I’m not much of a sports person. Ask my husband. Besides hockey (Go Preds!) I could care less about watching an organized sport on television. Which was why, shockingly enough, I spent the better part of New Year’s day watching a rugby match.

It took me down a deep hole researching rugby. 

Here’s what I learned – like every sport rugby has its own set of fundamentals. How to pass, tackle properly, and score. Surprisingly, watching a sport I had very little exposure to made it much more clear to me what the fundamentals of the game were.

Similarly, our son is interested in baseball and we are spending HOURS in the front yard working on the basics. Even though he is pretty skilled for his age, we are still working on repetition of the foundations of the sport. Mundane? Absolutely. Boring? Sometimes.

But absolutely necessary.

There are parts of running a team or business that can be considered “fundamentals”. Foundational to success. Without them, you may be successful but there is extra work/ effort involved. 

Whats considered fundamental to people processes in a business?

—> Well written and accurate job descriptions. Sure, you can make it up as you go, but hiring and delegating is MUCH HARDER without the help of this essential tool.

—> A standardized onboarding process. Too many times, knowledge-based business build their team orientation and training on “follow Joe around” (having new employees shadow an existing employee).

—> Feedback processes that work. Now, more than ever, creating methods to drive feedback are increasingly difficult due to asynchronous, hybrid or remote work.

—> A solid employee handbook. I know! I should like a HR monster here. But the handbook you have in place creates the foundational contract for behavior of your team.

Sometimes considered mundane, boring or even unnecessary, building processes such as these. can lead to hiring the best candidate, clearly defining expectations, and effectively planning for the future.

For years, I’ve worked with clients on projects just like these. And while we often talk about the excitement of coaching, training and change management, its getting the fundamentals like these right that really set your business apart.