Output Thinking: Scale Faster, Manage Better, Transform Your Company

everybody that needs to have access to the information also must be able to find it easily and quickly.

Those basic outputs for a company are: Serving customers: making something customers want to buy. Selling: finding those customers and selling to them. Supporting: doing all the back-office work that keeps the production and sales happening (e.g., finance, HR, facilities). Scaling: increasing the capacity to produce and sell.

The TRIGGER is what starts the process.

The outputs of upper-level management include a clear strategic direction for the company along with plans and resources to achieve that strategy.

The output of a good team leader is a more effective team. They make sure the team members have what they need to do a good job. That starts with a clear understanding of what a good job looks like: the outputs that constitute good work. But people need more than clarity. They need tools, training, and time to do good work.

You really should encourage people to update the documents any time there’s an improvement in how things are done. But a regularly scheduled update is a good backstop.

Honesty means … We are known for candor and directness. We give considered and constructive feedback. We are quick to admit mistakes. We never talk behind another person’s back.

Parceling out problems requires a process known in the medical world as triage: assessing the urgency of the problem and matching it with the person who can best solve it. Good triage is an output in its own right.

the documentation is for training how to do the process and the instances are for managing the process in action.