Business operating systems
What a business operating system is, what it includes, and how teams use one to stop re-litigating the same decisions every week.
What it is
A business operating system is the shared set of decisions, cadences, tools, and review gates a company uses to run itself — written down and reused.
It is the difference between a team that depends on a few key people to remember how things work, and a team that can hand work off cleanly.
Common pieces
Examples include a weekly planning loop, a shared backlog, a clear intake form, a single place strategy decisions are recorded, and named owners.
Common questions
- Do small teams need one?
- Small teams benefit the most. Lightweight written cadences free leaders to think instead of repeating context every week.