Process Isn’t a Noun. It’s a Verb.

Routinely I’ll have a conversation with an Integrator trying to tackle the infamous Process Component and they’re frustrated.

I’m the Founder and Visionary of PlaybookBuilder, an EOS® licensed partner for the Process Component…so I have my fair share of these conversations.

Arguably, it’s the least popular of the six and perhaps for good reason – so the person I’m chatting with is usually some combination of confused, irritable, or just so overwhelmed by the topic they look exhausted.

And you know exactly what I mean, don’t you?

We don’t have time.
Nobody owns it.
My visionary could care less.
We’re not really sure what to do.
Or the worst, We did it… Now they’re sitting in some software no one uses.

All fair. All valid! And it’s widespread.

My opinion? It’s because Process is chronically misunderstood.

Somehow, some way, Process got relegated into being a Rock for the quarter or a document binder someone would possess. Essentially, it is all too often considered a fixed, static item you’d have, instead of something you would do.

Perhaps that’s because most of the best thinking on the topic was written before the Digital Age, when things moved a little slower.

In Michael Gerber’s world, documentation was an activity that might last you a good year or two. Seriously, how much change is pie-making liable to undergo in the course of a year Sarah? Even Gino didn’t have a smartphone when he wrote Traction. Those just didn’t exist yet.

Today, with the pace of change, the dynamism of a small business, AI, and an unstable economy… processes change before the ink dries. Teams get change fatigue. It’s real.

My advice is we change the frame.

It’s a big ask, but as Dan Sullivan of the Strategic Coach used to say, “All progress starts with telling the truth.” So let’s.

If we stop looking at Process as a Rock this quarter or an activity with an end…and instead respect the fact that it’s a business function just like sales and marketing… we can adapt.

So in practical terms?

Someone needs to own it. Yep. And it’s not you, my dear Integrator. Imagine a Seat or at least a Role called BUILDER and it’s all they do. Perhaps it’s only 3-4 hours a week. But they need to be doing it all the time, because you’re never not growing, your people are never not learning, and your organization is never going to stop evolving.

So if you really want FBA and believe in the power of it, you need processes to drive outcomes. If you want Scorecard numbers that are On Track each week? You need to abolish words like, “no one told me” from the company vocabulary. And if you want to transform your business into a Traction-gaining machine that can scale, run healthy, and perhaps be sold one day…

Treat Process like a VERB.

– Jon LoDuca