5 Steps to Strengthening the Process Component

STRENGTHENING THE PROCESS COMPONENT A step by step guide to creating Core Processes that are not only followed by all but effective.

TOOL GUIDE SERIES

This guide is the property of and created by Ninety.io with the permission of EOS Worldwide.

CONTENTS

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STEPS 1 - 5 DETAILED

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PROCESS TRUTHS

6 truths teams experience while defining and working within their processes.

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REFINE & REPEAT

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THE 5 STEPS TO STRENGTHENING CORE PROCESS

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THE TOOLS

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CORE PROCESS EXAMPLES

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WRAP-UP

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN

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INTRODUCTION

What is process and why is it critical to growth?

Classic Core Processes to help you identify your own.

Agree on ‘Your Way’ and how you will tackle the Core Processes.

5 pages diving into each of the 5 steps.

Get your Core Processes followed by all (FBA) by going through them quarterly.

Learn how Ninety.io can help you strengthen Core Processes.

Who we are and other ways we are helping companies harness the power of EOS.

THE HR PROCESS EXAMPLE

Real example of a HR Core Process with Hiring Sub-Step.

INTRODUCTION Feel like you are wasting time and money on inconsistencies, while lacking the control to get things right? Meet the Process Component, the way you get everyone on the same page regarding “Your Way” of creating value for every one of your stakeholders (customers, employees, vendors, etc.).

Agreeing on, creating and documenting your Core Processes is crucial if you want a well-run, scalable, and relatively easy to manage organization (you do want that, right?).

While we would love to tell you strengthening your Process Component is easy, the truth is, it requires focused effort (“you cannot be great without doing great”). You must take a step back from the day-to-day to and undertake a series of reviews and meetings to ultimately create a clear picture of Your Way so that ultimately everyone in your organization is on the same page with regard to how you do the things you do.

you identify some missing, critical, procedure steps that have been causing you major pain as well as others that aren’t adding any value (i.e., less pain, more efficiency).

When Core Processes are documented, followed by all, and effective, you’ll get freedom to delegate more, worry less, and feel more in control of the business (even when people ,aka you, take vacation!)

The really good news is, if you’re normal, this work will help

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WHAT IS A CORE PROCESS? In any given company, there are a handful of departments, and within each department there are actions driving the way business is done (aka value is created).

A Core Process is just that. The high-level view of the handful of things your organization routinely does. Whether you have identified them or not, they exist.

Systemizing these 6-10 Core Processes and breaking them down into simple steps and checklists gets employees on the same page, eliminating pain, inefficiencies and inconsistencies.

There are so many benefits you and your team will experience as you embark upon documenting your Core Processes.

In this short guide, we will: • go over the benefits of having a strong process component, • provide you with a step-by-step guide to help you: • agree on what your Core Processes are, • create consensus on what the steps are within each Core Process, • document, measure, have them followed by all, to ensure that they continue to remain effective • show you how Ninety.io gives you the tools you need to get your Process Component to 90% strong.

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The high-level view of the handful things your organization routinely does.

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PROCESS TRUTHS

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You Love it More Than You Know

Discipline is a Must

Process Frees You

Process, won’t stifle creativity, it improves it! Documented workflows allow for better communication and effieniency among team members.

Once in place, processes must be followed to be effective. If you don’t follow your processes, then don’t expect your team to do so either.

Your team becomes more agile when you are able to systemize what is practical. This ultimately frees up time and space for getting more done!

Systemize Only a Handfull of Things

“Kind Of” Will Kill You

Refinement is Critical

Document only at a high level. This prevents you from overperscribing tasks. A great rule is to document the 20% that gives you 80% of the results.

Followed by all is the key to the process component. If one person / department falls short, it can affect other areas of your business. Go all in!

Don’t accept a process is perfect once it is created! Continue to refine, looking at employee feedback and procss related measurables that seem to have lots of issues each quarter.

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“systemize the predictable so that you can humanize the exceptional.”

Gino Wickman

5 STEPS TO CREATING GREAT CORE PROCESSES THE KEYS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR CORE PROCESSES:

1. identify

3. document

5. package

Set a Senior Leadership team meeting to develop the list of Core Processes. Use the 20/80 Rule to document at a high level and name each one.

Create Steps & Substeps below each Core Process.

Iincluding details, measurables, checklists and, when needed, attachments for each.

Create a central location (e.g ninety.io) where anyone within your company can access the Core Processes and Step details.

Allows the team to come to an agreement.

Defines processes to become documented.

Communicates to be followed by all.

2. Make it a rock Create a company rock and individual rocks.

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4. review as a team Ensure there is agreement across all departments on simple and well defined processes.

• AGREE • DOCUMENTED • FOLLOWED BY ALL • KEEP THEM EFFECTIVE

refine repeat *

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Make sure your processes really work by reviewing one or more every quarter.

Elevates processes to become effective.

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CORE PROCESS EXAMPLES Every company is unique, but what are the typical Core Processes? Check out the classic Core Processes below and then move on to identifying your own.

The Sales Process The Marketing Process The way you get your message to your target market, generate interest in what you do, and provide prospects to your salespeople.

The Operations Process The way you make your product/ service.

This can be 1 - 3 core processes within operations, (e.g. project management, logisticstcs, distribution, production, etc.)

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The way you convert a prospect into a customer.

Think about how your sales process can work together with sales, operations and customer-retention.

THE classics The HR Process The way you search, find, hire, orient, manage, review, promote, retain, and fire people.

The CustomerRetention Process The way you take care of your customers, including how you onboard, service and do what you need to do to retain them.

The Accounting Process The way you manage all monies coming in and going out.

Example provided on page 21.

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Before you begin...

AGREE ON HOW TO STENGTHEN THE PROCESS COMPONENT Collaboration is one of the most important aspects of creating your Core Processes. Since many of your processes effect / overlap more than one department, it’s imperative your Senior Leadership team gets on the same page with regard to Your Way of doing business / creating value.

If you’re like most of our clients, you and your colleagues have a lot going on and the idea of embarking upon the journey of documenting your Core Processes may be a tad overwhelming. Don’t worry.

This is normal. As some wise person once observed: “How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.”

90% Strong Rock

Our Recommedation

Make “Core Processes [90%] Strong” a Company Rock candidate for your upcoming quarter.

In our experience, most organizations tackle strengthening the Core Process Component over several quarters. Regardless, the process to get from beginning to end is comprised of a number of steps - the first of which is to agree on what time frame will work best for you and your team, given everything else that is going on.

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That said, we recommend you make “Core Processes [90%] Strong” a Company Rock candidate for your upcoming quarter. The sooner you do this, the sooner you will be on the road to elevating your level of organizational well-being.

You don’t have to tackle it during this quarter, but we strongly encourage you to at least agree on “The List” (we’ll discuss this next) during your quarterly and determine which quarter is right to start.

What should you tackle?

Once you establish the timing, you can decide whether to tackle documenting all of your Core Processes in one quarter, or turn the Rock into Parts (e.g., Core Process 90% Strong, Part 1) and tackle one Core Process at a time.

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IDENTFY “THE LIST” When it is time start, the first step will be agreeing on “The List”. Here you will agree on, and formally name, each of the Core Processes. Developing this is not something that one person can take on by them-self. We would recommend you do this during the IDS portion of your quarterly meeting.

Develop “The List” Once you come to this item on your Quarterly Issues List, have each of your colleagues shout out what they think should be included in The List.

Need help getting started? Review the basic Core Processes and their descriptions on page 9.

The 20/80 Rule Record the 20% that produces 80% of the results.

When your team has developed a first pass at The List, start to narrow it down to the CORE items.

While doing this, remember the ‘20/80 Rule’.

You are trying to document at a high level meaning you need to document only the 20% that produces 80% of the results. Using this thinking, your team can determine the 6-10 Core Processes that make up Your Way of doing business.

fits for your company? What do you typically call it? What are the pros and cons of one word versus another? What best reflects your core values? What best reflects your Three Uniques™ (aka your value proposition)?

Agree on what works for your entire organization. Doing this creates clarity, reduces confusion, and gets everyone speaking the same language. Once names are agreed to, write them down. In the long run, you will not regret the time you spend making these decisions.

Finally, decide on whether or not you are going to take on Core Process Rock. Let’s assume you are going to take on the “Core Process 90% Strong” Rock and move on to Step #2.

Name Each Core Process Next up, you need to agree on what each Core Process should be called.

Words matter and naming each one is an important step to ensure effective communication moving forward.

Example: Customer Service vs. Client Success. Which best

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MAKE IT A ROCK Now that you have all agreed on The List and are ready to take on the Core Process Rock, your next step is to agree on who owns the Core Process Rock and each of the Rock’s Milestones.

The Core Process Rock(s)

The Milestones

In terms of who owns the Core Process Rock, if you are like most organizations, many of your Core Processes effect / involve one or more departments. Consequently, the Integrator is often times deemed to be best suited to own the broader Core Process Rock. That said, there could be other members of your team that have better project management skills, and the capacity to do the work that needs to be done, so decide who is best to own the Rock given your unique set of talents and availabilities.

With regard to Milestones, we strongly encourage everyone on your team to remember that many of these processes affect other parts of your organization, so you may find that you will need to have several milestones that call for bringing a draft of your work(s)-in-progress to your Level 10 Meeting, or set up a special meeting to review your material to get approval for the proposed steps.

Regardless, whomever owns the Rock needs to work with your leadership team to decide which Core Processes you intend to document over the next 90 days and the associated Milestones.

At the risk of stating the obvious, you may have several Rocks come out of this exercise, including a company Rock and one or more Individual / Department Rocks.

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KEEP TRACK WITH NINETY Ninety.io provides the tools you need to document processes while integrating with all of your EOS® tools!

Once you have completed Step #2, we recommend you use Ninety.io to:

1. Add or rename your Core Processes to Ninety to memorialize The List.

2. Put a “(WIP)” behind each name to signal to everyone that you are working on the documentation.

3. Create Rocks & Milestones to track progress during your Level 10 Meetings™.

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DOCUMENT Now comes the work of defining and documenting the identified Core Processes.

Break down each Core Process into simple steps, what we call ‘Big Steps’, with each achieving a specific goal (i.e., can be measured). It may help to think about these in a linear / chronological approach. We’ve added Ninety.io’s internal HR Process and Hiring Sub-Processes as an Exhibit. Remember the ‘20/80 Rule’ and continue to document at a high level.

Once you have the Big Steps listed and named, share these with your senior colleagues during one of your Level 10 Meetings for feedback / approval (e.g., create an issue called “Present draft of XYZ Core Process’s Big Steps for feedback / approval”).

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Sub Steps

The Details

Measurables

Once you have the Big Steps approved, it’s time to go to work on the Substeps and / or checklists associated with each Big Step. It’s always smart to share these with your senior colleagues for feedback and approval just like the Big Steps.

Consider adding descriptions, checklists, and, additional resources.

Think about what is needed to ensure processes will run smoothly, even if a key team member is not present. True freedom comes when anyone can pickup where another left off.

Determine which measurables give you insights into how the process is performing. You will find it powerful to connect those measurables directly to Scorecard(s)so you know exactly what’s working and what’s not.

Not sure where to start? Think about where you want to go and build your processes backwards!

Ask your team what would help them get things done right. Think about adding explainer videos or diagrams.

What can should you track? Measure based on if a process is done “right,” what the frequency should be, or a desired outcome.

Don’t forget: Enter these details into Ninety! Add all of these aspects into the Process Tool, to build out Steps, Sub Steps, and all the details (e.g. documents, checklists, videos, etc.) for each. Plus connect the measurables you are already tracking on your Scorecard to see how things are performing!

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REVIEW WITH THE TEAM Once you have everything defined/documented, it’s time once again to review your Core Process Documents with your senior colleagues. As shared earlier, you can add this as an Issue for your next Level 10 Meeting™, or schedule a separate meeting to go through everything. Regardless, give your colleagues ample time to review your work to have a super-efficient discussion.

As you go through your review, take particular care in making sure that the processes that connect one department to another are agreed to by their respective leaders, and that the key departmental handoff points are not only well defined, but have 1 - 2 measurables attached that define success.

One of our fellow EOS Implementer™ colleagues, Jeanet Wade, wrote a blog that contains some great questions to consider before you “publish” a Core Process. Here is what Jeanet wrote: “Having worked with multiple teams to solve the issue of “hitting the ceiling” on their process documentation, here are some things I recommend you ask to make sure each process is simple, and your way of doing them is well defined.

1. Secret Sauce. Have you included the unique actions and steps that make you special? Are you delivering on your uniques?

2. Issues. Have you identified any overlaps or gaps among processes? Have you made assumptions that another process is handling specific steps and is this correct? Are there any challenges in implementing these steps?

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3. Outcomes. Does each process deliver the outcome(s) you want to see? Is this the best way to achieve the end result?

4. Accountability. Have you identified who is accountable for the steps and actions within each process? (Do you know who has the ball when your play is in action?)

5. Customers. Have you remembered your customer interactions and communications within each process? Sometimes processes and procedures can have too much of an inward focus and forget about the customer. While it may work for you, it may not always work for your customers.”

Remember: Define these details for each process in Ninety. Attach measurables, assign accountability (directly from the acccountability Chart), and attach resources. See a section that is not performing?

Turn it into an Issue for your next Level 10 Meeting™!

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PACKAGE Begin the road to:

FOLLOWED BY ALL Identifying, defining and documenting your Core Processes will not do much good if the majority of the company does not know about them. You must Package your Processes to have a 90% strong Process Component.

First thing you get to do, if you took our earlier advice of using Ninety, is take off the “WIP” designation after each Core Process!

Packaging “Your Way” We recommend you not only document your Core Processes in a highly visible place (like Ninety), but that you create a hard copy of Your Way (e.g., “XYZ’s Way of Creating Value” or “XYZ’s Way of [insert your purpose, passion, or cause”]), date it, and then schedule a company meeting (or use your next

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Quarterly / State of the Company), or a series of weekly meetings, to share it.

As you may have read in Traction, or heard from your EOS Implementer, humans typically need to hear things seven times before they truly understand: a) what is being said, b) why it is important, and c) how it relates to them and their roles and responsibilities.

Getting everyone on the road to followed-by-all (FBA) is in itself a process and you’ll find the journey to FBA a lot more enjoyable and swifter if you dedicate time to sharing your Core Processes and explaining how these work together.

As a leader, one of your jobs is to help people see how these fit into your bigger picture. Over time, everyone will benefit from the increased efficiency / clarity.

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“Magic occurs when you combine the spirit of entrepreneurialism with a culture of discipline.�

Jim Collins

Ongoing quarterly...

REFINE PROCESSES & STEPS With your Core Processes documented, simplified, approved by your leadership team, and packaged, it’s now time to get them followed by all (FBA).

EOS® has created the following checklist to set a course for your Core Processes to be FBA. As you go through this checklist, ask yourself if you can say “yes, we have done this”, to every one of the bullets. If you cannot say “yes”, decide whether this is an issue you want to add to your Level 10 Meeting™, or discuss at your next quarterly (i.e., add it to your long-term issues list).

Measure

Train • Train everyone who will perform one or more of the steps in each process • Train in Level 10 Meetings, special training sessions, or learning management systems

• Measure performance on the appropriate scorecard • Confirm compliance with the steps in each process • Confirm that activities required for success are being done properly, and with enough frequency.

LMA

Update

• Lead, manage and hold everyone accountable; everyone needs to follow the process

• Update Core Processes regularly

• Keep scorecard numbers ontrack • Call out and IDS issues immediately as they arise – no exceptions

• As issues arise, sometimes the process is the root cause and must be revised • Cleanup & refine one per quarter (add “Review at least one Core Processes” to the long-term issues list).

When you can confidently say “yes we are doing all of the above”, you can confidently say “yes, yes, yes” in terms of having your core processes documented, FBA and effective.

Finally, lead by example! If you do not follow the process, no one will. With the right people in the right seats, everyone should see the value immediately!

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HOW NINETY CAN HELP More about the Ninety:

core process tool Ninety.io is a SaaS company that provides companies running on EOS® with an integrated, cloud-based, collection of the key EOS tools you need to strengthen every one of the 6 Key Components of your business.

Having a software system to store your processes means you can easily refine each one as needed along with taking the ciritical steps to track performance.

Ninety provides a simple tool to help you: • Simplify, present and build out Core Processes • Document the right level of information for every one of your steps • Create free form lists or checklists • Attach documents, and “how we do it” videos, when more detail is needed • Pull directly from your Accountability Charts and People Directory to show who is responsible for what processes and/or steps • Attach measurables so you can set minimal acceptable performance goals (per person!) so it’s super clear what’s working and what’s not • Send process issues directly to your Level 10 Meeting agenda

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Ensure you have:

the right tools As business builders and EOS Implementer™ coaches, we get how hard it is to run and build companies like yours, and we are on a never-ending journey to help you eliminate redundancies and maximize the performance of all the EOS tools across every level of your organization.

Ninety.io is what you see displayed throughout this book. Companies love it because they can see clear accountability, recognize more opportunity and have a central location for everything EOS. Having worked with thousands of small and mid-sized organizations, assuming you have a decent product and / or service and are targeting a growing market, we are confident our tools will make it easier for you to build an extraordinarily productive, humane and resilient organization (assuming you and your colleagues really want that).

Visit www.ninety.io to learn more.

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EXAMPLE.

THE HR CORE PROCESS The Big Steps

Adding Big Steps

Each Core Process has Big Steps. The HR Process has 7.

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EXAMPLE.

The Substeps

Adding Sub-Steps

Bullet Points

Assign an Owner

Re-Order your Items

Each Big Step can be broken into substeps. The Hiring step is now 5 Substeps.

Assign owners based on Accountability Chart roles and responisbilities.

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THE HR CORE PROCESS

Break down each tile to show the details and checklists. Make it easy to follow!

List your Steps/Substeps in linear or chronological order.

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EXAMPLE.

THE HR CORE PROCESS The Details

Edit the Details

Alongside a checklist, give context to why the step is being completed.

Creating More Steps Add as many steps and Substeps below each process to continue documenting.

Add Attachments

Attach documents/videos/ diagrams when more information is needed.

Connect Measurables

Attach measurables so you can set minimal acceptable performance goals (per person!) so it’s super clear what’s working and what’s not.

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