A proposal has a lot of different purposes, but there’s only one good way to write one: the way that pulls together all of the information in a concise and persuasive way and helps you get what you want … whether that’s a whole new software system, or just a tweak to your marketing strategy.

This Process Street article isn’t about a business proposal — also known as a quote — but instead about the document required when formally pitching an idea for action and execution by managers or department heads.

To explain how to write a proposal document and get what you want, we’ll go through the following:

• Free proposal writing template
• When are proposals necessary?
• Why are proposals important?
• Examples of proposals
• How to write a proposal: step-by-step
• Last steps before submitting the proposal
• More free proposal writing checklists
• Even more free proposal writing checklists
• Customize your proposal checklists with Process Street

Let’s get started.
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Every few months, the idea of the four-day workweek starts trending. And it’s not just making the rounds on TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit. Big publications like Forbes and Time also frequently cover the topic.

As more and more countries introduce bills advocating for the 4-day workweek and as more and more studies show the benefits of it, the clearer it becomes that this is not going anywhere anytime soon.

But why is that? Is the four-day workweek as good as people are saying? Is it something companies need to start adopting?

In this post, we will discuss:

• What is the four-day workweek?
• Where did the four-day workweek come from?
• Pros of the four-day workweek
• Cons of the four-day workweek
• Why you’re going to keep hearing about the four-day workweek

When I started at Process Street, I was just a writer. I had the organizational skills of a child, and I was used to delivering a single piece of work at a time. As I was given more responsibilities, I started forgetting my regular tasks and working on whatever seemed important at that moment.

Since every task management system I’ve tried has quickly become crowded and unmanageable, I decided to create a Process Street checklist specifically for my recurring weekly tasks.

Now, I get a simple list of tasks in my Process Street inbox every week. As I work through them, I can track my weekly progress and use the checklist as a way to report my work to my manager. You can do the same, and it only takes about 10 minutes.

Here’s my checklist:

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If you’re a Systems Administrator or performing any kind of IT managed service, your daily tasks are often repetitive, complicated, and easy to forget.

Especially if you’re new to the role, things can quickly become overwhelmingly difficult to track & execute effectively. New employees have a library of techniques specific to your setup to learn, and it’s almost impossible to manually track each task in a way that’s easily accessible.

That’s why IT managed service teams worldwide use Process Street to manage & automate their daily workflows, for processes like:

• Network & server security audits
• Reviewing audit logs
• Performing daily backups
• Penetration testing
• VPN configuration
• Firewall audits

In this Process Street article, we’ll show you some examples of how our customers manage their daily Systems Administrator & IT tasks.

You’ll learn everything from how to create workflows that adapt to your current situation to automatically assigning tasks to specific people based on their role in the team.
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“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.” – George Patton

“Once I have X, I can do Y.”

This phrase is the defining characteristic of the toolbox fallacy: thinking you can’t do something until you have the right tool.

The toolbox fallacy is self-deception disguised as excuses or a lack of “tools”. The issue with these tools is that you believe that you need them and thus, can’t (or won’t) start a project without them.

“As soon as my Apple Watch arrives, I’ll start training for the 5K.”

The problem is when X arrives, do you crack on and get started with the Y? Often times, it’s too easy to continue down the slippery slope of toolbox logic.

“My Apple Watch arrived, but now I need a coaching app – which I am yet to have downloaded.”

So, how do you overcome the toolbox fallacy? Simple: You default to action. In other words, you get the ball rolling – whether you have all the tools you think you need or not.

The solution, in a sense, is to be more agile.

In this post I’ll be looking at how to overcome the toolbox fallacy by putting the systems in place to move fast, and with virtue. I’ll try to address:

• How do you plan and structure clear action items, so you can move fast and be sure you’re making the right decisions?
• How will you move fast without breaking things (by things I mean humans)?

And, to sum things up I’ll take a look at how we at Process Street use OKRs to decide when it is we should be moving fast vs when we should be slowing down.

To jump to a specific section click the appropriate links below:

• Toolbox fallacy: Once I have X, I can do Y
• Moving fast with the toolbox fallacy
• A framework to move fast (& with virtue)
• How our OKRs help us avoid the toolbox fallacy

Let’s start by unpacking the toolbox fallacy in more depth! 🛠
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Every decision in an M&A is dependent on a number of variables. Making the right decision in the moment may not be the right decision down the road, but making no decision at all is worse.

The most impactful decision, though, is how the two companies will integrate (or not) once the deal closes. To some extent, this will be determined by your motivation for starting the M&A process to begin with. The similarities and differences between your business model and the business model of the company you’re acquiring will play a large role as well.

In this Process Street post, I’ll do a quick rundown of the two primary strategies, tuck-in and bolt-on, as well as everything you need to know in order to determine which is the strategy for your business.

• Round 1: Tuck-in vs. bolt-on: Debrief
• Round 2: Tuck-in vs. bolt-on: Pros
• Round 3: Tuck-in vs. bolt-on: Cons

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“The global property management software market size was valued at USD 1.58 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2% from 2020 to 2027.” – Grand View Research, Property Management Software Market Size

Real estate is evolving. And technology – or to be more specific – top property management software is the driving force behind the evolution.

Fortunately for all of you real estate market players, this post is here to help you get clued up on all things tech, so you can stock your property management digital toolkit.

To find out about top property management software and to understand how it can help you mitigate human error, enhance communication, save time, and automate recurring tasks – keep on scrolling.

Or alternatively, to skip to a specific section, click the links below:

• An introduction to property management software
• How can top property management software streamline your processes
• Top property management software
• Useful real estate tools
• Further resources for your real estate toolbox

Let’s get started! 🏘
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Growing up on an island, my favorite food was in abundance: Fish.

However, whenever I ate at a restaurant there was always a voice in the back of my head wondering if the fish had been mismanaged and, due to that mismanagement, I’d get sick.

My anxiety around food safety wasn’t exactly unfounded. Fish is the most commonly impacted food group when it comes to disease outbreaks, and a quarter of a million people in the U.S. get sick each year from contaminated fish. And when it comes to all food groups, the CDC estimates that a whopping 1 in 6 Americans (which equates to 48 million people) become ill each year due to foodborne illness.

However, by not coming at food safety with a HACCP approach – and by creating and following a solid HACCP plan – these figures could be far, far higher.

Ergo: HACCP is important and, as a business in the food industry, you can even be required by law to go about HACCP properly.

To help you out, in this post I’ll discuss what HACCP and a HACCP plan are in detail, HACCP’s history, the benefits, and how Process Street can help you with all-things HACCP and food safety.

Just read through the following sections:

• What is HACCP (and what is a HACCP plan)?
• The incredible history of HACCP
• The benefits of HACCP (and having a HACCP plan)
• Use Process Street for all-things HACCP!

Let’s swim through the rest of the post! 🐟

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Value capture is, in essence, the end-all, be-all of a company’s life-cycle. Yes, you likely have other motivations for starting your company, but without capturing any value, your company will have a very short lifespan.

When it comes to acquisitions, if you don’t have a good strategy to drive value capture, you’re not only wasting your time, but hobbling your future potential in the process. If you look at some notable examples like Daimler Chrysler and Sprint/Nextel, it’s pretty clear that a bad deal will stick to you for a long time.

You might even end up as a cautionary tale for future M&A executives. No one wants that. Aspire to be the Apple of acquisitions. You can do that by focusing on four distinct levers that drive 80% of value capture.

Four things. They’re not even difficult things.

So in this Process Street post, I give you the rundown of the four levers you need to prioritize during your acquisition, and exactly why they make such an impact:

• Pursuing the ever-elusive value capture
• Lever #1: Utilize your functional teams early in the acquisition process
• Lever #2: Complete your commercial & operational due diligence before closing
• Lever #3: Assess the revenue & cost synergy potential of the deal
• Lever #4: Develop a realistic strategic operating model design

Let’s get to it!
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Imagine a military regiment holding a position of key tactical importance, let’s say a bridge. Situational awareness is crucial. The success of the operation depends on access to information that can inform situational awareness, and provide tactical & strategic advantage. In other words, a situation where information is nothing short of vital.

Such a regiment would have access to a large-scale technological intelligence network: aircraft spotters, satellite-mounted motion sensors, heat detectors, and communication eavesdroppers. Commanders with high-bandwidth taps into the supporting intelligence network should have access to vital information to enable decision-making while in the field.

Now let’s imagine that an opposing force seven times the size of this regiment began approaching from three directions. Such a force should not be difficult to detect given the field intelligence available; yet that’s exactly what happened according to David Talbot’s story published in 2004’s MIT Technology Review about the U.S. Army’s 69th Armor Regiment holding a key bridge on the Euphrates River in 2003.

This story perfectly illustrates the problem of vertical vs horizontal knowledge.

The problem was, front-line troops had terrible situational awareness because the flow of information was inhibited by a vertical command-and-control structure (rather than a horizontal flow).

Information had to travel up the chain of command so that major commanders in the rear could interpret it, and then send their decisions back down the line. This resulted in huge latency; the information was there, it just wasn’t getting to the people who needed it when it mattered most.

Talbot’s story goes on to contrast the organizational structure of SPEC-OPS forces organized into small teams of two-dozen; rather than being linked to a single central command, the teams were networked to each other with a designated individual per team responsible for managing flow of information (between their team and the others’).

In these special forces units, flow of information was “flat”, or horizontal; leadership contributions & decision making involved every team member, not just the official designated leader.

In this Process Street article, we’ll be looking at how you can implement horizontal knowledge management in your organization.

• Horizontal vs vertical knowledge
• Achieving operational excellence with horizontal knowledge
• 4 step guide to horizontalize knowledge in your organization

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