Run more than one thing

By the end of this track you will have

1. Step 1One written standard, in one file, that every venture you run is scored against.
2. Step 2One operator brief per venture, in a shared place, that a person or a model can work from without asking you a single question.
3. Step 3A four-rung ladder written in your own words, at least twenty of your real actions sorted onto it, and a safety net built for one action that had none.
4. Step 4One table, one row per venture, the same seven columns for all of them, and every cell either filled or marked unverified with a date.
5. Step 5A written closing checklist, and one venture or system actually switched off, verified from outside your own account.

The steps

Each one ends with a check you run yourself. The box is yours to tick when it passes.

1. 1
   Step 1.One operating standard, not one per business

   90 minutesOpen to everyone

   Done means

   The file exists and contains between 8 and 15 checks, every one of them answerable yes or no by someone who is not you. Your scorecard has one row per venture and no empty cells.

   The check passed
2. 2
   Step 2.Write down what only you know

   45 minutes

   Done means

   A brief exists for every venture in your scorecard from step 1, each under two pages, each with a verification date at the top, all eight sections present and filled in rather than left as headings, and no credential written anywhere in any of them.

   The check passed
3. 3
   Step 3.The ladder — what you act on and what you ask about

   40 minutes

   Done means

   One file, four rungs in your wording, at least 20 named actions each carrying a rung number, and every rung-four item on a line naming either the net that now exists or the date you stopped doing it. No rung-two item without a named net.

   The check passed
4. 4
   Step 4.Make every venture report the same numbers

   60 minutes

   Done means

   The file exists, every venture from your step 1 scorecard has exactly one row, all seven columns are populated with either a number or the word unverified plus a date, and the definitions list has one line per column stating what that number excludes.

   The check passed
5. 5
   Step 5.Kill things on purpose

   30 minutes

   Done means

   The closed thing returns a closed page or a 404 from a signed-out browser on a device that is not yours, its scheduled tasks report enabled false with no next run time, its payment subscription shows cancelled in the processor, and your numbers table from step 4 has exactly one fewer row than it had this morning.

   The check passed