Your Your First Boxes in Box Theory™ Software
Let’s re-emphasize a few of things about “boxes” as you begin working with them.
First, think of boxes as building blocks—each with a specific purpose—to accomplish the mission and goals of your organization.
In step nine of the Organization Blueprint, you first create boxes on an Organization Chart which shows your major business functions and activities.
The boxes of the Organization Chart then become the basis for the System Framework that you begin filling out in step ten. Gradually, the System Framework will grow to include all the systems/boxes in your organization.
In Box Theory™, terms like process, system, task, or step are all different words to describe a box. Up and down the organization, every business activity is a box, even though you may frequently use these other terms.
What goes on inside a box gets more specific and detailed as you drill-down in the organization. For example, a marketing box contains a more detailed lead-generation box, which includes even more detailed boxes such as radio advertising, telemarketing, or direct mail. Problems are often solved and money is made by what you do in these lower-level systems or boxes.
As mentioned, not all boxes (systems) are of equal value, so you spend most of your time working on the few that matter most—refining the important boxes so they get desired results, and fixing the broken boxes that are holding your organization back. You will ignore many systems/boxes until they become more significant as your business grows or matures.
It is best to get your basic business systems organized in the System Framework before you actually start working on them. Moving boxes around, changing names, and configuring your organization is more convenient while the boxes are “empty.” However, don’t try to create all the boxes in your organization at the beginning. You’ll likely end up re-doing many. Add the department level and two lower levels first. Then focus effort on the specific area of the business where you will be concentrating your system development work.
The name you give a box is a brief description of its role as a task or step within a process. I usually name high-level boxes by their business function such as Hiring, Payroll, or Website. As you create boxes at lower and more detailed levels, names will become more specific, like “Interview the Job Candidate” or “Send Follow-up eMail.” The box name should be descriptive enough to understand the nature of the system; however, it is best to use as few words as possible. You can add any amount of detail in the Purpose/Description field when creating a new system/box.
The Purpose/Description of a box is a statement that further describes the role or purpose of that box as a step within a process or a task on a checklist. Write in the Purpose/Description field exactly what you want a person to do to carry out the task successfully.
When you add a system or box in either the left-side Navigation Panel or the System Framework, the other is also updated. In addition, the new box is placed on your Flowchart grid and added to the Checklist. This will save time when you go to complete either of these items.
Think “systems” in general, but focus improvement efforts on specific boxes until you get the results you are looking for. Once you get the hang of it, the concept of boxes is very intuitive and logical. It will become second nature, and you will become a boxaholic!
Keep up the good work!
Ron Carroll
Better Systems
Better Business