Execution · Proving to Organising
Writing down how you work, without a thick manual
You write down one way of working that a colleague can follow without you, with an owner who keeps it up to date, and you know who knows it.
Does this sound familiar?
- A new colleague asks for the third time how a quote goes out, and you say: never mind, I'll do it myself.
- Someone's on holiday for two weeks and nobody knows how the month-end close works.
- There's a manual for the certification. Nobody's opened it since the audit.
- Something goes wrong, you say 'but we agreed on this', and your colleague says he's never seen it.
Who it's for, and when
For founders and teams where the work still lives in a few people's heads. In Searching it's too early: the work still changes every week. In Proving you only write down what's already repeatable, often how a new client gets started. In Organising, once people join who can't just watch you do it any more, the rest follows.
The model
Gerber sees a lot of founders stuck doing their own trade. As long as the way of working only lives in their head, nobody can take it over. He looks at a franchise: every piece of work is described so the result is the same everywhere, whoever's doing it. A company of twenty people can do that too, without becoming a franchise.
Gawande shows that a description like that has to be short. A checklist in the operating theatre doesn't explain surgery; it names the steps skilled people skip under pressure. And it only works once the people doing the work know it. So a way of working is an agreement with a group: who it applies to, what it's for, when it applies, which steps, and who does them.
Every way of working has an owner, usually whoever knows the work best, and rarely you. They write the first version, keep it up to date and decide how the work is done. Someone else approves it. If you see a better way, suggest a change; don't rewrite it yourself or take the work back (the lesson Who's got the monkey?).
Which processes you have and where work gets stuck are covered in the lesson Mapping your core processes. This lesson is about one piece of work inside one of those processes.
Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (1995): the Franchise Prototype, work described so that someone else can do it with the same result. Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto (2009): a short list with only the steps people forget, used by the team itself.
Procedure or agreement
A procedure has steps in order: a purpose, when it applies, and for each step what happens and who does it. An agreement is a rule that always applies, with no steps: whoever leaves last sets the alarm.
Only what goes wrong
Write down the steps people forget or get wrong, not what a skilled person knows anyway. Every step starts with a verb and says who does it. Words a new colleague won't know go under Terms.
Who it's for, and acknowledgement
Choose the team, role or people it applies to, and ask them to acknowledge it. Then you can see who hasn't read it yet, before something goes wrong.
Approving and reviewing
Someone other than the writer approves it, ideally after someone who doesn't know the work has followed the steps once. The owner checks on a fixed date whether it's still right; a change only counts once it's been approved again.
Pitfalls
The thick manual
Everything in one document, with an explanation of the trade thrown in. It gets written once for a certificate and never opened again. Write a short way of working for each piece of work, and keep the manual as an appendix for the auditor.
Watch and read
Gerber in two minutes on why a business runs on ways of working other people can follow, rather than on the owner's craft.
Watch on YouTubeIn seven minutes Gawande explains why a short list with only the steps you forget works better than more knowledge or a thicker protocol.
Watch on YouTubeHow to write down a way of working in three steps, short enough that people follow it: name it, write down the key steps, and make sure everyone knows it.
Watch on YouTubeTo go further
Gerber at more length on why you write down what you do, how and why, even while you're still doing it alone, so you can train your first employee your way.
Watch on YouTubeRead
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
Michael E. Gerber · 1995 · ISBN 9780887307287
The basis of this lesson: the Franchise Prototype, and how to capture work as a system someone else can run. Short, and told as a story. There's a Dutch edition, The E-Myth (Kosmos, 2022, 256 pages), ISBN 9789043925464.
View the bookThe Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
Atul Gawande · 2009 · ISBN 9780805091748
Why a short checklist with only the critical steps works where a thick manual goes unread, and how a team starts using one. Dutch edition: Het checklist-manifest (Nieuwezijds, 206 pages), ISBN 9789057123238.
View the bookApply it
- 1
Pick one piece of work
The work that stops when one person's away, or that goes differently every time. One, not everything at once. Work that already goes well by itself can wait.
- 2
Let whoever does it write the first version
They become the owner. Use the way of working below as an example: the purpose in one sentence, when it applies, a handful of steps with who does them, and what can go wrong under Note.
- 3
Have someone else follow it
Someone who doesn't know the work follows the steps once and says where they get stuck. The owner fills in the gaps.
- 4
Approve it and ask for acknowledgement
A colleague with manage rights approves it. Add who it's for, switch on Acknowledgement needed and pick a date under Review on. If a new colleague needs to know it in their first week, switch on For a new colleague.
Examples
Written out: onboarding a new client (accountancy firm)
Title: Onboarding a new client Type: procedure Process: serving clients Purpose: ensures that a new client has their first tax return scheduled within two weeks and knows who to go to, so they don't have to chase us. When: once a new client has signed the engagement letter. Steps: 1. Send the welcome email the same day, naming their own contact person. (Who: office team) 2. Request the authorisations for the bank and the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst). (Who: office team) 3. Schedule the intake meeting within five working days. (Who: office team) 4. Hold the intake meeting: financial year, how often they file VAT, what the client does themselves. (Who: adviser) 5. Put the deadlines for the first year in the schedule. (Who: adviser) 6. Call the client after their first tax return and ask how it went. (Who: adviser) Note: no authorisation, no tax return. If there's still no authorisation after five working days, the office team calls the client. Terms: authorisation, the permission that lets us look at the client's details at the bank or the tax authority on their behalf. For whom: the office team and the advisers. Acknowledgement needed: yes. For a new colleague: yes. Owner: the office team lead. Approved by: the office manager, after a new colleague had followed the steps once. Where it lives: in Ways of working, under the process serving clients. Review on: every January, or sooner if the tax authority changes something.
An agreement in one line
At an installation company: 'An engineer reports extra work before starting on it, with a photo, in the planning app.' No steps, so it's an agreement. For whom: the engineers. Owner: the planner.
The certification manual
An agency had a quality manual that nobody opened. They took twelve short ways of working out of it, each for the team that does the work and with someone from that team as owner. Three are marked For a new colleague. The manual stayed on as an appendix for the auditor.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- Go to Ways of working. Create a new way of working with a purpose, when it applies and the steps, attach it to its process, choose who it's for and an owner, and have a colleague approve it.
- You look back on a situation from your own work. Only you can read what you write.
- You set a date with yourself, and on that day the app asks how it went.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
7 situations. You need 6 of 7 right. You can try again at any time.
1.You've just landed your first five regular clients and want to start writing down your ways of working. Where do you start?
2.An experienced engineer is writing the way of working for a service visit. He wants to explain how every part works. What do you say?
3.At the office, the rule is: whoever leaves last sets the alarm. How do you write that down?
4.You wrote the way of working for the month-end close yourself. Who's best placed to approve it?
5.After a mistake on a handover, an engineer says he's never seen the way of working. It was approved months ago. What would have prevented this?
6.A way of working was approved a year ago. The work has changed since, and a new colleague follows the old steps. What would have prevented this?
7.The planner owns the way of working 'scheduling an urgent job'. You think it could be quicker. What do you do?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- Looking back on the month · You fill in your monthly reflection so that something comes out of it: you start with what you wanted last month, look for the cause of every gap, and choose a focus you can tick off in four weeks.
- Skills for recurring work · You set up one job you do often as a skill, so your AI does it the same way every time without you explaining it again.
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