The Seven Systems of Metronomics - The Human System
Ged Roberts
?? Metronomics CEO + Leadership Team Business Coach, ?? Author ??? Podcaster | Showing High-Growth, High-EQ CEOs of $10M+ Businesses how to Achieve Strategic Success in their business and their lives.
It seems obvious, but a company can only be as good as the people in it, so why are so many businesses bad at the human side of their business. Within Metronomics the Human system is there to make sure that you attract, hire, develop and retain as many A-Players as possible; A-Players who are committed to both the company culture and to the achievement of results.?
The human system is very dependent on the cultural system as A-Players ooze the company’s core purpose and core values. But for A-Players to truly deliver great results there needs to be absolute clarity of functional and role expectations and accountabilities and this is where the Human System comes in.?
In Brad Smart’s Topgrading he defines A-Players as the top 10% of people who could work in your business for the salary you are prepared to pay and lays out a process for attracting and retaining A-Players. We develop? his ideas within the Metronomics Human System to include:
Functional Accountability and Key Function Flow Maps
Very early on in the 2 Day Kick-Off (normally within the first 90 minutes) we build out the Organizational Function Chart (adapted from Verne Harnish’s ‘Mastering the Rockerfeller Habits’). This looks at the top-level functions within the organizations and ensures that the right people are allocated to each functional role. We then build the Key Function Flow Map (KFFM) which is a simple representation of how the company makes money. The Key Function Flow Map is the foundation of everything, as it ties all aspects of the company together. It is what ties the widgets to the dollars that the business brings in. The KFFM evolves as the company and the team grows and shows the team a visual representation of how the business is doing.?
Here is an example of a Key Function Flow Map.
Team Assessment
The Team Assessment tool is a simple tool to understand where each individual team member rates against two separate diminsions, Cultural Alignment and Performance. After the Kick-Off, I ask the CEO to assess his leadership team (we do this privately) against these two dimensions to assess who on the leadership team is an A-Player and who is not. As we know, great teams have great A-players. These people work towards making the team better and striving for cohesiveness within the organization. We review this assessment every 90 days and as preparation for the first Quarterly Meeting we also get each leadership team member to assess their own teams against these two dimensions.?
Functional Team View
The Team View is a different take on a conventional organisation chart. Whereas the Org Charts tend to focus on the individual and their title, the Team View shows the functions identified in the Function chart and who has elected to own (take accountability) for these functions. So although it looks something like vonventional organisationl charts we put function first.
Here is an illustration of the Team View - It is not a conventional organisational chart as it focuses on the functions not the people and roles. This means that one person may figure as the accountable person in more than one function so would appear on the chart more than once. It is common for the CEO in the earlier stages of a business' growth to hold CEO accountability AND also accountability for say Marketing and Sales
Function Scorecards
The idea of Job Scorecards was popularized by Brad Smart in his seminal 1999 book “Topgrading”. It was further developed by Geoff Smart in his 2008 book “Who”.?Shannon Susko?further developed this concept within the “3HAG Way” and "Metronomics" Strategic Execution system as the Function Scorecard.
Why are function scorecards so important? Well, a great scorecard helps you increase the proportion of A-Players within your team, an A-Player is the top 10% of available people who you could hire at the salary you are prepared to pay. Great scorecards should achieve the following:
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I wrote a long article on Function Scorecards in May 2021 and you can find this article at this link here.
Quarterly Coaching Reviews
Quarterly coaching performance reviews should take place every 90 days between leaders and each member of their teams. These reviews are very different then what we would know as a traditional performance review; this is a two way conversation.
The team member being reviewed completes a self assessment (normally within the Metronome Software system) and is then reviewed by their team lead and if needed by others on the team.
The review is based on the scorecards the team member owns.? The key sections the team member will be assessed are:??
The last section of the review is where the team member assesses their leader’s performance.? This is a key step to enable feedback in the organisation and for the leader to receive specific feedback on how to grow into a stronger leader and support for this team member.? Examples of these questions are below:
If you are doing this for the first time I recommend that only the team member being reviewed and the team lead participate in the review.
The basis of this review is to have a very good discussion. It should focus on where the team member and the team lead have assessed the areas of the scorecard differently. This is the most important discussion you can have to understand your differences. This is where all the learning will take place as you get clarity on and understand why your ratings on the scorecard differ.
Quarter by Quarter
As we move through quarter by quarter, at each quarterly meeting we review the Function Chart and the Key Function Flow Map. By the third quarter in the Foundation Year (Year 1) we add in the Team Assessment tool to the quarterly meeting so that the teams are assessed at a team level every quarter.
Key Take-Aways
The Seven Systems of Metronomics is a framework that focuses on the key areas of a business in order to improve its performance and achieve its goals and the Human System is one of these seven systems. It is concerned with ensuring that a business has the right people in place to drive success. This system focuses on attracting, hiring, developing, and retaining top talent, known as "A-Players," who are committed to the company's culture and achieving results.
The Human System includes various tools and processes to help businesses identify and retain A-Players, including functional accountability, key function flow mapping, team assessments, functional team views, functional scorecards, and quarterly coaching reviews. These tools help businesses understand their organizational structure, identify areas for improvement, and provide feedback and guidance to employees to help them improve their performance. By implementing the Human System, we’ve seen that businesses can build strong teams and consequently, drive better results.
This article was written by Ged Roberts and Aoife Roberts in December 2022.