285: From Chaos to Clarity: Transform Your Child Care Center with Effective Systems! With Dr. Andrea Dickerson

In this episode, Kate and Carrie sit down with Dr. Andrea Dickerson to chat about the real-life challenges of running childcare centers. They dive into why clear systems, workflows, and checklists are game-changers for staff retention and smooth operations. Andrea shares practical tips for spotting gaps and testing new processes. 

You’ll walk away with actionable steps and a sense of encouragement, like chatting with friends who really get it. 

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Transcript

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Marie 00:00:03  Welcome to Child Care Conversations, the podcast where early childhood leaders like you get real world strategies, honest talk and a whole lot of support. Whether you're running one center or many. We're here to help you lead with confidence and clarity. This episode is brought to you by this quarter's sponsor, playground. The all in one child care management software. We're all about managing monkeys and saving you time at your center. With this platform, you can. We're proud to partner with a team that's as committed to your success as we are. Learn more at Tri Playground Comm. Now let's get into today's conversation. One we think you're really going to love.

Kate 00:00:49  Welcome back. We are so glad to have you. Visiting us today. And today we have a guest, doctor Andrea Dickerson, who absolutely is one of the original. How to start a child care coaching consultants and been doing this thing for decades. definitely pre social media. And Carrie and I have had an opportunity to get to know Andrea over the last month or so, and we are excited to continue to build a partnership with her and with that.

Kate 00:01:20  Andrea, why don't you tell folks a little bit about who you are, where you are, what you do, but a little bit because we're going to talk a lot about you here in the next 20 minutes.

Andrea 00:01:30  All right. Well hello everybody. Thank you again, Carrie and Kate, for this moment and opportunity to be able to talk to your network. I'm really excited to just explain a little bit about who I am. Well, I owned and operated a child care program like many of your audience for about two decades, and then I retired in 2018. but while I was managing multiple locations, I also managed a nanny agency. And then I started traveling the world, working with child care owners and directors. And at first I was just like many of your clients, many of you, all this listening, just making sure that I did what I love. I just love child care. So I just made sure whatever I touched, I added child care to it. And then over time, I got really, really clear about my mission, my vision, my goal, and my superpower, which is helping child care business owners organize using a framework so that they can interject tools like AI so that they can improve their admin automation so that they can improve their staff retention in enrollment.

Andrea 00:02:38  So now that I've learned this framework and I implemented it in several childcare programs up to date, like 60, I've seen where this is a great need. Like owners, directors, they need this framework so that they too can have a level of freedom and accountability in their business. And then that's just my business side and then personally.

Kate 00:02:59  And.

Andrea 00:02:59  Then personally, I still operate in leadership every single day. in ministry, I'm a mom of one adult child. I look like I'm his friend. They always say, yo mama look so young. And that's just. I've just developed a routine that I work with. Just women everyday. Women. I work with women on developing a routine for success in life and in business. And that's just me in a nutshell.

Kate 00:03:22  I love that nutshell. That's just I don't know. Are you a walnut or a pecan? Okay, so. So, Andrea, when you talk about working with owners who need to set up systems, how does somebody listening, if you're a director, you're listening and you're not really sure if your owners got systems or not.

Kate 00:03:46  So you're trying to figure out if you should fast forward or stay listening. What might be a real clue to that director that their owner doesn't have systems in place, and that maybe they really need to make sure that they're getting out the paper or the pencil, and they're taking notes over the next 15 minutes.

Andrea 00:04:02  Yes. I want for you to get out pen, paper and take notes, because if you're a director and you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling like the owner and the CEO wants you to be the owner and CEO, when you really only signed up to be the director, then today's audio is for you. And then if you're a CEO and you're like, listen, I'm overwhelmed. I know I must be overwhelming my director because many CEOs started out as a center director, but they've never really managed a corporation. They've never really saw their business go beyond just 1 or 2 locations. So they're operating in a CEO role that lacks vision. So if you are a CEO that's on today and you're lacking a level of vision, you want to take some notes too.

Kate 00:04:47  Well, we don't want to give them all the tips. I gotta make sure about that.

Andrea 00:04:52  I would try. I honestly can't. I love your audience. I would really, really try, but I know I couldn't deliver, you know, 20 years or almost three decades of information on this call. So we definitely want for your audience to really know how to get in contact with me.

Kate 00:05:08  Absolutely. All right, Carrie, you've been a multi-site owner.

Carrie 00:05:12  I have.

Kate 00:05:13  And.

Carrie 00:05:14  I did it for years. It was very exciting. But it's also kind of overwhelming. And when you take that leap from one center to two centers, a whole new world, it's a whole new I can't sing. Oh. Hold on. No. There we go. We need it under here so she can do the singing. and if you haven't systematized things, the fact that each school has its own culture can knock you sideways.

Andrea 00:05:45  That's so good.

Kate 00:05:47  I agree. How would somebody start. Where's that. Where's the starting spot.

Kate 00:05:50  Like I mean I if I was listening to this 20 years ago I'd be like oh yes. But I don't even know where to start. Like I would tell me where to start.

Andrea 00:06:00  Absolutely. So first the owner would say, yes, I need systems, or the director would say, yes, I need systems. So what we've developed is a way for you to understand what systems really are. So systems are what manage things like your enrollment or your classrooms or your kitchen. Like there's not a lot of systems that you need besides processes. So like there's a system for a kitchen system. There's a classroom system. There's an enrollment system. There's a director system. So these are the systems that most child care programs are missing. And then on top of that, many of them, because they're missing the actual knowledge of I need a system for this. They don't have the proper processes. So I see CEOs in several directors. They use manuals, they have them. They are so well put together.

Andrea 00:06:53  They look so well. But the missing pieces that none of the processes actually fit a workflow. And so because there's no workflow, it pulls you as the CEO or you as a director in several different areas, like, okay, if you don't have a workflow for how you manage the task of that system. For example, if you don't have a workflow for how you manage the classroom, then nine times out of ten your orientation and onboarding is really disconnected from your classroom system, because there's no true workflow that says this is what you're going to do when you first enter into the room. Why is that important? To know what you want your team members to do when they first enter into the room? Well, the first entry of that room should be the first step that they take even during onboarding, like this is what they should learn during onboarding. The first task that you're going to do when you enter into our model, which we teach owners, is to teach the teacher about the Jumpstart being the jumpstart business, the first step that every team member learns about when they enter into the room.

Andrea 00:07:59  Why? Because that is where the information, the videos, the SOPs are located. That is where the teachers stop when they enter into that room to start their day. So with that being said, this is how owners miss it because they need systems. But number one, they gotta determine what departments they have in their organization. And then number two, they got to determine what processes support this department. And that way when they think about putting systems in place, it's not where they're trying to do everything at one time. Can you imagine trying to do enrollment and then the kitchen and then the classroom all at one time. That's why you get overwhelmed and you stop and you don't complete, because you have to have clarity that each department should have its own way of being a system, and then those systems should be interconnected. Okay. Does that make sense?

Kate 00:08:57  Hold on. Because. Because I know you. You know exactly what you're talking about. But I'm not sure everybody who's listening does so. You mentioned some phrases that I know what they are, but I'm not sure I would have known 15 years ago.

Kate 00:09:10  and so I've always been very familiar with the phrase standard operating procedure or an SOP, but you also talked about the systems and you also talked about workflow. So again, somebody who's listening, especially if it's a director who again, their owner probably doesn't even have SOPs, let alone systems. If she's listening to this or they are listening to this, how would they even have that conversation with the owner of we need systems like. I mean, I'm trying to. Yeah, baby step this way.

Andrea 00:09:46  I absolutely understand, and I find a joy in making it so plain that even an 11 year old can do it. As a matter of fact, before I took this to the market. I had my niece come in. She was 11 years old at the time and put together a manual starting with number one, a table of content. So before I go into the table of content in the manual portion of it, let me explain to the audience what I mean when I say, workflow. So a workflow is where there's a, a sense of order, where something happens one step after the other.

Andrea 00:10:24  And typically you can relate to this if you're listening as a CEO or as a director, if you would just go and grab a classroom checklist. As a matter of fact, if you can grab while you're listening right now, this will really support you as you're listening because.

Kate 00:10:39  So so go pause. Hold on everybody pause. Click the pause button, go get your thing and then come back.

Carrie 00:10:45  All right. So you want the opening checklist in a classroom right. What does a teacher do when they arrive first thing in the morning.

Andrea 00:10:54  All right. So welcome back. Now that you have your opening checklist, well, that opening checklist is definitely going to take you ten steps ahead of a lot of child care owners because they don't have their checklist divided into opening, closing, etc.. However, let's take a look at this checklist. Does this checklist mirror your daily schedule? So therefore I love how you mentioned the word checklist for opening carry. Because if your checklist you can have an all in one checklist.

Andrea 00:11:27  If your checklist does not mirror your daily schedule, then there's no true workflow. Because now what we're going to do is to come into confusion or we're going to come into inconsistency. So when you're being inconsistent, the reason why is because you are expecting for your teachers to open up the classroom and do certain tasks. However, those tasks have to be in conjunction to the daily schedule because that's the only way it's going to be a workflow. So now, instead of me expecting for a morning opening test to be done during the morning time, that doesn't match the schedule. I'm not helping my team member with classroom management, but if I was to create a checklist that matched my daily schedule, what becomes natural now becomes the workflow. Now becomes the system. Because this person is naturally acquainted with opening up the room and doing what goes on that morning checklist. Because that morning checklist coincides with the daily schedule, right?

Carrie 00:12:35  Because at some schools, the teacher comes in and goes straight to the kitchen and picks up their bleach bottle and their soapy water bottle and then goes to their classroom, turns on the lights and does the morning safety check, puts the spray bottles away, and then goes and gets kids.

Carrie 00:12:53  And in other programs. The person comes in. Turns on the lights. Does the safety checklist. The kids are, you know, come in as the parents are showing up and they do. Maybe they did the bleach bottles the night before. Maybe, you know, there can be different routines based on how that school runs.

Andrea 00:13:14  Absolutely. So then in order for this process to be something that can be implemented, no matter where you are in the world, then the framework that I just explained works. Number one. Make sure that your checklist coincides with your daily classroom schedule. So therefore on your daily classroom schedule it should say opening. And then whatever your process is for opening, that process should give some type of indicator on that checklist that it was done. So now the opening schedule and the daily classroom checklist work flow together. So then the big picture is for all of you. All that are, directors. The big picture is now when you go into the classroom and you are doing your rounds, so you may have a morning round or afternoon round, then your rounds of which you are looking for when you walk in the classroom should only be the task that happened from that morning checklist.

Andrea 00:14:15  So if I'm doing morning rounds and I'm the CEO and I'm the director, I'm going to check for what should have been done from opening until nap time, which is my morning arrival checklist. Okay. So that way when you, as the director are checking behind your team members, you're not checking the full day, which makes it overwhelming, which now consumes your time because you're in the room doing a check for like 25 minutes trying to go through this checklist of everything that should have been done. No no no no no. You do your rounds to match your workflow. So now that means my opening schedule. Excuse me? My opening checklist matches. My classroom schedule, which now works, flows into my director rounds. If you, as a center director are listening to me today, and you don't feel like this is how your organization is organized, then that's a clear indicator that I'm the one that's going to help you get that done, because something about that workflow will change your life forever if you were to implement it.

Kate 00:15:17  Absolutely. And what's great is hopefully if you're listening to this, you're not automatically thinking, oh my gosh, we have no systems. We need the systems, we need the SOPs. And I have no time. Like that's like every once. Well, I'll post on our on our Facebook group. So if you're listening and you're not in the childcare conversations Facebook group can jump over there. But like we'll ask questions. And one of the questions just a few weeks ago was something about what is one thing that you need to get done that you haven't gotten done? And the number of people who said SOPs cracked me up because we know that that means that the director doesn't even understand simple things like blocking out some time they are doing it, not the CEO. Right. So we've got folks who even the clarity of who does what is still a little foggy. Yeah, I think that's where, folks need to learn to come to one of your programs. So you've got a program coming up November 8th.

Andrea 00:16:20  Hey. Yes.

Kate 00:16:20  And you treat these people like royalty, so they come to your location. So, you've got folks from all over the globe that come in, you'll take them out on a boat ride, you're going to feed them like they're queens. I mean, it's yeah, I mean, the behind the scenes pictures. I just want to go. I don't need to really learn the processes. I just want to go be pampered.

Andrea 00:16:44  Come on.

Kate 00:16:45  Come.

Andrea 00:16:45  On, come on.

Kate 00:16:47  So if you are thinking, when am I ever going to have the time to get this done? November 8th. Let me just tell you when you're going to get that done. Yes. Carrie, as a multi-site director, how would it have worked for you to have a one of your directors come to you and kind of talk to you a little bit about systems? What might have been helpful had somebody come to you because they recognize they needed it, in other words, in the way you think, what would have been a way that a director might have been able to have that conversation with you? I'm not saying you didn't have the systems.

Kate 00:17:21  I'm just an owner.

Carrie 00:17:23  I mean, there were times when I didn't or when I didn't have systems for all the things I needed because I didn't. You don't know what you don't know. and so I think saying, hey, I've noticed this thing isn't working and it's causing us to have staff turnover or frustrated staff or frustrated parents. So what is the effect in the business of this not working and say I have come across something that is a potential solution. Let's look at it together and see what the pros and cons are of using this system. So by showing what like don't spend a whole bunch of time going, we don't have this thing and it's ruining everything and you should have been a better boss instead. Say, I've noticed that this particular thing is happening at our school and it is causing this knock on effect. Families being dissatisfied. Staffing dissatisfied. Staff turnover. Family turnover. If you can see that it's doing one of those four things, that's a conversation almost every owner wants to have because they don't want staff turnover and they don't want client turnover.

Kate 00:18:37  Well, it all comes back to profitability. Last time I checked, no owner. Regardless of your role on this call, there isn't an owner or a school district or any entity that's running a business. But in this case, specifically child care centers and early learning programs. None of them got into business to lose money. Absolutely right. And so profit. If you aren't sure what magic word to use with your owner. Profit. Profit. There's a five letter word for you.

Carrie 00:19:08  And if you're if you're in a nonprofit or a school district or Head Start, retained clients is the word that you want to use there. Okay. Retain staff. Retained clients?

Kate 00:19:20  Yeah. They still they still have budgets to keep. You just they may not call it profit, but. Yes, but budget. Budget.

Andrea 00:19:26  Yeah. And so maybe maybe you are a director that's listening right now and you're like, I'm not even getting the things done that we got a system for more. So listening to Doctor Andrea and and implement what she's saying.

Andrea 00:19:42  Well, if that's a thought that crossed your mind, one of the reassurances I want to give you is that no one has it all together. We all have to have a humble heart, a wise mind to open up and say, how can I do this better? How can I make this happen? And typically the reason why most of you all, as directors aren't able to get everything done is because time management. And so it's okay to admit, like I need help managing my time better. I need help managing my team better. And that's a great place to start as well with your CEO is to admit, like, I love what I do, I love helping your company, but I need help. And and the reason why I can speak from experience is because my my center directors, they were heroes like I depended on them to really run my organization. That's how I was able to fill up rooms of 100 to 200 people. Right? Products like I'm a I have 21 publications over like eight books written.

Andrea 00:20:43  So I was able to get so much done. Coach clients be one of the first. Like you called me a OG in this industry. I was able to do that and do it with ease. All while having multiple child care programs because I depended heavily on my team. But the missing piece that many CEOs are missing is that there should be a time where the data that's collected should be an indicator to the CEO on the missing training, the missing opportunities that's in their company. So for both of the audiences that that's listening today, you all should be sharing data, not just how you feel, not just what you want, but true data. How many of your classrooms are being closed out successfully each day? That's data. The reason why there's data is because once you start collecting that, then the CEO knows these are the trainings that we need to offer our team. This is how we're going to improve the labor force of our team. Alright. And so once you all are starting to exchange data now, we are not going off of how we feel or what we think or what we may not possess.

Andrea 00:21:48  Inwardly we're going off of the data of what where we want to be. So that's that's setting some clear expectations as a team.

Kate 00:21:58  If you don't track it then count. So data data data. So yes, absolutely. Carrie and I are right on board with that collecting the data. And again pick one system. If you're listening to this and you know you've got staff turnover or you've got one room you just can't seem to keep full or so you've got some parent trickling, you know, parent turnover in one classroom. Or maybe you just got one location that just can't seem to keep all of its ducks in a row, like they're out swimming in other people's bonds or something. So whatever you might have going, any one of those are great. Andrea liked my ducks. It's actually Carrie's ducks carries the one with the ducks that are going all over the place.

Carrie 00:22:42  Well, I love I love metaphors about ducks. I think ducks are great. I follow ducks on social media. Ducks are my, you know.

Carrie 00:22:50  Favorite farm animal? I love a duck. I will talk about a duck for just about any reason. And when I was a teacher, I had all kinds of duck songs too. So this is not a new advent. This has been going on a while, but I want to make sure that we're making everyone on. The listening to the episode has an actionable item, right? So find a system that's not working and try to figure out where are the holes if you need help with that. That's what Andrea is here to do, help you fix the holes in those systems. And she's got a whole system of systems.

Andrea 00:23:34  We do. We really do. We make it easy. And the reason why we make it easy is because I want everybody to make sure you chime in on the hint. There should be a list of processes that you just know that runs a classroom, or that you just know that runs your kitchen. Like there should be a list of processes. And I'm going to ask you to have them in any certain type of order.

Andrea 00:23:56  But I'm really giving you the secret sauce right now while we have these last few minutes. So write this down. You should have a list of what processes run that system. And then what you'll do is you'll now not just like, oh, we're having problems. Let me check out this problem. Know what you will do then is just make sure that the processes that you have identified that they work. And that is another missing piece. As SEOs, we assume that because we thought we figured it out that this must be the golden egg. This must be what's going to really make it happen for us. And that's not at all true. Any CEO that implements proven processes, they really focus on the word proven. You have to go through the phase three, which is the launch phase, to make sure that anyone that reads this SOP can implement anyone that watches this video can implement. This is what AI cannot do for CEOs and directors. They can give you a lot of information, but they cannot prove that it works.

Andrea 00:24:59  This is where leadership comes in clarity and vision. Having those clear KPIs so that you can really say, okay, this is the list of processes that happened in this department, out of this list of processes, what's working for us that we prove that anybody can go through our 30, 60, 90 and do. Alright, let's not focus on that. Where are we finding the hiccups that well, this is a hiccup that can't do this process at 30 days. All right. Now let's bring it back in. Let's look at these SOPs. Let's look at our videos. What is it that we need to focus on to make sure that we revamp so that it can work. And that is how I want everyone. When you leave this audio, I want you to think, how can I make this happen? What can I fix? Because if it's an area where it's not streamlined, just make sure you know the task of that department. focused in on what's not working and then solidify, bring it all back together and say, okay, now I know you could do this.

Andrea 00:25:55  Now let's go over and let's make sure we can do this and prove that you can watch, you can read, you can train peer to peer and it can be done. That's all I want you to do. Make sure that it can be done.

Kate 00:26:06  All right. So we know that in the show notes, we have all of Andrea's information. You'll be able to figure out when she's got her next event coming up, which we know is November 8th. You're going to be able to reach out to Andrea and see if this is a good fit for you. I know that sometimes she even has these webinars, that she might be able to give you a little teaser about some information, and you don't leave with a bunch of information. So, Carrie, what do they need to do?

Carrie 00:26:34  Well, they need to share this show with someone else who needs to know. It may be you need to share it with the CEO. It may be you need to share it with the director. It may be you need to share it with your buddy that you saw at a conference.

Carrie 00:26:47  Closes down a room the same way and everything's higgledy piggledy. I don't know who you need to share it with, but there's somebody you need to share it with. And then go check out Andrea's systems, see if she's the right fit for you, and come back in a couple of days and have another conversation with us.

Marie 00:27:07  Thanks for tuning in. We love bringing you real talk and fresh insight from the world of early childhood education. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all of the latest episodes. And if you're planning a conference, training, or special event. Kate and Kerry would love to speak to your audience. You can learn more about their keynote sessions and workshops at Kate and Kerry. If you learned something today. Share the show and leave us a review below. We'll see you next time on Child Care Conversations.