Would a football coach ever think about playing and winning at football without their playbook? A playbook contains offensive, defensive and special team plays with techniques and vocabulary relating to game plays as well as information about team formations. Football playbook’s are given to each team member at the start of the season’s training period.
Why dont’ companies hand out a corporate playbook to all new employees. If companies are serious about winning and dominating their markets you would think they would engage their employees by educating, training and arming them with key information to help them win. By having a playbook everyone in the company knows what kind of talent profile the company is looking for and how to also sell the company to new recruits.
Human resources should orient, train and test new employees on their knowledge of the corporate playbook. A corporate playbook should be concise, informative and to the point. Each section should be point form, a one pager at most and contain easy language to communicate. Make it fun and keep it light. The playbook should be fairly small and contain less than 20-30 pages. Key sections of the playbook should contain the following:
- Company Vision
- Historical Overview
- Key Competitors
- Key Supplier and Co-petitors
- Key Differentiators
- Culture
- Brand
- Hiring Philosophy
- Company finances and you
- What to do if?
The playbook should be updated on a yearly basis but should for the most part remain consistent. A playbook is critical if your company wants to win as it engages employees to share and k now the corporate vision and the key elements that will get it there.
Let me know what your thoughts are or if you require more information on how to design your corporate playbook.
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