Consulting Spotlight

Michael Bernzweig (00:01.587)
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I'd like to welcome everyone to this week's edition of the Consulting Spotlight. And I'm very pleased to be joined this week by Errol Allen with Errol Allen Consulting, joining us from Texas. Errol, for any of our listeners that may not be familiar with you or your organization, I was hoping maybe you could share a little bit of your backstory, a little bit of your...

journey along the way and what you do there at Aral Island Consulting.

Errol Allen (00:34.638)
For sure, Mike, for sure. Thanks for having me on your show today. I'm an operations consultant. My main focus is processes. How I got into this, this is just natural for me. I'm analytical by nature. So when I decided to leave corporate America back in 2011, I asked myself, what is it that you will do? And when were you having the most fun in corporate?

And it's when I was an operations analyst where I just looked at every day how we did what we did at that particular company. So here I am. People thought I had lost my mind. I was 53 at that point. People thought I was crazy.

Michael Bernzweig (01:20.634)
I think we all had that feeling. Everyone was like, what are we doing, right?

Errol Allen (01:23.374)
So, so here I am here in 2025 now, just still having fun. In my mind, processes make the world go round.

Michael Bernzweig (01:35.379)
I'm right there with you. think before we hit record on the episode, I gave you a little bit of my background and I'm a big, big process and procedure type of guy. think, you know, having the right structure in place, obviously for a lot of the listeners to the podcast, you know, understand that having the right process and procedure in place makes it easy to scale in an organization or an operation.

And not having the right process and procedure can absolutely tank a business faster than anything.

Errol Allen (02:12.738)
Yes, yes, yes. The phone will be ringing for the wrong reason, know.

Michael Bernzweig (02:18.229)
Exactly, exactly. So no, and it sounds like, you know, you've had quite a career and quite a journey, you know, over a wide range of industries, it sounds like, you know, and it sounds like a lot of the, the overall, you know, implementation of what you're doing is similar across different industries, but obviously has a lot of a lot of different

details. Can you give a little bit of an example where implementing process documentation properly has transformed a client's operations?

Errol Allen (02:57.614)
You know, the main thing in process documentation, I say there's three phases. The one is to identify your processes. The next one is to flow chart and analyze your processes and then document, right? So the most critical part is step number two, where your flow chart. So, you know, I can remember a particular situation with a client here in Houston. This has been a few years ago.

where we're about to flowchart and we have the right people in the room. And I'm sitting between two of the employees that did the same thing. They had identical jobs, right? And I asked the question, what is the trigger? Meaning what triggers that process? And they both said the same thing. And I said, okay, and then what happens? And they both said two different things.

And I was like, wait a minute, y'all do the same job and y'all sit so close to one another. So how is it that you're doing? And one looked around me and asked the other, why is that your next step? And she started explaining it. Right. And I said, okay, what's the best next step? Right. So we got agreement on there. And then that's when they realized we we've been doing things, just sitting here working and yet we're doing things differently.

Michael Bernzweig (04:10.26)
Yeah.

Errol Allen (04:26.582)
So the light bulb went off and everybody that was in the room, hey, we're working, but are we working in the best manner that we could be working, right? So the transformation happened in their mind, right? The mindset shifted because, okay, we need to do this for all of our processes, which is the goal.

Michael Bernzweig (04:41.845)
Right.

Michael Bernzweig (04:46.943)
And they had never taken the time until you took that mirror and shined it up for them to be able to really quantify what was going on. I love it. So what inspired you to focus on process documentation as a critical part of your business operations?

Errol Allen (04:56.908)
Right, right, right.

Errol Allen (05:08.398)
You know, it's just the way my head works. from my own things that I experienced when I was in corporate America, right? That I had this word, Mike. I would say, well, that's a disconnect, right? Because you don't understand that you impact me in doing your job. You impact me and you don't realize that I'm your internal customer. So if you don't give me what I need to do, what I need to do, that's a disconnect. So

It just felt like this is really, really important for people to understand how they impact one another within the organization, right? Not just having a process, but having, I call it an effective process. It's good for everybody that's involved, the people that are doing the work within the process, and then the people that are impacted by that process. You have to make sure it's good for everybody. So in just experiencing that for myself within whatever...

company I was working for, I'm like, there's probably a lot of companies where this exists. So because I love this so much, let's go do that to see who we can help to make sure their processes are both efficient and effective.

Michael Bernzweig (06:23.719)
And for an organ, so a couple of questions. So for an organization that's considering bringing a consultant in to work on some of these types of challenges, what is that decision making process that they either may be going through or should be going through to decide if they need to bring somebody in versus hiring somebody, you know, as an employee?

versus having somebody existing within the organization do it. What should they be thinking about?

Errol Allen (07:00.046)
What, okay, the first part of your question, what would trigger them to be considering, right? Either bringing somebody in or hiring somebody to do it internally. I like to look at what are our pain points, right? Where are we having the same issue over and over and over? And why is it that we're having that issue, right? So what are our pain points? And then in regards to do we...

Do we want to deal with a consultant or do we want to hire somebody to do it? I mean, kind of the choice is yours, right? If you, with a consultant and even with a new employee, cause that's still somebody from the outside, right? They don't know when you bring them in, they're brand new. They may not even know how you do things, but what either person can possibly bring are insights, right? And things.

Michael Bernzweig (07:35.477)
Right.

Michael Bernzweig (07:43.817)
Right.

Michael Bernzweig (07:55.317)
Hmm?

Errol Allen (07:59.47)
thinking the way maybe you haven't even been thinking, right? And asking a lot of questions, right? I'm a question, they should have never taught me who, what, when, where, how, and why in elementary school, right? Because I'm a question person. And you bring somebody in from the outside, whether it's a consultant or a new employee, they have an opportunity to ask a lot of questions that maybe people already there have not considered, or you're just working.

Michael Bernzweig (08:21.589)
Right.

Errol Allen (08:27.808)
Right? You're just working. you're not even slowing down to ask the question because you're just working. you insights is what either person could bring insights and the ability to ask questions.

Michael Bernzweig (08:42.599)
makes a lot of sense and I think, you know, a lot of times just having fresh perspectives and, you know, a sounding board is sometimes just half the battle. So as far as like tools of the trade, you know, tools like Visio and other solutions that help with process documentation and workflow, what are the tools of the trade that you typically...

bring to a project and what do see as some of the advantages compared to other solutions that might be out there?

Errol Allen (09:17.506)
You know, when, when, when we're, some people call it flow charting. Some people call it mapping. When we're doing flow charting or mapping, I use Visio. Visio is pretty easy to use, right? And when I'm with my clients, we're on zoom and I have Visio up on the screen so they can see what it is I'm doing as we're talking. So I'm flowing while we're talking. So Visio is pretty easy to get around in. Plus,

Michael Bernzweig (09:38.825)
Sure.

Errol Allen (09:47.726)
It's a Microsoft product. part of 365. So the client can get it too, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (09:53.639)
Yeah, it's compatible and it makes it easy to interact with clients. sense. And it's very powerful. I mean, at of the day.

Errol Allen (10:00.268)
Yes. So if they need to make any changes later on down the line, they don't need me to do it. They can just do it themselves. So I use Visio for flow chart. And then in the documentation part, it just depends on the client. Some people, for whatever reason, still like written documentation, written with screenshots, how a task is completed.

But then you can record now. Loom is a good tool to use to record and integrate when somebody's doing this.

Michael Bernzweig (10:34.079)
Sure.

Yeah, think we all love Loom. It's, you know, asynchronous. can, it could be whenever an idea pops into your head and you want to shoot it off to a client, you can do that. You could be halfway around the world. It could be the middle of the night somewhere else, but you know, when, when it's accessible, they grab that information and respond.

Errol Allen (10:44.258)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Errol Allen (10:54.168)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So it's you know, those are the two that I kind of lean to The video

Michael Bernzweig (11:02.645)
And how? Yeah, and as far as, you know, typical engagements, you know, are there different, you know, do clients typically engage with you for an ongoing period of time, or is it more project based, you know, what are the different scopes of the kinds of work that you're doing?

Errol Allen (11:28.012)
kind of had both project-based, just how long is it going to take us to deal with all of your processes? So with my class, we meet once a week, couple of hours, right? Same day, same time every week. That can tell you, it just depends on how many processes. That can take anywhere from eight months to a year, just depending on what we're working with. And then I've had others that they don't see no one let me go.

Michael Bernzweig (11:35.24)
Right.

Michael Bernzweig (11:50.089)
Sure.

Michael Bernzweig (11:55.093)
You become an integral part of what they're doing.

Errol Allen (11:58.828)
Yeah, I have one client in Alabama. He's been a client for this is starting the fourth year, right? So, you know, I sit in on his team meetings on Tuesday afternoon.

Michael Bernzweig (12:08.063)
Yeah.

Errol Allen (12:16.14)
He just won't let me go. He's turning to a good friend now. And we do other things too, right? Metrics.

Michael Bernzweig (12:23.732)
Yeah.

Errol Allen (12:26.604)
discussing his management skills, his management style.

Michael Bernzweig (12:30.293)
Yeah. And you know, if you bring in value and adding value and it's, making their business more efficient, whether you're implementing lean technologies or techniques or other types of, you know, ideas within the process that are helping them get to where they need to get to. I mean, you're a subject matter expert in what you do. So that's, that's the case. And it's, it's interesting. I had an experience in one of the businesses that I owned.

years ago and one of our warehouses was at full capacity and we were coming right up to the holidays and at the end of the day we thought we were going to have to severely scale the number of employees and we didn't know what we were doing. We brought in someone to go through our entire facility and a few days worth of consulting, they implemented a bunch of lean

practices and we were able to triple the volume with the same number of employees, which is just, you know, something that, you know, no matter how brilliant you feel you might be, you know, bringing in the right expert that's been there, done that, has the right expertise and experiences can make a huge difference in what you're doing and save money, you know, right to the bottom line.

Errol Allen (13:53.816)
You ready? Yeah.

Right? And make more money, right? Because you can process more now, right? So it's fun, right? You know, I think, you

Michael Bernzweig (13:59.007)
Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (14:05.685)
It is I mean seeing the the end results of what you do. I've been on both sides So can you walk us through your methodology for? Identifying which processes should be documented first in an organization. How do you you you walk into an organization? That's got all kinds of things going on and Where do you start?

Errol Allen (14:09.389)
Yes, yes.

Errol Allen (14:26.678)
You know, I like to start with pain points, right? What's making the phone ring for the wrong reasons? What's creating negative emails? are maybe your employees complaining about operations wise, right? Let's start with those first. And the reason why is you can get a bang real quick if you fix something that's a pain point.

Now your employees can see, hey, if we just put a little work into identifying what's going on, what's wrong, and then using, because employees have the answers anyway, they should wait for somebody to ask them. So yes. Yes. So when you can, like you just said, get a quick win, now your employees are more willing to participate. Right?

Michael Bernzweig (15:11.123)
Yeah, you're looking for those quick wins for initially. Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (15:24.81)
Sure.

Errol Allen (15:25.548)
because we need them to make it happen. So I like to deal with pain points first.

Michael Bernzweig (15:36.103)
makes a lot of sense. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, that, you know, really zeros in on a great way to get started. So as far as the rise of remote work over the last several years, how has that kind of changed the importance and approach, you know, the importance to, I guess maybe the importance and how you approach

Errol Allen (15:45.102)
Right.

Michael Bernzweig (16:02.591)
process documentation based on what's going on with remote workers.

Errol Allen (16:08.43)
Because people are more remote now, it's very, very important to have your processes documented for training purposes, right? Especially when you bring somebody new in, the first question is, my man, how will we train them to do their job? So if you document your processes and you create maybe a library of how to do tasks, right?

Michael Bernzweig (16:20.703)
Yeah.

Errol Allen (16:38.602)
Here's your role. Here's the seat you're sitting in here the task that you're responsible for doing and if you have all of your tasks Documented now, it's easy to train that person and now they have a reference point And you can verify that yes, they know how to do what we've asked them to do so It used to be in the old days, you know, you hired somebody they were right there in the office and you can

Michael Bernzweig (17:07.434)
Yep.

Errol Allen (17:07.448)
train them right there, but you know, very, very different now. So you still need to train people properly and document your processes and having that tool is very, important. I'm gonna stick with training, right? That's the quickest way for one of my clients to get in trouble with me is to not train your people properly and then set expectations for them. That's not.

Michael Bernzweig (17:34.077)
makes makes great sense and you know the workforce has changed and I think everything has to evolve with it as well as you know even even with what you're doing I mean I know you've been doing this for a while but you've probably seen quite an evolution over the years. What year did you start your business? What year did you get started? I probably should have asked you at the beginning.

Errol Allen (17:50.05)
Yes, you know.

Errol Allen (17:55.982)
2012 actually is when I started it. Yeah, 2012. Shaking it on, right?

Michael Bernzweig (17:59.25)
Interesting.

Michael Bernzweig (18:03.681)
So, you have my hair cut, so we're right there together, that's okay. So I guess the other question, like as far as organizations that are looking to scale, what role does process documentation play in that type of a scenario?

Errol Allen (18:08.556)
Yeah.

Errol Allen (18:27.094)
So once again, we go back to training, right? Usually scaling, a lot of times it means you're going to need more people, right? Whether you're scaling just in your one location or you're going to have various locations, either scenario, you're still going to need to train people, right, in how to do their job properly. So process documentation.

plays a big role in scaling. In my mind, you can't scale properly without process documentation, in my mind. You should look at McDonald's, Burger King, any of those guys. You can go anywhere in America and the process is still the same. It's still the same. How to make this, how to make that, it's the same wherever you go. And it's because they've documented everything.

Michael Bernzweig (19:22.879)
Yeah. So it's the same repeatable thing, no matter where you are and where you go. You're going to get the same coffee the same way in McDonald's, anywhere, anywhere around the world.

Errol Allen (19:28.878)
Right, right, right.

Errol Allen (19:35.884)
Right, right. So in my mind, you can't scale properly without process documentation.

Michael Bernzweig (19:44.447)
Got it, got it. Okay, and let me take a look here. See, because I know obviously we've covered a lot of things, but I also had a lot of questions come in from the audience, and I want to make sure we cover everything that people want to know. So that's okay. Yeah, I guess this is one thing I've seen come up a lot. How do you measure the ROI of process documentation initiatives, and what metrics should some of the listeners listening

Errol Allen (19:59.798)
Okay, you're safe, of course.

Michael Bernzweig (20:15.209)
be looking to track along the way.

Errol Allen (20:18.894)
I guess in my mind, what are the issues that you're having within your company? Can you put a dollar amount on that, Late deliveries, timing and meeting customers' expectations.

Michael Bernzweig (20:21.161)
That might be two questions.

Errol Allen (20:46.776)
can you put a dollar amount on that, right? How much is that costing you every month, every quarter, every year? And then when you put some focus on it and look at the process, make the process better and then document it and those things go away, then it's like, okay, how much money have you gotten back? Because you've taken the time to...

to look at your process. know, people say process documentation, but in my mind, documentation is the last step. You need to look at your processes, them out to see what you're doing before you document them, because you can document that process. So what is, how much money are you saving by putting some focus on your processes? And then not just money-wise, right?

employee morale wise. Because when people are not happy, they have a tendency to leave. And the goal is to retain your employees because the longer people are with you, the better they get at what they're doing, which creates a good situation internally, right? So what is that worth to your company?

And then just your ability to train people, right? What is that worth? So it's not always money, Money, a saving money, gaining money, that's good. But there's other things, know, return on investment wise that I think companies should be looking at, know, employee morale, employee retention, internal customer satisfaction.

which is gonna lead to external customer satisfaction. you look at all of those things, what is it worth to you to have all of that functioning in the proper manner? What is that worth?

Michael Bernzweig (22:59.431)
Makes makes good sense. So and and I'm pull on something you just said there. So you mentioned making sure that employees are happy. So how do you in obviously any change can cause cause disruption within an organization? How do you? You know, implement change and keep everyone engaged and heading in a good direction so that you're not.

not being thrown to the curb by the employees.

Errol Allen (23:33.858)
The key, Michael, I believe is involving them in the change. When I'm flow charting with my clients, I want the people that do the work in the session, the people that feed that process, and the people that are impacted by that process. I want them in the session. For two reasons. They know what's going on.

in regards to that process, what steps are being taken and why and how they know. And the other reason is you have automatic buy-in when you include them in the change, right? You have automatic, because they participated. We get in trouble when we don't include them. I'll give you an example. When I was in operations and was in corporate America, I was going look at this process one day. And I went to the manager of the

the department. This was a experiment, right? One of my experiments. I went to the manager. I said, Hey man, how does this process go? He started telling me and I'm flowing it out and have my laptop with me. I'm flowing it out. And I said, Okay, man, thank you. And then I went to his people, right? Hey y'all, how does this process go? And they start telling me, right? I'm flowing it out. The two maps were totally different, right? Totally different. So I go back to the meeting and I said,

And I thought you said it went the way you told me. He said it does. And I said, well, your people say it goes like this. And I showed him their map, right? And he said, wow, I guess I'm way off. And then my next question for him was, how much time you spend with your people while they're working? And so that was an experiment for me. And what I learned was, and I tell people now, there's a set of people that should never create processes alone. And that's management.

or the business owner, You should never create them alone because do you really know what's going on? So that little experiment taught me a whole lot and it's critical to include the people because you have automatic buying. Nobody wants something pushed on them, right? Especially when you're dealing with what they do. don't want that pushed on them. the more you can include them, the better outcome you have.

Michael Bernzweig (25:50.293)
Right.

Michael Bernzweig (25:56.467)
And can you give some examples of maybe like a before and after from a client that you worked with over the years that really is top of mind, you know, seeing just an amazing transformation, good or bad, you know, that you want to highlight.

Errol Allen (26:15.414)
You know, one example, Michael, there was this company, the sales people would sell the service, and then there was a department, had to onboard the new clients, right? And so I was in the onboarding area, and I'm asking, okay, what triggers this process for you to onboard?

where they get information from the salespeople. So my next question was, so how often do you get what you need to onboard properly? And one young lady said, never. I'm like, what do you mean never? And she said, you see these folders stacked on my desk. That's because I'm waiting on information that the salespeople didn't get. And there were like maybe 15 folders stacked on her desk. So she was not happy either, right? Because it was slowing her down.

And then, you know, people wonder why I was taking you so long to onboard these people, right? So I go to the sales manager who was one of the partners in the business. I said, hey man, you're killing, you're onboarding people over there. You're killing them because you're not giving them what they need to onboard your brand new client, your brand new client, right? And you can't charge your client anything for the services until they're onboarded, right? So.

You got a bad situation here. So I your homework is to go over there and sit there so they can talk to you about what's going on. The handoff is hard, right? In my mind, handoffs are very good.

Michael Bernzweig (27:52.979)
Yeah. Yeah. If there's a disconnect between sales and implementation that that's going to be.

Errol Allen (28:00.332)
Yeah. So he said to me, after he sat with them, he said, I did not know we were doing treating them the way we were. I'm like, okay, so what will you do different? I'm like, you, they told you everything they need. So it's up to you to make sure your salespeople get them what they need. Right. So that whole thing was reworked. Here's what you need to turn in.

in order for them to onboard a new client quickly. And if you don't do it, there's some repercussions for you as the salesperson, right? Because we can't make any money off of this clientele or onboard. So that whole thing changed for them, right? It just became, and the relationship between sales and onboarding changed because onboarding hated sales. They hated them, right? So when sales...

Michael Bernzweig (28:55.199)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it makes sense.

Errol Allen (28:59.158)
got a chance to, you know what, this is my internal customer. need to treat them better, right? Yeah, it's not just about my commission. I'm the starting point. And if I don't do my job properly in regards to my internal customer, then I'm more of a hindrance than I am a positive aspect of their process.

Michael Bernzweig (29:04.745)
Yeah, it was like a big unlock, I would think.

Michael Bernzweig (29:25.685)
that makes a lot of sense.

Errol Allen (29:27.02)
the process change and improve, the morale improved.

Michael Bernzweig (29:31.189)
So those were the results. I love it. So let me wrap up by asking this because you sit in a really unique position having been at this for some time and seeing where things were and where they're heading. What do you see as the future of process documentation, especially with the emergence of all of these new AI and automation tools?

Errol Allen (29:55.534)
I'm like, know, AI man, it's limitless, right? Who knows what you'll be able to do in regards to processes with AI, know, AI to the flow chart, right? You say something that just does it, right? Who knows where that's going, right? Automation, you know, every month something new is coming out in regards to...

process automation. It's limitless in my mind, Micah.

Michael Bernzweig (30:30.488)
Yeah, so all these tools that make the process of your process easier, but I think they still can't ask the right questions. think that's probably the big takeaway for me.

Errol Allen (30:44.172)
My thing with automation is don't automate a bad process, right? Flow it out first and then determine what parts of the process can be automated to make it faster, whatever. No matter how old we get, we're still like little kids in some respects, right? We see something new we wanted, we want it just like you saw your buddy with a new bike and your bike's still in good condition, but you want a new one, right?

Michael Bernzweig (31:05.823)
Sure.

Michael Bernzweig (31:12.82)
Hahaha!

Errol Allen (31:13.742)
So, know, I want it, it's new, I want it, want it, I want it, you know. And we have to be careful not to get excited about a shiny object because it's just a tool, right? The tool is only as good as what we, yeah. So.

Michael Bernzweig (31:24.605)
Yeah, just focus on the end result.

I love it. Well, this has been a lot of fun. mean, I think that was a really good deep dive. Really appreciate your joining us on the consulting spotlight today. So, Errol Allen from Errol Allen Consulting. I appreciate your joining us today and for anyone listening to the podcast, we're going to leave a link in the show notes for anybody that would like to get in touch and we'll

definitely be sure to include you in our next newsletter that's coming out on Monday. Anyone that's not signed up for the newsletter, can go to softwareoasis.com backslash subscribe and be in the know for everything going on in consulting. And thank you so much for your time, Errol.

Errol Allen (32:22.414)
Thank you for having me, this has been fun, I appreciate it.