Turning "How I Do It" Into "How We Do It"
Published by
Throne of Profit EditorialReviewed by
William Hassell
Founder & Chief Editor, Throne of Profit
Ask three people on a team how they handle the same task and you'll often get three different answers — each sincere, each "the way I've always done it." That's fine when it's one person. It's a problem when it's a business, because the customer's experience now depends on who happened to do the work. A business gets consistent the moment "how I do it" becomes "how we do it" — one agreed way, followed by everyone, instead of a dozen personal methods.
"HOW I DO IT" (×5 people) "HOW WE DO IT" (one standard)
method A ─┐ ┌─────────────┐
method B ─┤ │ one agreed │
method C ─┼──► inconsistent ► │ way, shared │ ──► consistent
method D ─┤ quality │ by everyone │ quality
method E ─┘ └─────────────┘Owner symptoms
The same task is done differently depending on who does it.
Quality and results vary person to person.
Everyone insists their way is the right way.
Why this happens
Personal methods form naturally — people figure out their own way and it works well enough, so it sticks. Nobody sets out to create inconsistency; it accumulates from everyone doing their best independently. Without a shared standard, "how I do it" is the default, and each person's version drifts a little further from everyone else's. The result is a business whose output depends on which individual produced it.
Common mistakes
Letting everyone keep their own method in the name of not micromanaging.
Imposing one way by decree without drawing on the team's best practices.
Standardizing the wrong version — the loudest person's, not the best one.
Business consequences
When work depends on who does it, the customer gets an inconsistent experience and you can't promise a reliable result. It also makes training impossible — there's no single "way" to teach — and it hides which method is actually best, since everyone's doing something different. The business can't improve a process it hasn't agreed on, so it never compounds its own learning.
How experienced operators think about it
They see a shared standard not as stifling people but as capturing the best of what the team already knows. Their approach is to find the best version of a process — often by combining what your strongest people do — agree on it together, and make it the way. They know consistency is a feature customers pay for, and that one good shared method beats five private ones.
Practical actions
Pick a task done many ways and gather how each person does it.
Build the best version together, drawing on what your best people do.
Agree on it as the standard — not imposed, but decided and adopted.
Make it the way, teach it, and improve it as a team over time.
Questions every owner should ask
Which tasks get done differently depending on who does them?
Have we agreed on a best way, or does everyone just use their own?
Whose method is actually best — and have we made it ours?
Frequently asked questions
Won't standardizing feel like micromanaging?
Not if the team helps build the standard from their own best practices. It's the opposite of micromanaging — you agree on the way once, then people run it without you hovering.
What if someone's personal method really is better?
Great — then that's a candidate for the shared standard. The goal isn't to flatten skill; it's to capture the best way and make it everyone's.
Related articles
It's All in Your Head (Systems) — the pillar.
Documentation People Actually Use — capturing the shared way.
Inconsistent Quality & Rework — what inconsistency costs.
Try a free Weekly Focus assessment
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