Workplace Playbook
The first universal model for how to think and accomplish any task in any workplace. The model applies to everyone and anyone - senior executives, middle managers, or entry level employees.
The playbook delivers the first system for applying the scientific method to accomplishing anything and everything in any workplace anywhere.
The Game Plan
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The Pre Game
Copyright 2009, Ara Bouloutian. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be photocopied, reproduced, or translated into another language without the prior written consent of the author.
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This Scoreboard is a TABLE OF CONTENTS as well as a progress record. As you complete each section the Scoreboard will display a check mark next to the completed section.
THE SCOREBOARD The Pre Game Game Plan Expectations Processes Resources Incentives Skills-Training Feedback Motivation Keeping Score The End Game
"It's what you learn after you know everything that counts." —John Wooden—
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THE WARM UP A Tale About People And The Workplace A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." The woman below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude." "You must be an engineer," said the balloonist. "I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?" "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help." The woman below responded, "You must be in management." "I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know that?" "Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault!" (Author Unknown).
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The objective of the Workplace Playbook is to help people optimize their effectiveness in the workplace to help their employer remain profitable and grow. And if they can do that they will be rewarded with greater earning opportunities and career growth. As a starting point it’s useful to know what a business needs to do to ensure its success. Traditionally the answers to three high level questions indicate the readiness of any business to compete and succeed in the marketplace. The three questions include, having a marketable product, having adequate capital (money), and having effective management. *
Marketable product/service Having a marketable product or service means its features and price are competitive against the leaders in the marketplace, otherwise it may have serious difficulty achieving sufficient sales and profits to remain in business.
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Adequate capital Given there is a marketable product, the second requirement for keeping an organization healthy is, there must be an adequate amount of capital to pay for costs and operating expenses to maintain the business until it is able to break-even or better yet, produce profits.
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Effective management Finally if the first two requirements are healthy, then capable management from top to bottom is a final measure of a healthy organization.
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If any one of the three are lacking, an organization becomes a candidate for failure. The Workplace Playbook focuses on the Effective Management requirement. The sole objective is to help people in any organization, or their own for that matter, become capable of managing themselves, a team, a department or the entire entity. The Workplace Playbook is all about guiding people toward accomplishing anything and everything, no matter their job or rank, such as an entry level employee, middle manager, senior executive, butcher, baker or candle stick maker. The playbook accomplishes this by introducing a unique and rather easy to grasp universal model that holds the rules for everything that takes place in any workplace on the planet. It describes the elements in the model and how they link and work together to resolve any challenge working with others in a manner that is as close to perfect as possible. Once the model and its elements are understood, not only managing will make more sense but any other more detailed management courses one chooses to study will also make a lot more sense. In the world of sports, just because an athlete with honors is selected first by a professional team, does not mean success will automatically follow whether in Golf, Football, Soccer, etc.
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USING THE PLAYBOOK If a person has a reasonably healthy make-up combined with a little curiosity and willingness to learn, this playbook can provide the fundamental thinking and tools for performing any job anywhere including baking a strawberry shortcake and/or getting from Earth to Mars. Will it provide every microscopic detail? No but it will provide the most important tool of organizing your thinking and making certain you touch on and deal with everything necessary to attain whatever it is you are attempting to accomplish. Once understood, anything else you need to learn and do will come far more easily and fall into place very naturally. How you read this book can depend on your experience level in the workplace. Someone with a great deal of experience and knowledge may choose to read the entire playbook, or just selected parts based on need. For those not having a great deal of experience the entire book will provide everything needed to set the stage for success in any job or business. Finally, there are a number of examples in the playbook supporting information from various sections. Many were taken from personal experiences with corporate clients over the years.
So, let the games begin.
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THE SCOREBOARD The Pre Game Game Plan Expectations Processes Resources Incentives Skills-Training Feedback Motivation Keeping Score The End Game
Strange how much you've got to know before knowing how little you know. Author Unknown
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THE GAME PLAN Managing any job from top to bottom is very similar to playing any competitive game. In sports competition, the objective is to work with teammates, follow a plan, and win. It’s no different in any organization. Just as in games, organizations have Game Plans which include rules and boundaries. If the players execute the game plan as perfectly as possible, chances of winning are optimized. In organizations the people holding jobs from CEO to entry level employees are the players. Though different jobs have different roles and responsibilities, they are all from top to bottom agents of the CEO. This means if the organization is operating smoothly, whether there are ten people or ten thousand people there is actually only one person because they are all extensions of the CEO or owner, whichever the case may be. One of the aha’s! you will discover, which ties into the idea that they are all one, is the framework for every job or player is identical throughout any organization. So let’s see what that means and how it makes managing easier.
"It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent. It’s the ones most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin -
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THE THINK MODEL
THINK
The rules that influence how well any job from top to bottom performs are identical, and they are part of this playbook model called THINK.
1. EXPECTATIONS Objectives Sub objectives Job description
The model is the game plan and governs everything about planning, executing, decision making, troubleshooting, and in fact performing any activity in any workplace on the planet – whether CEO or entry level employee.
2. PROCESSES 3. RESOURCES Equipment Tools People Space/Environment Budget
The seven elements and subordinate elements in the model are things people do every day, however, 99% of any population is not conscious of how these commonly familiar terms work together to attain a desired goal. As a result, one or several items may not be considered, which can lead to deficiencies in performance.
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4. INCENTIVES Compensation Communications Recognition Objectives Control
5. SKILLS-TRAINING 6. FEEDBACK 7. MOTIVATION
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DESCRIPTION OF THE ELEMENTS EXPECTATIONS – include the objectives, sub-objectives, and job description, which include everything about a job or mission. PROCESSES – are the procedures and routines people follow to accomplish any goal. RESOURCES - are those things needed to help people complete the processes as efficiently as possible. These include equipment, tools, people, environment, and budget. INCENTIVES - are those things provided to encourage people to perform at the highest levels. They include compensation, communication, recognition, attainable objectives, and control of work. SKILLS-TRAINING - is the means of providing need to know skills for ensuring the very best performance. FEEDBACK - is data and information fed back to people, teams, and leadership for the purpose of reviewing progress toward attaining the objective(s). MOTIVATION - is the internal drive people bring to a job that urges them to optimize performance. If all of the prior elements are ideally in place, people should be motivated to perform.
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THINK 1. EXPECTATIONS When planning anything, if the elements in the model are executed in order, performance should be optimized. If even one or more tactics are not thought through well, deficiencies may result. Similar to dominos, making a change to one tactic, can mean others will need altering as well. In essence, the model transforms work activities and decision making from good guesswork to a near science…a rational process.
Objectives Sub objectives Job description
2. PROCESSES 3. RESOURCES Equipment Tools People Space/Environment Budget
4. INCENTIVES Compensation Communications Recognition Objectives Control
5. SKILLS-TRAINING 6. FEEDBACK 7. MOTIVATION
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APPLICATIONS When you complete this playbook you will recognize how the model influences everything that takes place in the workplace: * * * * * * * * * * * *
Planning a job, mission, project, etc. Estimating potential gain from any effort before starting. Setting objectives Improving on or figuring out a process for getting things done. Figuring out the best resources for executing the processes. Determining the best incentives to optimize performance. Determining the best way to develop need to know skills. Developing feedback to communicate how well people are doing. Monitoring people to be certain they are driven and satisfied. Determining actual gain achieved compared to initial estimates. Doing periodic checks as a continuing improvement process. Communicating with peers, subordinates, and superiors to ensure that everything takes place properly.
The balance of the playbook will be devoted to describing each element of the model including its role, how it is linked to the other elements, how it is sequenced with the other elements, which are easiest and less costly to implement, which are more difficult and more costly to implement, and which deliver the best return on investment. Each section begins with a chart that includes all of the questions one needs to ask along the way to planning or correcting any situation with respect to the element under discussion. It then proceeds to elaborate on each of the questions.
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THE BOTTOM LINE? THINK HELPS SENIOR EXECUTIVES, MIDDLE MANAGERS, AND ENTRY LEVEL EMPLOYEES (EVERYONE) THINK THROUGH: Planning ANYTHING Implementing ANYTHING Correcting ANYTHING… NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS, NOTHING ELSE!
So let the games continue…. An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
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THE SCOREBOARD The Pre Game Game Plan Expectations Processes Resources Incentives Skills-Training Feedback Motivation Keeping Score The End Game
Learning is not compulsory‌ neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993)
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