“The more complex the system, the more likely it is to become chaotic.”
Keep it simple!
Coordinate people, goals, and resources. Here is how!
While the Leader Atlas is for your entire team, the Arcade is for you. It has building blocks that are specific to the goals and projects you are personally driving. And it has some of the shared resources that you care to promote, check on, or use often.
The Arcade
The Arcade is a one-page document that links to all your other resources. The one page to rule them all. It should live in your documentation platform – a platform like Confluence.
Here is an example of what a mid-level leader workflow may require.
1. Day-to-day
- Proactive – check operational tools and steer
- Reactive – Flow like a river: delegate, schedule, address
2. Huddle
- Meet regularly and align
- Prepare and keep detailed notes
- Inspire
- …and Listen as the mountain listens
3. Project & initiative roadmaps
- Have a roll-up roadmap
- Have a roadmap for each discipline
- Focus on the top 3 priorities for each discipline
4. Research, Experimentation & Development (RED)
- Never ever become complacent
- Test, make mistakes, innovate, and build
- Keep track of your experiments
5. Operations Review
- Check-in with your doings and progress monthly
6. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Build Operational Tools to gather KPIs
- Fold those in the monthly check-in
- Make it easy for everyone to measure progress
7. Analytical Methods
Make the common and not-so-common frameworks available to everyone. Make everyone comfortable with them. This will help you deploy them easily.
- SWOT
- Case study
- Solutions
- Six Sigma
- Platforms comparison
- Business Case
- Presentation templates
- Strategy pivots
8. Objectives & Key Results (OKRs)
- For the love of Pete have goals!
- Set those yearly, quarterly or whatever makes sense
- Make sure your roadmaps are built in alignment with these
9. Principles
- Be deliberate about culture and build a foundation of principles and values
- Do not just file them away
- Live them and breathe them every day
10. Fundamentals
- Cover the basics so they do not cover you – make these easy to grab
- See Atlas – Part 2 for details
11. Bookmarks
- Make everything else you need and care about easy to garb
- This is efficient and creates WOW moments when you do it on the fly
- Think old research, tool comparison lists, even that presentation on your Cold Brew method