HOW IT WORKS

We read one job. You choose the next one.

Growth lands on a few jobs. You name the one it depends on most. We read it against your plan at 6, 12, and 24 months.

Book 15 minutes

We ask about your business. No pitch. If we do not see a fit, we say so.

THE WORK, IN ORDER

Three steps. The third one is the plan.

  • 01

    The baseline

  • 02

    The gap

  • 03

    The plan

The full steps, and what we need from you.
  1. 01
    The baseline.

    We start with the function's numbers: what it is measured on and where it misses. Then we go to the floor and read the work where it happens.

    If nothing is written down, we start from the numbers and the floor.

  2. 02
    The gap.

    With you, we set the bar: what the job requires on six skills, today and at each horizon. We read what the person shows now. The difference, skill by skill, is the finding.

  3. 03
    Your plan, and what comes first.

    We put the finding inside your plan. Which gaps sit in front of the money you committed. Which can wait. Where the development dollars go first. You hold the plan, in priority order.

The gap is not the value. The plan for what the job needs next is.

The read exists to make one plan: how to get a person ready for a job that is changing, starting from what they already do well.

What we need from you
  • Your plan, with the dates and the money already on it.
  • The numbers the function is measured on.
  • A walk on the floor where the work happens.
  • Time with the person in the job and the person they report to.

What we do not need: access to your systems or your payroll.

AGAINST YOUR GROWTH PLAN

The skill each milestone needs, named before the date.

EXAMPLE
Now
6 months
12 months
24 months
Your plan
Day to day
First site starts
First site opens
Two more sites
The job needs
Reads a capital budget.
Holds contractors to a finish date.
Gets a landlord to act on one message.
All four, plus the day job.
The example, in full.

Example. A composite, not a client.

An operations leader at a growing company runs the day to day. Orders go out. Invoices go in. The numbers hold.

Then growth arrives. The plan adds new sites, and the build-outs land on the leader who has earned the trust. The title barely moves. The job does. The four new skills it now needs are not written anywhere:

  • Reading a capital budget, not only an operating one.
  • Coordinating outside contractors to a finish date.
  • Deciding on site, with a cost and a benefit named, when the case is new.
  • Getting a permit office or a landlord, who does not know the business, to act on one message.

Things start to slip between the day job and the build-outs. The review looks at the person. The job description still describes the old job.

In the read, those four skills get named against the dates the plan needs them.

What the leader already does well goes on the page first. Then the plan says what to develop, in what order, and what to hand off.

WHAT YOU KEEP

The documents stay with you.

  • 01The requirement.
  • 02The read.
  • 03The plan.
  • 04The job profile.
YOUR CHOICE

One job first. How far it goes is your call.

  • 01One job.
  • 02The job behind it.
  • 03One layer.
  • 04Your growth plan.
The four shapes, and when this is not the right first step.

The work starts with one job and can end there. Here are the four shapes it can take, from the first job out.

  1. 01
    Where it starts: one job.

    The job the committed money lands on. Read against today and the next 6, 12, and 24 months. What you hold: the four documents above.

  2. 02
    The job behind it, when someone moves up.

    When a person moves up, part of the old job's work is often not written down. We read that job and put the handoff on paper.

  3. 03
    One layer.

    Every job at one level, read against the same plan. Each job keeps its own bar. What comes out is one development plan for the layer, ordered by what the plan needs first.

  4. 04
    Your growth plan.

    Your plan names the milestones. We read each job a milestone depends on, one at a time, so the skills are on the list before the date. The plan stays yours.

If no money is committed and no job is tied to a date, this is not the right first step. We say so on the call.

When the plan moves

A read is a picture of one point in time, not a forecast. Plans move. A milestone slips, a job changes, a person gets there early.

When your plan moves, we can read the job again against the plan you have then. That is your call, not a standing appointment. Nothing on this page assumes your plan holds still.

We cannot promise results. We can read what the job needs at each horizon and put it on paper.

THE METHOD

Six skills. One ladder. Measured against the job.

The ladder, 0 to 4
  • 0Not demonstrated
  • 1Only alongside someone
  • 2Right when checked
  • 3On their own, to standard
  • 4Changed the standard
The six skills, and the rules every number follows.

A seat is one job in one place. Every seat sets a required level on six skills, 0 to 4. Every person in the seat gets an observed level on the same six. The gap between them is the finding.

The six are the skills a seat still asks for once the technical training is done.

Each of the six is a named element in O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, so a level means the same thing at every employer.

  1. 01
    Number sense and financial read

    A quantity they go to and act on. Money is one case. Waste, minutes, and defects are others.

    At the barReads the change, not only the level, and acts on the difference.

    What short looks likeThe number reaches them and nothing changes.

  2. 02
    Decision ownership

    Decisions made and carried when the situation appears, and the people affected told.

    At the barDecides on the spot, names a cost and a benefit, tells the people affected.

    What short looks likeThe call gets pushed up or put off.

  3. 03
    Context inference

    Tracing what a change does beyond their own area, with a size attached.

    At the barTraces the effect out of their own area, two steps, with a rough size.

    What short looks likeThe break is not caught before it hits the numbers.

  4. 04
    Cross-floor read

    Adjusting to what others are doing before it costs anyone time.

    At the barAdjusts before the collision and tells the other side without being asked.

    What short looks likeThe plan breaks and the next shift pays for it.

  5. 05
    Communicating and presenting

    Said once, to people without the context, so they can act.

    At the barSays it once to an audience without the context, and they can act.

    What short looks likeProblems never get flagged to the layers above.

  6. 06
    Difficult conversations

    The conversation the other party does not want, held so the standard and the relationship survive.

    At the barHas it on their own. Names the behavior and the standard. It stays changed.

    What short looks likeThe conversation that would fix it is avoided.

Every level is a behavior we can see, be shown, or be told with a date. A seat sets its own bar on each skill.

Level 3 is the standard most jobs set. Level 4 is rare by design: the person changed the standard and it is still in use.

The rules every number follows
  • In our own record, a number sits against a skill and a job, never beside a name.
  • Your scores stay with you. Nothing leaves with your company's name or a person's name on it.
  • The bar belongs to the job, not the title. Two seats can carry different bars on the same skill.
  • Conditions are written next to the number.Pay, scheduling, process, training, whether it is safe to be wrong.

    The test: if the site changed and the person did not, would this number move? If yes, it is a fact about the site. It is recorded as a condition, not a score.

  • Two skills need a real event. Decision ownership and difficult conversations are rated only from a dated event, never from an impression.
NEXT STEP

Start with the job your plan depends on.

George Zamora, Co-Founder. 17 years in HR and operations. Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. SHRM-SCP. English and Spanish.

What would help most?

We ask about your business. No pitch. If we do not see a fit, we say so.