If you are the owner, leader or manager of a woodworking business and want to see your shop consistently run better and grow more quickly, then using the following Entrepreneurial Operating System techniques can help you and your team simplify, clarify and achieve your vision.
- Long Term Vision: This includes your Mission, Purpose, and Core Values. The goal is to get everyone in your organization on the same page with where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.
- People and Culture: Getting the right people on the bus is as important as getting the wrong people off the bus. And the ones on the bus must be in the right seats because you can’t achieve a great vision without a great team.
- Measurables and Data: What gets measured gets done. This means cutting through all the feelings, personalities, opinions and egos and boiling your organization down to a handful of objective numbers that can be measured and displayed on Scorecards.
Getting the above three components right will help you create an open and honest organizational culture where you bring to light all the issues in the organization.
- Systematize Key Processes: Easier said than done but identifying and documenting the core processes that run your business is the first step to creating consistency and scalability in your organization. In addition, processes must be trained and followed by everyone in the organization.
- Meeting Rhythm: This is a key component that begins with an annual strategic planning meeting to establish and assess long term objectives along with the upcoming 12-month goals and activities. A quarterly meeting creates theme-based sub-objectives that align with annual and long-term goals and a half day monthly management meeting updates Key Performance Indicators accordingly. The weekly meetings and all company huddles keep the entire company aligned and on track.
