What are the benefits of a business framework? How can you simplify your company’s goal into one plan?
An operational framework explains one of your company’s processes in a clear and detailed way that your employees can easily follow. One benefit of creating operational frameworks is that they keep the company running smoothly as it grows.
Read below for a short guide on how to create a business framework for your employees.
How to Create a Framework
To learn how to create a business framework, Mike Michalowicz says to first identify the task you perform most often for your customers. Then, explain exactly how you do that task. The goal is for someone with no training to be able to read the explanation and then complete the task exactly as you would have, so be detailed and include all of your tips, tricks, and advice. Once you’ve completed the initial draft, walk back through the process and add any information you missed on the first pass. Keep doing this until you’re certain you’ve recorded all the information necessary to execute the task.
Once you’ve recorded all the necessary information, simplify your explanation of the process—Michalowicz says it should fit on a single page. Anything longer will be overly complicated and difficult to follow. He uses airline safety cards as an example of a properly created framework: They clearly and simply explain the process for surviving a plane crash on a single page, in such a clear way that anyone can understand it.
| Another Method of Documenting Processes In Traction, Gino Wickman offers another method of documenting your company’s processes: 1. Make a list of your company’s most important processes. Wickman defines “process” more broadly than Michalowicz, more like the function of a department than a single task. For example, he includes human relations, marketing, and sales as processes. 2. Document each process. This should be done by the person responsible for each process (such as the department manager). Wickman specifies that you shouldn’t include every detail. Instead, simplify by only including important steps and procedures, eliminating any redundant steps, and looking for areas where technology could increase efficiency. A single process should take up to 10 pages. 3. Compile the documents into a manual and train employees in the relevant processes. Wickman says this method has the same benefits as Michalowiz’s frameworks. However, while this kind of high-level documentation may reduce the amount of oversight needed, it’s arguably less effective than Michalowicz’s method. Given the lack of details, employees couldn’t read it and then complete their tasks exactly as you would’ve. So, you have to spend time training them and answering questions about those left-out details. In other words, instead of a simple airline card that explains what to do specifically in a crash, Wickman’s method is more like a book that generally explains how all the parts of an airplane work. While this book may be a useful guide for airline workers who’ve already been trained, it won’t be helpful to someone without that training. |
