This step include Identifying and documenting your core business processes, such as HR, marketing, sales, operations, accounting, and customer retention. This ensures clarity and alignment within your leadership team regarding their roles and responsibilities.

Time to document your core processes. The accountable person leads this step. Make sure you’ve identified your core processes in advance. Follow the 20/80 rule: focus on the vital 20 percent for 80 percent of the results. Keep it concise.

Once you’ve documented your core processes in Steps 1 and 2, Step 3 makes it easy. Take all the great work you’ve done, use your core process titles as your table of contents, and turn each documented process from Step 2 into a section. You can organize these neatly in a binder or on your company’s intranet for easy access.

To implement this crucial step, your leadership team must be fully committed to the idea that everyone should follow one system. Creating a clear visual of your way is essential. Business processes are often abstract, so a visual representation helps everyone understand and follow the system.