It is easy to feel sure a business has structure just because someone once wrote down who does what. According to the booklet, structure is tested with questions about what happens in practice, and any other declaration proves nothing. The test applies to a business of four people exactly as it does to a company of two hundred, and structure that passes it holds even through hard stretches.
A word that has gone hollow
The source warns that the term itself has worn thin. In its view the form of the organisation matters far more than anyone has ever given it attention, and yet for most people it stays a very vague term.
The booklet's plain definition of the form of the organisation is who is responsible for what, and which work passes to whom. Once a term wears thin, it turns into a slogan. People say there is a structure, hang a sheet on the wall and stop checking whether it happens.
Suppose an owner who was sure he had a structure. In practice, enquiries reached him by WhatsApp, by email, by phone and on Instagram, and none of them landed in the same place.
Or an owner who wrote a role for every employee. In practice three of the four were doing something else, and the sheet stayed on the wall.
Test it with questions about what happens
The source suggests a way to check: ask questions about the structure. Its questions look at concrete things, such as where the structure sits and what actually moves inside it, and the booklet translates each one for a small business.
One of them, for example, asks whether the people named on the board really do the jobs written next to their names. It is a plain question, and it catches exactly the structure that exists only on paper.
The previous chapter of the booklet calls that board the base of the business, like the concrete floor under a motor. The questions in this chapter check whether the floor exists, or whether you only have a drawing of it.
The difference between declaring and testing is the difference between a sheet on the wall and an ordinary working day. Only the second tells you whether you have a structure.
Now take the owner with the role sheet, after a week spent checking what each person really does. She corrects the sheet to match reality, and from that point things can start to change.
As true for four as for two hundred
According to the booklet, this is the line that justifies the whole subject for a small business. The source says the form of the organisation is routinely missed, and that this is as true “for an org of four staff members as it is for one of two hundred.”
The booklet presents this as a claim, so it deserves to be taken seriously. Structure is the same problem in a business of four and in a company of two hundred, and the small business is the more exposed one, because there is no slack to absorb the failure when it comes.
Suppose a business of three where one person falls ill. The business is paralysed for two weeks, because one whole role lived in a single head.
In a company of two hundred, nobody notices when someone is ill. It is the same problem with a different amount of slack.
Or a garage of four that wrote three lines of responsibility for each person. When one of them was out, the other two knew exactly what was about to fall through.
Established structure holds through a hard stretch
The booklet also gives the encouraging side. According to the source, once you have established the form of the organisation and really worked to establish it, the chance of knocking it out is very slim. In its words: “It doesn't disestablish easily.”
The source lists what can still happen. The organisation can become confused, the figures can go down and the income can stop. What is very hard is taking the structure apart.
Notice the condition: establish it, and really work to establish it. A sheet that was written and hung up has not done that yet. This is where the two halves of the chapter meet, because the questions that test whether you have structure are also the way to tell whether you have established it.
So it is worth knowing before you invest. According to the booklet, structure is the one investment in a business that is hard to lose. Equipment ages, a customer leaves and an employee resigns. Structure that has been embedded stays, even through a bad stretch.
Suppose a business that goes through a very hard year. The numbers fall, and still nobody has to explain to anyone what their role is.
Or an owner who replaces two of her three employees. The procedures outlast both of them, and the new hires are productive within two weeks.
This chapter of the booklet has two exercises, one built on four questions and one that tests what happens when a person is absent. The next chapter turns to the roles you fill without knowing you fill them.
Structure that exists only as a declaration stays on the wall. Structure that has been tested against what actually happens stays in the business, even when the numbers fall.