things.
And, and his, his route to qualitycontrol was map the process.
(13:09):
Map the process and figure outwhat's wrong in the process.
And if you do that, thenthe output will be good.
Don't so focus on the output that you'retrying to manhandle, if you will, the
output without going back and tryingto understand what's wrong with the
process that's giving you bad output.
So I absolutely see thatas a, a breakthrough.
(13:32):
Go ahead.
Adam Schweickert (13:32):
And I, and I think so many times in our day-to-day, as,
as business leaders, we're so used tothe, the firefighting that happens.
And you fight the fire.
You put out the fire, which is,you said, addressing the output.
Right.
You fix that problem today.
Great.
No one ever wants totake time to zoom out.
(13:53):
Go DocuLaunch level on it and say,let's be really objective around how
we even got to this point, and maybewe can figure out, our issue there.
So I completely agree.
And, and it's, it's just the day-to-daygets so fast and you're moving so
quickly that you are trying to controlthe outputs when you're really not
addressing the root cause, which is thefoundation of everything in your business.
Dr John Dentico (14:16):
All right.
Yeah.
You wind up being a firefighter ininstead of someone who's trying to say,
if we do this, we can avoid fires, thatwe don't have to worry about the fires.
Because , it'll be takencare of, so that's great.
You specialize in working withservice-based businesses running EOS.
Why do companies using EOS oftenhit roadblocks with process
(14:38):
documentation, and how do you helpthem overcome those challenges?
Maybe a bit redundant, but let'speel that onion back a little bit.
Adam Schweickert (14:45):
Yeah.
So EOS stands for the EntrepreneurialOperating System, which is based
on a framework laid out in the bookcalled Traction by Gino Wickman.
Now, EOS businesses aren'tnecessarily different than any
other business from just a, insand outs sort of a standpoint here.
But EOS businesses run on a certainframework where they structure
(15:09):
their meeting cadence differently.
They have a very structuredapproach to annual planning.
How they review data and metrics withintheir companies is very regimented,
within an EOS business, there aresix key components one of which
is called the process component.
And so it's not to say EOS businessesfind themselves in more trouble with
process than any other company runningthat's not on EOS, but what's different
(15:34):
about EOS businesses is that due to theEOS model, they truly understand why
process is important because it is oneof the six key components as laid out
in this model that tells them that youhave to be strong in all six of these
key components within your business.
So they tend to enjoy or not enjoy.
Nobody really enjoys process allthat much, but they tend to approach
(15:58):
process with the understandingthat it is important, rather than
trying to convince another businesswho's not on the same page running
on EOS that process is important.
So that's why we like to startwith companies running on EOS.
Now, the second half of that questionis what do they typically go wrong?
And like most businesses, likewe just talked about, it's it's
(16:18):
the firefighting, it's, it's justthe never stopping to back up.
And it's so cliche, work on thebusiness, they're always in the business.
And I'll no more cliches, I promise,but where companies go wrong is even
if they do want to stop backup and workon the business, they don't necessarily
have the right framework or lens to dothat through as it pertains to process.
(16:42):
So what you get is a lot of departmentheads in silos of the business and corners
of the business, trying to write downprocess the way that they see fit, the
way that they think is best to, conveyideas and material to their people where.
That's not just one cohesive,here's the formats you use.
(17:03):
Here's how we wanna do it.
Here's the right mindset tohave, and here's the timeline
that we need it done by.
Nobody thinks about that.
It's go over there and document yourprocesses and we'll see in a little bit.
And that's honestly more thana lot of companies have done.
So where they've usually go wrong as nothaving much of a framework to actually
capture their processes and get it done.
Dr John Dentico (17:25):
Process mapping the ability to.
Process mapping, that's where it's at.
I had a colleague of mine, Iworked with for a number of years.
We traveled the country, did some trainingtogether, but he was also, that was
his part-time job as you would call it.
And his full-time job was, he wasworking in security in the largest,
(17:45):
metropolitan transportation systemin the country , in New York.
And, I was, we were talking aboutprocessing mapping one time and he picked
up on it and, and he, it is a great story.
He goes back and he says to thesepeople, look, let's map out what we do.
Get a big piece of paper, put it on thewall, and let's map out the process.
(18:07):
And that's what he did.
He did process mapping.
Perfect.
Great,
Adam Schweickert (18:09):
Love that.
Dr John Dentico (18:10):
And then he said, okay, how would we change it to make it better?
What would we do that's differentand not from a, from specific
individual chunks that he took.
In other words, you didn'ttake the whole organization.
He said, let's talk about thisparticular aspect of what we do.
How does that happen?
(18:31):
And then, and that's what they did.
And then what he did, hestepped it up and he said, okay,
you've decided you've made this.
Change outlined what this change is.
Now what do we have to do to implement it?
And then, and he said, slowly butsurely, you could see the gains that
we were making even a little bit here.
Systemic, I call it systemicinference, make a change over here.
(18:53):
It kinda makes a change over every place.
So things were getting better alongthe way and, and he vested people
in the interest in the outcome.
Okay, this is, this is your project.
This belongs to you.
What do we do?
And great.
Created wonderful enthusiasm for it aswell, and made some really substantial
(19:13):
changes and saved the organizationsmillions of dollars by doing it.
Adam Schweickert (19:18):
That's
Dr John Dentico (19:18):
reflection on that?
Adam Schweickert (19:20):
Yeah, no, I think in the moment when you're, when you're
staring at this process problem in yourbusiness, to be able to zoom out, like
your colleague, map it out, and thenalso not eat the entire elephant at once.
You don't have to solve allyour problems in one day.
You gotta break it upinto bite-size pieces.
' cause that's the only way you can actuallyget this done and, motivate people to.
(19:42):
Take on this endeavor with you.
And so to your point there too,process mapping is step one.
Then it's how do we go from currentstate to where we want to get future
state and creating accountabilityaround that and the implementation and
change management that comes with it.
It's so many layers of complexity as towhy process change is so difficult for
(20:04):
many companies is just because we canwrite it down, but that doesn't mean
anything until we put people into actionand movement and actually take action
on what we talked about here and holdingthose people accountable and following up
to make sure that they made those changes.
It's, it can be exhausting, but I thinkthat's where, if you can install a strong
(20:25):
process, culture is what we like to callit at your company, which is where people
think in terms of process, they think ifAdam does one thing, what does John do?
Who's two steps away from me?
What, what is he gonna need?
What is he gonna wanna see?
What types of resources do Ineed to pass to him to make
sure that he can do his job?
Those are the types of ways wewant people thinking, right?
(20:46):
Or if something goes wrong.
Let's go back to the process andthink about that versus putting
on the firefighter helmet.
There's a lot that goes into it, butyou said, it's, it's the execution.
Once, once you've actually gotten theprocesses mapped, that really makes
a difference throughout the company.
Dr John Dentico (21:02):
Yeah.
And, and part of that is a, anyprocess, any new process is a learning.
You have to learn what's gonnahappen, what are the results.
We put this process in place.
So one of the things you wanna dois at some point in the back of your
mind, you have to build a criticalmass of belief in the process.
(21:23):
So exactly what you said.
So let's not hug the elephant all at once.
Here.
Let's take a little piece and let's build.
Let's learn from that.
Let's build belief that it works andwe're gonna get good results out of it.
Because part of that learning, part ofthat belief builds that critical mass.
(21:44):
When people say, you know what?
This stuff matters,
Adam Schweickert (21:48):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (21:49):
and, and you start to transform into a process culture, the
more believers you bring along, youknow, as I know, as you're shaking your
head, and I agree with you a hundredpercent, you've gotta bring them along.
You just can't say, here it is.
Go, no, here.
We're gonna learn together.
We're gonna move down the road.
We're gonna learn this process,we're gonna see what it does for us.
(22:11):
We'll make some, we'll tweak it.
We'll make some changes as, as we needto, but once people say it works and
it, it's really giving us somethingwe never had before, then there'll be
this rush to get behind it and say,we gotta do a lot more about this.
Any, any thoughts on that?
Adam Schweickert (22:30):
one.
Once people can feel they can see itand they can feel it, and how it changes
their day to day, they're like, wow.
That I like to say, the thing thatused to be really wonky isn't wonky
anymore and it actually works for us.
Is, I know you're all about, talkingabout real people , in their day to day
and how we can improve their day to day.
If, if my day to day is used technicalterms, less wonky and has a lot less
(22:54):
friction than it did, a month ago,then when we started this process,
then I can buy into that 'cause.
I feel that for me versus,oh, , this is something nice
for the greater company, great.
Maybe it's gonna savethe owners some money.
But people feel the momentum, they getthat building, you build that process
culture, and then it just self multiplies,amongst itself within the company.
(23:16):
So.
Dr John Dentico (23:16):
I agree and and what you're doing too as well is
you're igniting, from my perspective,the greatest motivation force
on the planet, which is meaning.
People say, I matter.
If we did this process,we made the changes.
I made some recommendations,we implemented it.
I matter.
I matter to the work.
Like you said, I get the feeling.
(23:38):
I know I matter.
I know I saw this thing transform.
I saw this thing change, and thereis nothing that turns that off.
I mean, that is a super, that's asupernova looking for a place to happen
in terms of how people feel and howthey want to now do more with it.
We're on the same page.
We're orbiting the same planets.
I absolutely agree with you.
(23:59):
Let me ask you this question.
You've built businesses in multipleindustries, including operations,
real estate, and automation.
How has that cross sector experienceinfluenced your approach to
systemization and scalability?
Adam Schweickert (24:16):
Yeah.
What I, what I really realizedtransitioning across so many industries
and businesses is that I say, while maybeit's a different model car, it's the same
chassis at the end of the day, right?
Our approach has really been moldedsince that first day I was tasked
to go document core processeswhere, for us it's the fundamentals.
(24:39):
It's getting the stakeholders whoknow how to do the things in one room
facilitating a conversation aroundwhat the process is, thinking in
terms of process handoffs, who's next?
Accountability, how are we tracking this?
Those sorts of things.
And really just to try to simplify asmuch as possible because what you can't
(25:00):
do is say, oh, this only works forthe real estate industry, or oh, this
only works for the finance industry.
You have to come up with a framework thattranscends all industries, and that's
really how we've molded DocuLaunch tosay is, look, here's the game board.
We'll call it a 90 day game board.
We're gonna meet on Tuesdaysand Thursdays for one hour.
(25:22):
We need subject matter experts in theroom thinking this, and using this
template to write their processes down.
That's about as across the boardas we could get when it comes
to, extracting that knowledge.
And so that's really been the biggestlesson is, you might think your business
is super, super special or complex,but at the end of the day, we're all
(25:43):
just filling the same game board here,and if we can fill this game board,
we can get to documented processes soit's that experience across all those
industries that's really allowed usto really cut to the most common vein
of getting these processes documented.
Dr John Dentico (25:59):
Yeah, and the things that you discover along the
way can be, as I'm sure you've re,you've, experienced eyeopening,
Adam Schweickert (26:07):
totally.
Dr John Dentico (26:09):
I didn't know you telling me we do this and then we do that.
Where did that come from?
We, we never, I never knew that.
You, I'm sure you've seen that, thatexpression on so many faces, right?
Adam Schweickert (26:22):
I think honestly, clients think that they're paying us to
help them document their processes, butI think that, we should really look to
get on approved for some insurance plans.
'cause we're a therapistat the end of the day.
Yeah.
And I think that's.
That's the aha moment they have.
' cause leading up to our engagementand getting started, they're giving
us documents, they're giving us theirold notes, and they're like, okay,
(26:44):
I think I know how this is gonna go.
And then we get to session oneand we have that first session
and they're like, ah, got it.
This is exactly what we're doing here.
And I see the value now because our teamwould've never had this conversation if
we didn't have a third party in the roomasking us questions we wouldn't have
(27:04):
thought to ask ourselves, forcing usto sit here and have this conversation.
Forcing is a little strong.
Everybody has a good time on thesesessions, I promise you that.
Just really facilitating from a thirdparty perspective, these blind spots in
our business that we didn't know we have.
And so it's a huge value out of it.
Is, is really the therapeuticrelease I think people get as
(27:25):
they go through this process.
With us, it's a double whammy and I thinkcreates so much nice cohesion through
the company once they're able to, kindof get on the same page with all their
teammates that they're working with.
Dr John Dentico (27:37):
Yeah, and I think the, the hidden ones, the invisible ones
to me, are worth their weight in gold.
Adam Schweickert (27:42):
Totally.
Dr John Dentico (27:43):
It's the surprise factor.
You know, you they discover somethingand they go, I didn't know we did that.
Bob, did you know, did you,Jane, did you know we did?
No, I didn't know we did that.
Adam Schweickert (27:56):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (27:57):
And all of a sudden there's enlightenment,
Adam Schweickert (28:02):
Yeah.
Dr John Dentico (28:03):
there's this realization that.
Oh, like you say, now I knowwhy these folks are here.
They just helped us discover that wedon't understand our own processes.
I was working with a company last year,a fence building company, and I have
developed a strategic thinking process.
Adam Schweickert (28:24):
Great.
Dr John Dentico (28:25):
And I, I've used on several occasions
and it's very successful.
And the difference, the difference betweenstrategic planning is you're looking
for answers to questions where strategicthinking you're making so sure you're
asking yourself the right questions.
Right.
Adam Schweickert (28:39):
Love that.
Dr John Dentico (28:40):
So we, we were in this conference, we're in this, this group
and we're, we're talking together andthey came to realize that they themselves
internally were not organized enough.
They had to go back andreorganize themselves to gain
greater levels of efficiency
Adam Schweickert (28:59):
Mm-hmm.
Dr John Dentico (29:00):
in terms of organizing.
Most of the work that they did wasorganized with subcontractors and the
subs was stretched out in terms ofthe amount of time they needed to put
a fence in, and it was their fault.
It was the company's fault because theyhadn't got the materials there enough,
(29:24):
they hadn't got the lock systems in place,all those different kinds of things.
And once they realized that theywent to work now on redefining
their own processes, and theysaid we're the biggest problem.
And that was like, that was spiritual man.
Lemme tell you, it was spiritual.
They, in, in those terms.
So I appreciate that very much.
Adam Schweickert (29:44):
it's a reality check for many to go through this
filter, to go through your, yourprocess, go through our process.
It's, you're just holding up amirror sometimes for folks, and they
have that realization themselves.
You're just helping themget to that realization.
Dr John Dentico (29:57):
You emphasize the 20/80 documentation format.
Can you explain what that means andwhy it's so effective compared to
traditional documentation methods?
Adam Schweickert (30:10):
Yeah.
So the, the 20/80 method, not to beconfused with the the 80 20 rule,
the 2080 approach here is really anapproach prescribed by EOS to where
you're capturing the 20% of tasksthat create the 80% of results.
Now, why it's so important is becauseso many companies can go down.
(30:30):
It's really two rows thatwe see no documentation.
And the other road of Wow, we wroteourselves, basically the equivalent of
a Bible at our company that nobody uses.
And so it's striking a nice,happy medium between those two.
And so there's some examples up onour website and we have templates
if anyone wants to go check it out.
(30:52):
We give those templates out.
We use a visual chartingsoftware called Miro.
Totally free and available.
But really it's all about simplification.
And so when you use this templatethat's laid out, very simply, it allows
you to just capture the informationin three to seven words and what are
the major steps of this process here?
(31:14):
Okay, great.
Say no more.
We don't need to write anymore.
Stop.
Put your pen down.
Okay.
Now what are the steps that make upthese major steps of the process?
Again, we're writing three to sevenwords in these boxes, who's doing it?
And then two to three bullets of detail.
Why that's great in this 20/80 approachthat we take is that because it forces
(31:34):
you to fit within the guidelines andgutters, when you're bowling, right,
you can't mess it up, but you gotenough creative freedom to roll that
ball down the lane however you like.
I've seen many approaches to bowlingand still get to the pins, but at the
same time, not allow yourself to gototally off into the gutter where.
(31:55):
It's gonna be a total, wasteof time, gutter ball for you.
So that's striking that middleground balance is really where
retention comes in for folks.
So you're not having to spend hoursand hours on an onboarding session or by
yourself in the quarter on your first day.
It allows you to just come in,pick up any stakeholder, can figure
(32:15):
out what the process is, or pickout the level of detail they want
to ingest from the leadershiplevel down to the person doing it.
And so that's why we take that20/80 approach is it keeps
your blinders and guideposts on.
Dr John Dentico (32:27):
Yeah.
And I, and you have to limit itor else you can be overwhelmed,
like you say with the Bible.
It, it can be an overwhelming experienceand trying to forge your way through
that to try to find the necessaryinformation you need in order to
cogently make a decision is, it can be.
Can be challenging.
Well, we're getting to the end.
(32:48):
So I'd like to ask you my world famousquestion, and that is, in the world
of work that you deal in, if you hada magic wand and you could wave it
at any one of the issues specific towhat you do, what would that issue
be and why did you choose that?
Adam Schweickert (33:06):
Yeah, I think the, the biggest issue that we face is
not, is no longer around having aframework to go document your processes.
It's installing the process culture thatis so critical on the backend, right?
So it's getting people to think in termsof process when there's a breakdown.
(33:27):
Yes, we might have fire fought itin the moment, but let's go back
to our documentation to have anobjective conversation about this.
Am I thinking in a process mindset inwhich, like we talked about, I know John
is a stakeholder in this process and he'sgonna need to have, a few more materials
that I was really not thinking about hissuccess in the step that I'm completing.
(33:49):
Handoffs, what technologythis is being facilitated in.
So the ability to have a process mindsetand just click a button and install
a process mindset would be fantastic,but really you don't get to that
process mindset like we talked about,you have to go through the small wins.
Get the team buy-in, make sure theyunderstand how to have this mindset.
(34:10):
Make sure that they understand whyit's important, how it affects them.
Sometimes you have to tell people seventimes before they hear it the first time.
That is the mostchallenging part about this.
But if you can combine a really strongprocess, mindset, culture at your company
with a great framework to then actuallygo about and document your processes.
(34:33):
It self multiplies.
So this knowledge base where we putthese processes in, we build it out,
stand it up for the client, helpthem install that process mindset.
Then after that we'll check backin three months and the thing
will have just completely doubled.
Just based on the fact that folksunderstand what it's all about, they
(34:53):
now have the ability to go in andmake process changes as they see
fit, amongst their team, and theyunderstand what the true use and value
is of having a knowledge base withthese processes documented within.
If we could install thatovernight, that'd be my magic wand.
But , I don't know the pricetag that we would be able to
(35:13):
charge for something like that.
I think it would shock some people.
But you know, they have to go throughit and live it to see the value of that.
And that's why what we do is it can bedifficult on the sales side of things.
I get it.
That's a cool idea.
How does that affect my bottom line today?
Then you have to explain, there will besome ROI wins, but there's gonna be a heck
(35:33):
of a lot, you're not even gonna realizeabout going through this process with us.
You're gonna learn about your business.
It's gonna inspire confidence like agood golf club would, and really get your
people thinking in the right direction.
So if I could wave that wand,that's my magic wand right there.
Dr John Dentico (35:49):
Great.
Yeah, it's funny.
You should hit that on the number seven.
There's there's a psycholpsychological rule.
I remember reading years ago called,called the Issue of seven, or.
And what that meant was,or the rule of seven.
Stated that way, the rule of seven.
And that says that if you want tochange your behavior, you have to take
(36:10):
a deliberate intended action to overcomethat behavior at least seven times.
Before it sticks, before your brainsays, okay, that's a new behavior.
So it's very interesting thatyou hit on that and, and I think
it's, it's very worthwhile.
I, I'm on board completely.
Process to me is the key.
(36:32):
If you can, if I, in my workin leadership, if I can teach
people a process, this is howyou do strategic thinking.
This is how you can change cultureusing a three or four step formula.,
you know, those kinds of thingsthen people, you can do this.
See, that's the thing Iwanna put in people's hands.
(36:55):
You can do this.
You just have to want to do it andunderstand how important it is to do.
And once people get believed, boy,once you get them turned on and they
start to believe and they say, yeah.
Now I know I can do this.
I know it works.
Things magically start to happen.
You build that wonderful capabilityand the belief in the system and that
(37:19):
critical mass where people can take it,then they take it to the next level.
Adam Schweickert (37:24):
They think in terms of process and or frameworks, a thinking
framework, a thinking path, right?
And that's, if you can install thatamongst people and allow them to teach
them to fish through that lens, you'rereally creating a self-sustainable
company or, folks who can go outthere and fish for themselves, where.
You don't have to always be the person tohave to coach them through their problems.
(37:46):
They can think throughtheir problems themselves.
So you're enabling people to, createbetter outcomes for themselves.
Dr John Dentico (37:52):
And I hope and pray that it also teaches them that it's
okay to find mistakes or to findproblems and surface those, no blame.
We're not blaming anybody here,stuff happens all the time.
So we're not here to blame anybody.
We're here to say, oh, we discovered this.
(38:12):
We gotta change that.
Boom.
Let's do that.
Let's not look around.
Oh, you is you.
No.
We don't need any of that stuff.
We need, what we need ispeople to say, let's go action.
I like to say easy on thepeople, relentless on the tasks.
And I think you just haveto, you just have to do that.
So it's, it's really important.
Adam, this has been a joy to quoteClint Eastwood, you made my day.
(38:34):
And, I want to thank you so very muchfor taking the time today, here on
the Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.
I wish you all the greatestsuccess, you and your company,
your family in the future.
I hope all good things come to you.
Thank you so very much.
Adam Schweickert (38:49):
Thank you, John for having me.
It's been a pleasure.
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