Discover the five-word question that sparks real systems thinking and turns team interruptions into solutions that sustain themselves.
You know that moment —
When a team member pings you for the fifth time about something you’ve already explained?
You sigh, answer again, and think… “Why am I still the bottleneck?”
It’s not that your team doesn’t care.
It’s that they’ve been trained to ask — not to think.
And the truth is…
Every time you solve a problem for them,
You teach them to come back for more.
There’s a better way.
In this week’s episode…
I share one question that rewires that pattern completely.
It’s a question I ask every time someone brings me a problem —
And it’s changed everything about how my business runs.
It stops the cycle of dependency.
It teaches systems thinking on the spot.
And it builds a culture where people come to you with solutions, not issues.
The shift is simple, but it’s not small.
It’s the difference between being the operator of your business —
And being the visionary again.
If you’re tired of feeling like the answer machine,
This conversation will help you reclaim your focus —
And your freedom.
🎧 Hear the full story and the five-word question that makes it possible.
Because systems aren’t just about efficiency.
They’re about energy —
And this one will give yours back.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: Systems Thinking That Builds Lasting Solutions
- The One Question That Changes Everything: Asking “What do we need to put in place, so you never have to ask me this question again?” develops staff into proactive problem-solvers, future-proofs your business and also improves efficiency.
- Create Living Knowledge Bases: Every time a question arises, build or add to an existing resource, e.g. an internal FAQ database that captures the solution and answer everyone can reference in the future. Build a system so it never has to be asked again.
- System Thinking = Freedom: When your team takes ownership of system creation, you reclaim time, reduce bottlenecks, and free yourself to focus on your visionary work.
- Embed Ownership Into Roles: Assign responsibility for maintaining and updating these resources within position agreements, as well as task matrices, to ensure long-term consistency and future-proof the system resource.
BEST MOMENTS: Systems Thinking in Action—Powerful Mindset Shifts
02:46 – 💬 “ I don't want to be somebody who is giving answers to questions. I want somebody who is there to solve big problems… I want to be the person who is leading the business and being the visionary.”
06:10 – 💬 “Can you see how amazing it would be if you sat in a meeting and someone came to you like that? They’re not bringing you the problem – they’re bringing you the solution.”
06:55 – 💬 “ That is a proper systems way of thinking. It's not about constraining people into systems. It's about empowering people.”
11:29 – 💬 “ We've created this incredible future-proofing system that covers every scenario that exists today, but also that may exist in the future, i.e. new products and services.”
TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW
00:00 The Challenge and the Question That Solves It
04:20 Training Staff in Systems Thinking
06:29 Creating a Culture of Problem-Solving
07:40 Equipping Staff to Create Value
09:29 Future Proofing Your Systems
11:48 Conclusion
Episode Transcript
Please note: This transcript was generated using automated transcription tools and may contain typographical errors or inaccurately captured words or phrases.
Dr Steve Day: In my work, I help entrepreneurs to turn their vision into operational flow without the conflict between control and creativity. That conflict can drain us and it can lead us to feel frustrated that we\'re not able to do our best visionary work. Because of constantly in the, in and outs and the operations outside the business.
Doing this, however, means that we need to, as micro business owners, be able to get our team to support us in creating our vision. To give us the time and head space to lean into that, to do our deepest work. And today I want to just talk through a simple framework. Which is in fact a simple phrase or question you can ask your staff.
When they possibly bring you a question during a one-to-one or a standard meeting. And how framing, your response in this particular way will start developing them into the systems thinking kind of mentality you need. In order for them to be part of the solution that allows you to do your greatest work.
The inspiration for this episode came from my comms meeting this morning. And that comms meeting is where I deal with all of my communications across all my channels. I have a comms assistant who goes through all my inboxes and my channels on social media. Gets rid of all the stuff that they can actually deal with. And comes back to me with the stuff they\'re unsure about how to proceed. Or things that I need to personally actually deal with. Because it\'s a personal question or there\'s no process around what it is that needs to be done.
And yesterday there was a query from a client about their subscription. About what they have access to, et cetera. And I realized that we hadn\'t actually documented how our comms assistant can actually find that information. And then reply directly back to the client. So I don\'t need to be involved. So when this question came up, I didn\'t say, okay, here is the answer to this. What I did was to use a phrase, which I think is one of the most powerful phrases that we as business owners. And if you\'re a manager, it\'ll be the same for you as well.
And the question is this, what do we need to put in place so you never have to ask me this question again. That is the opening up of the systems thinking mentality that we want in the business. I don\'t want to be somebody who is giving answers to questions, I want somebody who is there to solve big problems. I wanna be the person who is leading the business. And being the visionary of the business and coming up with the frameworks and coaching the clients. And doing all that stuff that I do best, that gets me into my zone of highest genius. So I can serve at the highest level and create the most value for the world.
So if I\'m constantly having to answer simple questions, that\'s gonna take time away and energy away. From me being able to do the stuff that I can only do or the stuff that I should be doing in the business. And so this one simple question. What do we need to put in place so that you never have to ask me this question again is a very, very powerful one. It puts the onus back onto the person who\'s asking the question. To start thinking through a holistic solution how do we manage uncertainty?
How do we systemize the process of managing uncertainty. And how do we then actually create the systems whenever they come up for whatever they\'re for so that they are never asked twice. In a very simple form you could just say like, oh, we just create an FAQ. When this question comes in, then this is what we do. But going level deeper than that is I want to create in my business people that are thinking in this way from the outset.
So if they ever get a query to something they don\'t know the answer to. Rather than asking the question, what should I do next? I want them to come up with a solution. And that solution could be something like, Hey, I\'ve received this query and I don\'t know what the answer is. I think we need an accessible resource, which explains the scenario behind this. So in this case it was like the different subscriptions level we have, what access they have in terms of coaching and calls, et cetera.
What their options are to upgrade or downgrade, et cetera. So it\'s basically creating, in this case, a sort of Wikipedia about our courses and stuff. And actually making that really accessible and making sure everybody knows about it. That\'s a very specific example, but keeping this generalized so it works for sort of any scenario. Instead of that person coming asking me, you know, what should I respond to this? That\'s like level one stuff. Level two is, Hey, I\'ve had this question. I\'ve looked at what I can find and I think I\'m gonna respond like this. Is this okay?
That\'s what I call the ideas over Issues framework. It\'s like they\'ve actually thought about the solution before they ask me the question. That\'s good, but better is for them to come and say to me, Hey, I\'ve had this question. I\'ve looked at the resources that are available. I couldn\'t find definitive answer to what I actually need.
My intention is to create a resource that\'s collates everything together. Check with you or the people involved to see, make sure that it is comprehensive and up to date. And to make sure that now when any question comes in related to this subject, they\'re directed to look at that resource. I also make sure that all the staff know about this, if it\'s relevant to their role and where to find it. And I\'ll put something in place to make sure it\'s regularly checked and updated. So therefore it doesn\'t become outta date, which could then give the wrong answers to questions. And we\'re gonna put this into X, Y, Z repository.
So for us, we have a, our knowledge base built into our community platform. And I\'ll make it private because it\'s only relevant to our company. This is the data I\'ve got so far or what I could find. Can you just fill in the gaps as I couldn\'t find this information anywhere. Or tell me where I should go and get it. Can you see how amazing that would be if you as a business owner sat in a meeting. And someone came to you like, this is a simple thing, just an FAQ, basically.
Like someone ask you a question, which they\'re asking for a reply to. That\'s all this is about. But if they come and present their question in that way, showing they\'ve not only thought about, going. And actually trying to figure this out yourself. But also thinking about how do I create the system so this never has to come up in conversation ever again.
What resources do I need to create? Where does this need to go? How do I communicate this with the team? How do I make sure it\'s kept up to date? That is a proper systems way of thinking. It\'s not about constraining people into systems, it\'s about empowering people. It\'s now saying that like any question that comes in about this type of topic. We now have something that you can go away and figure out how to answer it.
It\'s not providing every question with a specific answer and a template to every single question that comes in. That\'s restrictive. That doesn\'t allow people to just use that common sense to actually just be a part of the solution. To see maybe the gaps in the system that\'s created. And join them together themselves to create something that\'s meaningful.
So if you create something that\'s too rigid and something new comes in. Then there\'s no specific answer to something. And they may actually get a bit scared and not know what to do. Because everything else had a specific answer, but this thing doesn\'t. So I\'m gonna have to go and ask to see what I need to do next.
Whereas if you generalize stuff and create resources that people can go to find information in general, then people can then. Create their responses to specific questions by actually just using their common sense and looking at the data that\'s available. This is the way that I try to nurture and to train my team, to think.
To be a part of the systems creation within the business to create resources that are future proof, to create resources that prevent questions needing to be asked in meetings. And in doing this, we are creating people within the business that add value every single day. They are not bringing me problems anymore.
They\'re bringing me solutions that create the systems that last the lifetime of my business. Once this is in place, it means that I will never have to answer a question again about subscriptions. As long as that document\'s kept up to date. I\'m gonna put something in place to make sure this is reviewed regularly and educating me, maybe I\'m the one who\'s gonna come up with the new subscriptions. That\'s gonna be for the time being anyway.
So if I come up with a new subscription or change the access people have or whatever, I need to remember to go and update that. So that\'s part of the training, if you like. And it might not be me being responsible for, it might be to the marketing person, or it could be the sales person, like whoever is the manager of that system.
They need to be aware this now exists and they are responsible for keeping it up to date. And therefore going forward, whoever\'s in that role, it will be part of their job description to ensure this resource is maintained. And therefore each and every of these small systems that we create within the business, these resources, these wikis that we create, the documents, the knowledge base, whatever, it\'s. As long as they are set up correctly, they are future proofing our business.
So say we had a sales manager that was actually responsible for updating all of the overcoming objections questions that are used in our sales calls. We wanna make sure the next person coming in as the sales manager, is not only aware that that document exists. But on their job description, on their position agreement is actually explicitly stated that they are responsible for regularly updating that.
We wanna create a task on their task matrix to say, you know, every three months or every time a change happens, that is where it needs to be updated. So they are totally aware of it, that it\'s flagged up on a regular basis for \'em to keep that updated. And also, again, if that person leaves the next person coming in, it\'s obvious it needs to be done because it\'s part of their position agreement and it\'s already delegated to them on their task matrix.
So this systems thinking is how we constantly develop our business. We reduce the need for human intervention and input on anything that happens more than once. And also we create systems that cover more than just a scenario that\'s coming up today. So if we go back to the original scenario, this was a specific question about somebody on a specific subscription, and they were asking about what access they have to resources or to coaching, for example.
Now, this is a very specific scenario. However, by creating that document and thinking beyond this one scenario we\'re thinking like this could be anybody on any of our products ever. And they could ask any question about the access they have or about the options for upgrading downgrading. That\'s the resource we wanna make, and that can then be used whenever a question comes in.
So now on our comms management rules, it\'s any question about subscriptions, upgrading, downgrading, access to resources, access to coaching, et cetera. Anything that covering any of those scenarios, we just need to have one rule that says, go and look at this resource, and it\'ll tell you the answers that you need.
Therefore, we\'ve created this incredible future-proofing system that covers every scenario that exists today, but also that may exist in the future IE new products and services that we offer. And it also minimizes the amount of options, if you like, to actually think about where do I go to get the resource. So any question regarding subscriptions, we now know where to go.
Cool. That\'s it for today. If you\'ve enjoyed this episode, please do hit subscribe. Subscribing means that I know I\'m on the right track. I\'m actually creating content of value that you actually want to listen to, and I will do more of it. If you have found this useful, please do comment or leave us a review and just let me know what you\'d love to hear more about and I will do my best to please. Thank you so much and I\'ll see you next time.
VALUABLE RESOURCES
- For our ‘Ideas Over Issues Framework’, here's Our Best Guides, Frameworks, and Templates: https://sys.academy/guides
- Systemize Your Success Academy: https://join.sys.academy/
LINKS TO CONNECT WITH THE HOST
- Podcast: https://www.systemizeyoursuccess.com
- Website: https://systemsandoutsourcing.com/
- Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/systemsandoutsourcing/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/systemsandoutsourcing/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/systems_and_outsourcing/
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@drsteveday42
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drsteveday42
ABOUT THE HOST
Steve moved to Sweden in 2015 and transformed how he ran his businesses—switching to a fully remote model. A former NHS doctor, with a background in computing and property investing, he now helps overwhelmed business owners systemise and outsource effectively. Additionally, through his courses and coaching, Steve teaches how to automate operations and work with affordable virtual assistants, freeing up time and increasing profits. He runs his UK-based businesses remotely with support from a team of UK and Filipino VAs. He is also passionate about helping others build scalable, stress-free companies using smart systems and virtual support.
For more articles related to encouraging systems thinking and solutions-first mindset within your team, you may also like:
Why Your Team Can’t Work Without You—And How Systems Break the Cycle
How to Get Your Team to Solve Problems—Before You Even Ask: A Culture of Empowerment