This is a guest post by Trainual Certified Consultant partner, BuildTheProcess.

If your business runs on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS Model®), you’re likely familiar with 90-day “Rocks.”

These “Rocks” help you break down company goals and objectives in terms of 90-day priorities, and get you to assign owners who will see them to completion.

We often see companies set a well-intentioned Rock at the beginning of the quarter to “document their processes,” only to fall short time and time again — or even fail to start. 

Documentation can be a daunting task, but at BuildTheProcess, we help businesses strengthen their Process Component™ (AKA, identifying and documenting their core processes) within 90 days. These are the methods we use:

1. We follow the EOS Process! Process, our guiding light to get processes out of your head, documented, and streamlined. 
2. We also use Trainual, our go-to company playbook builder, to package these newly documented processes.

If you’d like to understand how to do this yourself within 90 days and see why Trainual is the best company playbook software to strengthen your Process Component, keep reading!

90 Days: The Perfect Time Frame

If you run on EOS, we recommend focusing on the Process Component and working in 90-day sprints for two primary reasons: 90 days is in line with a quarterly Rock (which means it is a defined priority to your company) and also gives you enough time to get through all of your core processes. 

Now, if you aren’t running your business on EOS or haven’t tried a quarterly goal setting approach, you might think we’re hyping this time frame for no reason. 

But experience has shown us that when it comes to achieving process goals and changes, 90 days is a perfect number. With a focused team effort, it’s long enough for people to feel confident in getting their processes documented — while being seen as a priority.

Strengthening the EOS Process Component with Trainual — Our Recommended Approach

So, how can you document your processes in 90 days? It’s time to find out!

The EOS model breaks down running your business into six key components. We focus on the Process Component — particularly, the Process! Process laid out by Mike Paton and Lisa Gonzalez in their book, “Process!” (recently published to the EOS Traction library). 

At BuildTheProcess, we suggest following this to a T to ensure your business is falling in-line with the recommended EOS protocol. And this is what we do with our clients, who have been able to level up their processes in 90 days.  Here’s what to do with each step in the Process! Process:

Identify.

You’ll want to start by  identifying and listing out your core processes. At this time, you’ll also want to identify who the process owners are or will be. Process owners are the subject matter experts — they know how the process should be completed (but oftentimes, “the how” it is in their head and not documented). 

BuildTheProcess pro tips:

• Start by listing out the core processes that deliver your value or service to customers (we call these your “money makers”). 
• Do this collaboratively with your team in one room to get the wheels turning. 
• From there, you’ll see that there are other processes which complement or branch off from your money makers — list those, too!

Document and streamline.

With your core processes listed out, it’s time to begin documenting. 

When we work with clients, we collaborate with process owners during time blocked “working sessions” to visually map out and document critical details of each process. 

When documenting with your team, adopt a process mindset and think in terms of “handoffs” by asking yourself these questions at each step:

• Critical Information: What information do I need to complete this step? What information does the person after me need to complete their step?
• Notifications: How is the next person notified? Do I need to notify anyone else when this step is completed? Can I automate this notification to create accountability?‍
• Measurables: Do I need to measure what was done at this step? If so, how is that being captured, and how can I report it to measure success?

When working through this phase, we also identify areas where we can optimize overall process efficiency, accountability, and ownership. It is common to bring in complementary material, such as checklists, email templates, and videos and images during this phase. Within Trainual, you can easily embed this content to support the process moving forward. 

After a process has been documented, we pause to obtain the team's approval to ensure that everyone agrees before we package the process.

BuildTheProcess pro tips:

• We highly recommend you schedule two one-hour long process working sessions per week to ensure progress and accountability throughout this process. (We find Tuesdays and Thursdays work best.)
• We recommend your EOS Company Integrator be the one to track progress of documented processes and hold process owners accountable to getting the work done. 
• For team approval, we recommend gathering everyone involved, printing out the process, and reading it together aloud (like a movie script!).

‍Package in Trainual.

Historically, figuring out where to store documented processes has been tricky. 

But we’ve found that Trainual is the best platform to document and package your processes. The structure and features make it incredibly easy to access, find, and utilize core processes and their content. Plus, Trainual has tons of resources — like help docs, video tutorials, and live demos — to get you up and running quickly! 

In addition, their features play right into the FBA Checklist (more on this in a moment). 

BuildTheProcess pro tips:

• We recommend creating separate subjects for sales/marketing, finance, human resources, and operations. This helps you organize processes based on the major functions of your business running on EOS. 
• Be sure to establish “Roles” when setting up your organization in Trainual and assign them to subjects. These roles — also known as “Seats” on the EOS Accountability Chart — enable you to assign training content, specific to the different  seats and their involvement in the process. 
• Assign your  process owners — AKA, the people responsible for the documentation and upkeep of certain processes — as “Subject Owners.”

Why Trainual Is the Perfect Company Playbook to Get Your Processes FBA

If you aren’t familiar with EOS®, you’re probably thinking “what does FBA mean?”

FBA is an EOS term that stands for “Followed By All,” and the FBA Checklist has four components as laid out in the Process! Process. This checklist is the ongoing effort to Train, Measure, Manage and Update your processes for long term success.

So, how does Trainual help with this? By being an all-in-one solution that helps your company  stay accountable to each part of the FBA checklist. Don’t believe it? Let’s take a look:

Train.

Trainual is the perfect platform for your documented processes as it ensures your team gets their training done. 

The Roles feature allows you to assign subjects to your team while the easy-to-access platform gives your staff the perfect medium to login and complete their training.

Additional features like quizzes are user-friendly and fully customizable to your company. They help boost retention, while making training more interactive.

Measure. 

With Trainual, you can measure individual team member’s training progress, completion and retention of your newly documented processes with the “Reports” tab.  

This gives your leadership the visibility to see which team members have completed training, view their progress, and determine who may need some additional help.  

In addition, now that you have established process measurables which are clearly communicated to your team, you can better understand if your processes are producing the desired results.

Manage. 

With clear documentation in Trainual, managers now have the platform and content to hold their people accountable — something they might have been missing in the past.

As employees adapt to this new way of working, they’ll learn where to access material and go for additional training when they need support.

Managers in your organization can now more easily recognize those who are spending the time to learn and train within Trainual, which translates to results for your business.  

Update. 

With Trainual, Subject Owners (your process subject matter experts) are able to update content easily as you engage your team and find more ways to streamline the process. 

Once updated, Trainual provides the ability to notify employees and have them come back into the program to review and re-train on the new material.

Moreover, unlike handing out paper binders or sharing a Microsoft Word document, you can track whether your employees are reviewing the new material in real time. This adds a level of accountability that most other documentation solutions don’t have.

Final Thoughts: Trainual — An EOS-Friendly Process Documentation Tool

We get it. The Process Component is tough. 

But not knowing which process to begin with, who will document, or where to store these documented processes is costing your business thousands every year. 

And you’re not alone — we hear about these same struggles from companies running on EOS and their Implementers all the time. 

But the solution is not far off — at BuildTheProcess, we’ve seen how a concentrated effort and the right company playbook partner like Trainual can strengthen your Process Component in 90 days.

Ready to get started? Here are our recommended steps:

1. At your next quarterly, assign a company Rock to “strengthen the Process Component & implement Trainual” to your company Integrator. 
2. Establish recurring working sessions twice a week with your process owners. (Hold these as sacred as your L10!)
3. Read Process! and follow the EOS Process! Process
4. Package your processes in Trainual and organize them by sales/marketing, finance, operations, and HR.

Once you’re done with these steps, the power of having everything in one easily accessible company playbook like Trainual means you are well on your way to a strong Process Component where things are Followed By All!

And if you get stuck at any point, BuildTheProcess is always here to help. We exclusively work with companies running on EOS and understand the challenges associated with strengthening the Process Component. Our process experts are here to show you the way!