How to Roll Out Your Business Operating System
Do you hate consultants?
I do.
The irony isn’t lost on me. But when I started this business, I purposely set out to build a different kind of consulting company.
Here’s the big knock on consultants: They come in and sell you on a lot of great ideas, but they don’t always set you up to create lasting change in your organization.
Take any business operating system that’s run by a consultant (or a coach, implementer, facilitator, etc.): EOS®, Scaling Up, and even our system, GROWTH℠. All of these systems start by transforming your company at the executive level.
But what about the rest of the business? The people selling your products, delivering your service?
The people who, you know…do all the work?
The employees deep in your organization and on the front lines will benefit from an operating system, even if it’s only in effect at the leadership level. Leadership does begin at the top.
But if you aren’t running that operating system at every level of your organization, you’re missing out on 90% of the value it can provide.
All of your employees deserve the same opportunities afforded to your leadership team:
The ability to co-create a vision for the future
The chance to identify and pursue work that they’re amazing at
The satisfaction that comes from setting clear goals and getting things done
So…want to know how to do it?
You do need to start with your executives or senior leadership team. Once they’re aligned, you can start communicating your vision, and the tools you’ll use to get there, to the rest of your employees.
The next steps include:
Do you hate consultants?
I do.
The irony isn’t lost on me. But when I started this business, I purposely set out to build a different kind of consulting company.
Here’s the big knock on consultants: They come in and sell you on a lot of great ideas, but they don’t always set you up to create lasting change in your organization.
Take any business operating system that’s run by a consultant (or a coach, implementer, facilitator, etc.): EOS®, Scaling Up, and even our system, GROWTH℠. All of these systems start by transforming your company at the executive level.
But what about the rest of the business? The people selling your products, delivering your service?
The people who, you know…do all the work?
The employees deep in your organization and on the front lines will benefit from an operating system, even if it’s only in effect at the leadership level. Leadership does begin at the top.
But if you aren’t running that operating system at every level of your organization, you’re missing out on 90% of the value it can provide.
All of your employees deserve the same opportunities afforded to your leadership team:
The ability to co-create a vision for the future
The chance to identify and pursue work that they’re amazing at
The satisfaction that comes from setting clear goals and getting things done
So…want to know how to do it?
You do need to start with your executives or senior leadership team. Once they’re aligned, you can start communicating your vision, and the tools you’ll use to get there, to the rest of your employees.
The next steps include:
Share your vision with the entire company
Walk every employee through your vision and the roadmap you’ve created.
Be at least 10% more transparent than you’re comfortable with, especially when it comes to financial targets. Transparency builds trust, and you’re going to need it if you expect your team to go on this journey with you.
Talk about your core values nonstop
You want every employee to memorize your core values—and to care about living them. Use core values to assess performance during reviews, shout out the good stuff you see happening on your team, and hire the right people. Above all, strive to live and model your core values daily. Your people are watching.
Set up departments to run like your leadership team
There are core planning tools in every system that can be used effectively by your entire organization. We call ours Growth for All℠, and if you use our system, there are 10 tools that your departments should be using as well.
Basically, you need some kind of vision document, a weekly meeting, a goal-setting methodology, a better version of an org chart, and a few other items. Click here if you’d like a copy of our Growth for All tool.
One thing to keep in mind: this is not easy. It requires structure, change management, bandwidth, and a lot of commitment.
You’ll be contending with employees who resist, don’t see the point, or want to keep doing things the way they’ve always done them.
Your team might try, fall off for a while, and give up. Try again. The effort is 100% worth it.
Not using a business operating system yet? No sweat. Look around your organization and see what’s working well. Figure out how to apply those things to other areas of the business. And you can still create a vision and live your core values, even if you aren’t using a specific methodology.
Whatever you’re doing, do it for your entire company. You deserve to get 100% of the value from your efforts. Your team deserves it, too.
P.S. If you want help, we’re here for you. Our consultants are trained to help roll out our system, GROWTH, to your entire organization. And if you want to learn more about GROWTH for your leadership team, we’ve got that covered, too. Contact us to learn more.