Organizational Design

Here’s How to Take The Next Step. How Do I Get Out From Under the Day-to-Day and Work On My Business? That’s the most common question I hear from owner/operators. You’ve got people to sell or make what customers pay…

Management is getting work done through others. Here's How. Care about the output not the work. This is a subtle but powerful distinction. Here’s what I mean. When you get in your car for a trip to the grocery store,…

Different Outputs from a Single Person. When I read about the distinction between a Visionary and an Integrator in the EOS literature my first thought was “Those are just different names for CEO and COO - concepts that have been…

Even though you think you can. I know it’s not a great idea to tell your audience that they’re wrong. But in my experience of working with hundreds of SMB owners it’s true. We aren’t really working on our companies…

I'm Obsessed with systems - as if you couldn't tell. The colored blocks represent the major systems and with subsystems listed within them. Each system produces a number of outputs (results). Any successful company is producing relevant outputs in all…

A presentation to TRIBE about Output Thinking and the Three levels of Management. Knowing the different outputs managers at different levels must produce. Makes your company more productive and easier to scale.

Here's How to Fix it. Humans are great at making quick judgements. Discernment may be one of our superpowers as a species. We immediately come to conclusions about what's going on and what needs to happen next. We say people…

What's up with all the letters? I've been working with a few clients recently who are hiring their first assistant. It's hard for some people and I get why. I imagine it's kind of like having a butler or a…

The problem is the exceptions - and that's the rule! There are so many benefits to systemizing your company. Without systems, work gets done by people with a lot of knowledge, expertise, and intuition. But that wisdom is locked in…

Warning: This is a Nerdy Post. "I don't want to just learn what this guy does. I want my company to learn it." I heard those words from a buyer (we'll call him Bob) who had recently bought his company…

If you can't find enough experts here's a better way. This Post is Based on Two Ideas. The only reason to hire people is that you need them to produce results (which I call outputs). Outputs come from two places:…

How to stop wasting time and get your message across. Ed was a salesman. He practically lived in his car. And often when he was on the road in meetings all day, the team in his office needed to get…

Management is getting work done through other people. It happens differently at the three management levels - even if the same person manages all three.

The difference matters. A lot! Outputs and Systems are all about management. But there's another important aspect of running a company. Leadership. These two words are often confused or interchanged, but they really are separate skill sets. The distinction is…

Yes. Sort of. But that's where the money is. This post is a long answer to a question raised by Tim Ludwig - @tsludwig on Twitter (now X). Tim asked: If you were developing a scorecard or checklist to assess…

But who makes them in your company? The reason you hire people is to produce some output: widgets, or hamburgers, or sales. I wrote a whole book about this Output Thinking: Scale Faster, Manage Better, Transform Your Company. But a…

It's why you hire people. PLUS a Big Announcement. My book, Output Thinking is now available for Pre-order Special. If you pre-order before Dec 5 and email a copy of the receipt to John@CEOBootCamp.com I'll send you a PDF copy…

They all fall into 7 Buckets. We've discussed HERE that the purpose of a system is to produce an output. And we talked HERE about documenting the systems that produce those outputs so they are repeatable & scalable. Those outputs…

Each Requires a Different Type of Documentation. WELCOME! There's been an influx of new subscribers recently so I'll start with a short intro of who I am and what this is about. I've been a business owner for over 40…

There are only seven reasons to spend money or have someone work in your company. It's the lens I see a company thru when I'm helping a client grow their company, make more money and have a better life. I…

Management is a system - with 3 levels. Management is getting work done through other people. We'll discuss the people part in another article - it's just as important. This one’s about the work. If you think about that definition,…

There's actually a maturity scale. In the 1980's Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute along with the US Department of Defense, developed a way to rank the maturity of software systems. They called it the Capability Maturity Model. I have…

A simple tool for making communication easier. Trust is a very important part of any company's culture. It comes from knowing what to expect and "where someone comes from" in other words, their motivation. But motivation is often hidden behind…

Think of your company as a collections of functions rather than a hierarchy of people. People perform the functions to produce an output.

One of the biggest frustrations for any business owner is when an employee doesn't perform to your expectations. The higher level the employee, the worse it gets. The root cause it often a mismatch between our expectations and their performance.…

Learn how functions helped me run a company 1,500 miles from my home. I'll show you the 3 things a company needs to do and how the CEO function can systemize the company to do them better. Why functions with…

In a previous post I discussed the 4 Parts of a Function and why it's useful to see your company as a compilation of functions rather than jobs. If you haven't read that one, it will make more sense to…

Your Organization is Made of Functions Not Jobs. When you think of your company structure, you probably think of people with jobs and job titles. Thinking of people performing functions is a better model. That's because in most companies, many…

I'm on a bit of a rant. But this is important. And I put it in the category of "Management" because as a manager, it's your job to devise and enforce communication standards in your company. Do this and it…

That's a question as well as a headline. I'd love to hear, in the comments below, what's changing for you as your company grows. Here are some things I've noticed in my companies and those of my clients. Even if…

At one extreme, a company is like a one-man band. You do everything. But at the other extreme it's like a symphony orchestra where the conductor doesn't make any of the music the audience has paid to hear. Just like…

. The Capability Maturity Model was developed to rate the maturity of a process for software development. It was funded by the US Department of Defense and written by Carnegie Mellon University in the early 1990s. I've adapted it to…

No question entrepreneurs have a hard time giving up authority, or letting go. Check out this article by Jason Fried of 37 Signals. You often hear business owners say things like “No one can do it as well as I…

Mark Suster just posted a great piece on taking time to THINK as an Entrepreneur. Here’s the money quote (paraphrased). 1. I think the best leaders are Thinkers. They often need teams of people to help them Plan how to…

By "most CEO's" I don't mean most of the people who have CEO on their business card; not those in charge of very large, public companies. Most of us run companies with less than 100 people. In fact, 50% of…

Jason Fried says that the office is a lousy place to get work done because of 2 things: Managers & Meetings. If that's true, then you're not doing it right. And, of course a lot of people aren't doing it…

I almost called this post the ideal team for RUNNING your company. But that would be wrong. You can run it however you want. Some people want to be in charge of everything. Fine. Some want to just do stuff…

The title of this post is a play on the title of one of the best business books I know: Up The Organization by Robert Townsend. Townsend was president of Avis Car Rental in its prime and has some witty…

"What's new since we talked last?" I asked. "Meetings," she said. "I'm doing one-on-ones with my people, like we talked about.". She is a client. Her company makes web sites and on-line products for a specialized industry. They've got a…

What would you pay for a tool that could transmit the wisdom of your smartest people out to everyone in your whole organization? One that is able to reduce errors in the most complex activity and achieve consistent results time…

...is acknowledging what they are worst at. They think they're good (or good enough) at everything. But consider that every company needs to get results in four areas. This means the company needs skills such as: Designing a product customers…

Systems that support, not hinder what people do, and allow them to do it better. Most of us don't think of systems that way. Instead we feel they hinder the "real" us. But, as Seth Godin says here, "If process…

Work is defined as moving objects at or near the surface of the earth, or telling others to do so. The first is uncomfortable and ill paid, the second is more enjoyable and better paid. ~ Old Joke (which isn’t…

I actually believe most small companies have too few meetings. As a result effort is wasted, ideas aren't shared, mistakes take too long to correct, and the cost is high. The problem is that most meetings are run so poorly…