Building a House of Four Rooms
As CEO of a growing company, I am very aware of the time and expense involved in becoming the best organization possible. Creating new processes is costly, and sometimes feels like it gets in the way of the work we do and the product we deliver. Processes are about making the future better, but it can be hard to think about tomorrow when we have clients to serve and sales to make today. Rather than lose focus on the big picture, I have tried to think systematically about maximizing our potential as an organization. First I tried words. I ended up drawing a house.
At the top–the attic of the house–is the strategic or overarching plan of the organization. Below this, the house has four rooms that are each important to the success of the organization. The first room represents the PEOPLE. Getting the right people in place is vital to a functioning organization. The second room is PROCESSES. Processes make it possible to repeat and duplicate good employee behaviors. If the people and the processes are in place, I move to the third room, which is KNOWLEDGE. Do the people have the knowledge to excel at their jobs? Do they have the right technical knowledge to succeed? Do they have the leadership and team knowledge to succeed? If the right people have the knowledge they require and are following good processes, then I move to the fourth room: ACCOUNTABILITY. Is there appropriate follow-up to make sure the processes are reliably and consistently followed, and the knowledge is applied?
At Sage Portfolio Group, we’ve done a lot of work in the “people” room – tantamount to a major renovation. We have created job profiles for each position and now use a tool to help us hire people who will be an optimum fit. The job profiles allow us to compare the job to the candidate and start a dialogue about our organization’s needs, the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, and the ways the organization may need to adapt to the new employee.
The “knowledge” room was pretty good at the outset; we’ve done work more akin to re-decoration than renovation. We work regularly on learning and increasing our knowledge and the knowledge of our staff, including in-service learning, workshops and paid courses.
The room dedicated to “processes” has been given a lot of attention, as is the case in all fast-growing companies. Some processes we’ve created in-house to streamline and systematize our operations. Others have required the assistance of–to continue the reno analogy–an outside contractor to help us build, including exciting customized software we have developed to enhance our team approach to project management.
The room that I am most curious about is “accountability”. How do we hold people accountable without blame or finger pointing? How do we follow-up without micro-managing? One of the ways I do this is by making our coaching gym product available to all of our staff members. Every Sage Portfolio Group staff member who works more than 10 hours per week gets one-on-one coaching. We are a development organization, after all. I find it so helpful that my staff “work out” their challenges at our coaching gym. They have support, a place to vent, an objective opinion to check in with and someone–other than “the boss”–who will make sure they’re following through on commitments. This has proven to be a powerful tool for people to work on their own accountability.
For my part, I’ll just keep on building our “house”.
