Okay, so this next section I really want to get into is how do we create powerful playbooks?
And by that I mean, what's a playbook?
So a playbook is a how to do somebody's job or how to do a specific part of doing somebody's
job.
So why does this matter?
And the reason is so that we don't have to explain the same thing over and over.
How many of you find people, you explain something and then you have to tell them again and again.
So this stops that from happening.
And we want to give you a best practice idea which comes from Dan Mattel from his book
Buy Back Your Time.
And he talks about how to build powerful playbooks.
So here's how you build a powerful playbook.
So it matters because everybody needs to do this.
Everyone needs to know how to pass along what they know.
So when we're telling, when we're explaining this to everyone in our team as part of the
leaderboards training is we're saying everybody in the organization needs to do this because
this is how you step up to the next level.
So if you can't train people, somebody else to do your job, you can't step up to the next
job, right?
So we're always working ourselves out of a job so we can go up to a higher job.
And so it's like hitting the copy button and capturing a how to.
It's like an ability almost like go to a photocopy and hitting the copy button on workflow and
on knowledge.
So what do playbooks cover, right?
They how to like simple stuff.
It can be how to lock and unlock the factory.
It can be how to send an invoice correctly.
How to reconcile the financial books.
How to create an offer or a quote for a customer.
How to handle negative customers.
We've talked before about using Starbucks' latte system where LATT stands for their acronym
of how to do that.
How to travel and get reimbursed.
How to hire someone.
How to contract with vendors.
How to negotiate the best price.
How to run payroll.
You get the idea and I'm sure you have 50 how to's you could add immediately to that
list.
So instead of you trying to do it all, start with a few things you do, right?
And then everyone in the team can do this.
So we want each team member, because we're a team of leaders, we want each team member
to build their own playbook.
So playbooks are a great way to capture everything.
Now a playbook covers one main task.
A playbook isn't this is everything I do in my job.
A playbook covers one part of my job.
I unlock the building.
I order stationery.
These little tiny elements or I send out a quote to a customer.
Whatever it is, right?
So we're not talking a playbook isn't trying to build this huge massive.
Think of thin slicing, which we've talked about before.
So we want to capture 80% in the 20% here.
So the key is not to be too detailed.
Assume some intelligence on the other side.
How many times have somebody handed you a guidebook and you're reading it in such steps
you get bored and you're like, how many pages is this?
Nobody wants to do that.
So there's a much easier way.
So we call it the four C's, right?
And the four C's stand for camera, course, cadence, checklist.
Camera, course, cadence, checklist.
Camera means you literally pick up your phone, right?
And you say you make a recording.
If you're on a computer, you can use Loom, which just records your screen.
You can do it on Voxer, Zoom, whatever, but you just record and talk like you were explaining
to a person what to do.
Hey, when I do this, this is where I go.
I click on this.
I go there.
And so if you screen recording, just use something like Loom that will make a video out of that
process or just literally record something with your, with your phone.
So that's what you do.
You just capture on camera.
It doesn't have to be edited.
It doesn't be fancy.
This is not a production.
We're not putting on YouTube.
It's just simple.
Just hit the record button and go.
Number two is then you give the course.
In other words, what are the steps we're going to take?
Well, when I, uh, when I do this function, when I, uh, you know, I'm recording myself,
uh, unlocking the factory floor.
So I come in, I dial in the keypad, then I must remember to go there because that's where
I have to, you know, turn on the lights.
And I do this and I'll make sure because sometimes if you do this instead of that,
then this, this messes with electricity or whatever the quirky little things are about
doing the job.
Here are the steps.
Step one, unlock the door.
Step two, do this.
Step three.
That's all they are then cadence. How often do you have to do this? Right? So if it was like reconciling the books
Well, you should do this once a month
Obviously if it's opening the factory, it's every day or Monday through Friday or whatever the frequency is
So you tell them how often this has to happen. That's a one phrase thing and then the checklist, right?
Here's the checklist. These are the main points the non-negotiable things. They have to check off. Did you unlock?
Did you turn off the alarm?
Did you these are the checklists right? And so what we found out is when you do this
People develop play this now. Why is this helpful?
This is helpful because if something breaks in your in your process
We all have stuff with somebody dropped the ball something happened
And as we always say here at leader forge is that you know, don't get mad at the people fix the process
Well, how do you fix the process you tell them go and make a playbook?
Now that we have a playbook we fix the problem. So this doesn't occur again, right?
So that's the one use of it. The other use of it is if you've just hired somebody new
This is a fantastic way to give them a list of playbooks
So they know how to do every part of their job from the person
They've just taken over from rather than going and bothering the person who's maybe still works there
But if somebody leaves what do you do?
There's this loss of competence this loss of of core knowledge suddenly and it's extremely expensive
To retrain somebody then they go retrain somebody they go playbooks
Captures that value captures that knowledge and hands it to the next person who can then improve on the playbook
so what we do is each playbook has an owner and
That owner is responsible for keeping it up to date and for actually using it, right?
And if somebody if they hand it off, there's a formal you are now the owner of this playbook
So I have a list somewhere where all the playbooks are we do it all in notion and on the notion tables
We can see who owns what playbook and who's responsible?
So now they can watch a video
Right. It's very straightforward. The three these go through the four C's, right?
They can watch the video and they can see the person recording themselves
And then they can see the steps the course they need to go
So for instance if somebody was doing how to hire somebody, right?
They've watched the playbook on hiring. They figured out they've seen these are the I have to place the
You know, I have to place the application in on social media and job boards
I have to narrow the list down to five
I have to send this up five top people and interview with their department manager and then the department manager is going to pick
Their top choice. Okay, something like that
Then the cadence well in this case, you'll do this every time you need to hire someone or in some case
I do this monthly. I have to do this weekly
Right, and then the checklist like did we post the job? Did we receive at least 20 resumes?
These are all the checklist always includes the non
Non-negotiable. So again, those are the four C's pick up the camera make a video. It's not production quality. Just talk to
Lay out the course the steps three the cadence
How often do you need to do this and for create a checklist so that it's really clear
So as we're going through that process, I want to just add a few thoughts that real practical things that have helped us
so
One of the things is when you've done when you've made a playbook
Play it through for somebody who doesn't know anything and see if they can follow it
Now if you haven't got somebody like that do it for yourself go through it again
So pretend you know nothing
Reset your mind and go through the playbook and follow your own steps and see that they actually make sense
And you only have to do that once to make sure the quality is there
Second big thing we've learned is to continually improve your playbooks the first time you do this
You're unlikely to get everything nailed down, right?
So you can add a second video if you have to and you can add more steps in the course
Or you can have more elements in the checklist. Oh, I forgot to check that before we send out emails
We've got to make sure that the links work and that this happens and so forth
So what happens over time is you start to realize certainly these things can have automation tools
There are things that can make it better
Maybe some AI piece or something else, but the whole idea is that you own a playbook
Don't feel like you have to get everything in the playbook the first time 80% is good
And then just tweak it and tweak it and tweak it and so that if you hand it off to somebody else being the owner
They would take on that responsibility