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Make Business Operations AAAwesome

Awareness → Action → Amplify ▪ Operational Memory ▪ A.I. Scaling

Seek Out Friction, Test Solutions, Elevate Successful Outcomes

Most teams are drowning in ideas and starved for follow-through.

You have strategy decks, dashboards, brainstorming sessions, and now A.I. on top. Yet the same problems return. A few heroes hold everything together. When they leave or get promoted, wins quietly disappear.

AAAwesome is a simple loop that stops déjà vu dysfunction and builds operational memory so the organization can remember what works and repeat it on purpose.

Awareness + Action + Amplify = AAAwesome

It gives your people a way to turn everyday friction into better systems. A small change at a time. A team at a time. Then across the whole company.

Answers 6 Important Questions

Why do the same problems keep coming back?
How can we test change in real work without slowing everything else down?
What is the smallest loop that works for individuals, teams, and leaders?
How do we keep wins from dying in decks, chats, and hallway conversations?
How can we turn "that works when Kelly is here" into "this is how we do it here"?
What rhythm keeps improvement moving without becoming a giant program?

View 44 Helpful Terms

AAAwesome: A simple operating loop that turns everyday friction into repeatable systems through Awareness, Action, and Amplify.
A.I.: Tools that help you draft, analyze, and summarize. A helper for human judgment, not a replacement for it.
Awareness: The moment you notice where work slows down, breaks, or drifts away from what "good" should look like.
Awareness Log: A simple list where people capture friction, questions, and repeat issues in real time.
Action: 1 small, time-boxed change tested in real work to see if it improves the situation.
Action Tracker: A short list that records what you tried, when, with whom, and what happened.
Amplify: The step where you turn a successful test into "the way we do it here."
Amplified Practices: The short set of checklists, templates, and habits that record the current best way to do something.
Backbone Behavior: The cues, rewards, and rituals that make the right behaviors the default in daily work so culture holds even when nobody is watching.
Boilerplate: Standard, reusable text or documents used with minimal change. Often adds formality more than clarity.
Cadence: The regular rhythm where the loop runs, such as a weekly standup or monthly ops review.
Coal Mine Canary: An early warning that something is going wrong. The phrase comes from a historical mining practice of using canaries to detect unsafe air.
Checklist: A simple list of steps that makes the right way faster and easier than the old way.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management): A system used to track leads, customers, deals, and related communication in 1 place.
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction): A basic score that shows how customers feel about a specific interaction or service.
Ethos: The character, values, and credibility of a person or group. It can persuade people by demonstrating trustworthy subject-matter expertise.
Executive: A CEO, COO, or senior leader who controls priorities, budgets, and long-term change.
Friction: Any point where work feels harder than it should: delays, confusion, rework, or "why is this still like this?"
Frontline Contributor: The person doing the work. Often the first to see friction and the first to know what might help.
Handoff: The moment when work moves from 1 person or team to another.
Health Metric: A number that shows whether a process is staying stable while you change it, such as reopen rates, defect counts, rework hours, or backlog size.
Heroics: Extra individual effort used to save broken processes in the moment instead of fixing the system that caused the fire.
Hypothesis: A clear, testable guess about what is happening or how 2 or more things are connected.
Integrator: The person who connects changes in 1 area to other systems, tools, or teams so nothing breaks.
Key Person: Someone whose knowledge, relationships, or decisions are critical to daily operations. If they step away, important work slows down, stalls, or becomes harder to do consistently.
Loop: 1 cycle of Awareness, Action, Amplify for a specific problem.
Macro: A saved reply or script that standardizes how you handle a common situation.
Manager / Team Lead: The person responsible for a team's workload, habits, and outcomes.
Metric: Any number you track on purpose. Good metrics tell a small, clear story.
NPS (Net Promoter Score): A metric that reflects how likely customers are to recommend you, usually measured by asking, "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?"
Onboarding: How you help new people become productive and confident in a reasonable time.
Operational Memory: The organization's ability to remember what works and reuse it on purpose, even as people, tools, and priorities change.
Operating Rhythm: The recurring pattern of meetings, reviews, and working sessions where the AAAwesome loop runs.
Outcome: The real-world result you want to change with AAAwesome, usually expressed as an Outcome Statement and tracked with a few clear metrics.
Outcome Statement: A short, plain-language sentence that describes the specific result you want AAAwesome loops to improve over the next 60–90 days.
Pilot: A small, low-risk test of a new way of working before you roll it out more widely.
Practice: A named way of working that is known, repeatable, and written down somewhere people can find it.
Result Metric: A number that shows the end outcome you care about, such as revenue, cycle time, error rate, churn, NPS, or CSAT.
Rework: Time spent fixing something that should have been right the first time.
Scrum: A way of organizing work in short cycles (sprints) so teams can plan, deliver, and improve in smaller, faster loops.
SOP: A clear, step-by-step guide for how to handle a task the right way.
System: The combination of people, tools, and steps that produce a result, whether you documented it or not.
System Owner: The person accountable for keeping a process healthy as people, volume, or tools change.
Template: A pre-structured starting point that makes consistent work easier than starting from scratch.

Who AAAwesome Benefits Most

If any of this feels familiar, AAAwesome is for you:

Plenty of people and initiatives.
Plenty of meetings and metrics.
Not nearly enough behavior or systems that last.

Many executives expect A.I. to be the productivity fix. The research keeps saying something different. The real barriers are skills, behavior, and how change is led, not the tools themselves (Deloitte).

AAAwesome gives you a behavior-friendly loop that tools can support instead of replace.

Who This Is For

AAAwesome is useful for almost any operation, but it is built for a specific set of people:

CEOs, COOs & Founders: Who see wins vanish whenever key people, tools, or priorities change. They want systems that outlive them.
Directors & Managers: Who are tired of re-explaining the same issues, in the same meetings, to the same people.
Team Leads & Frontline Contributors: Who see friction up close and want a safe, practical way to improve things without getting in trouble.

If you have ever thought, "We already fixed this last year," AAAwesome is your ally.

What This Improves Over Time

When the AAAwesome loop runs weekly, you begin noticing positive signals and experience:

Less rework and fewer repeat problems.
Faster onboarding and smoother handoffs.
Lower key person risk.
Clearer link between behavior and results.
More consistent experience for customers and partners.
Higher enterprise value as more of the business runs on documented, transferable systems.

How To Accelerate Adoption

Give your team this language so AAAwesome feels real in their daily work.

Steal This Script

"We use a small loop called AAAwesome to fix problems in a way that sticks.

It has 3 steps.

Awareness means we write down where work slows down or breaks.
Action means we pick 1 item each week and run a small test in real work.
Amplify means if it works, we update our checklists, templates, or training so the win lives on.

It is not a big program. It is a weekly habit. See it, try it, spread it."

Download & Do This AAAwesome Activity

Commit 15 minutes to AAAwesome and experience changes for the better in your business. No cost, no catch.

For ease of use and sharing, multiple file formats of this AAAwesome activity are available under the download options.

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Skip To What Matters

This quick navigation list is for skimmers. Consider picking 1 section, using it today, then coming back for the rest when you are ready to take on more.

How To Be AAAwesome

The 3 Stages In Real Work

3 Perspectives On AAAwesome

Ambassadors Of AAAwesome

Deep Dive Into The 3 Documents

Aim AAAwesome At What Matters

AAAwesome Success Stories

First 30 Days Of AAAwesome

How To Stay AAAwesome

Apply New Insights Now

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

— James Clear

How To Be AAAwesome

AAAwesome is simple: see it, try it, spread it. You notice friction, test 1 small change in real work, then keep and share what works. It stays simple on purpose so people can run it inside the work they already have instead of inventing more.

The Proven 3-Step Feedback Loop

Your organization can learn by design, not just when it gets lucky. This loop turns those frictions into systems with staying power. The kind that increases the quality, quantity, and value of outputs.

Awareness

Get honest about where work really slows down, breaks, or drifts.

Capture friction in the Awareness Log.
Notice where people improvise or complain.
Look at simple metrics like errors, reopens, or delays.

Knowledge workers can spend a full day each week just finding information before they can even use it (McKinsey & Company).

Action

Turn that friction into a small, safe test inside real work. Learn from what actually happens, not from opinions.

Change 1 step in the script.
Add 1 checklist to a messy handoff.
Adjust 1 field in a form that confuses people.

The goal is not a perfect solution. The goal is a real test this week.

Small, focused experiments like this have helped organizations achieve meaningful gains in service levels, quality, and efficiency. Action is how AAAwesome brings that mindset into your normal week instead of a special program.

Amplify

When something works more than once, turn it into a simple system. Write it down, plug it into tools, and help others use it. Your best contributors stop doing heroics and start shaping how the organization operates.

Turn the winning script into a macro.
Add the new reminder to the checklist.
Update the SOP and onboarding materials.

Standardized ways of working reduce variation, support more predictable quality, and make it easier to train people quickly. Amplify is the step that captures worthwhile standards before they fade.

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

— Martin Luther King Jr.

AAAwesome Across 3 Levels

AAAwesome is simple enough for 1 person to run and strong enough to guide whole departments.

That matters because it keeps messaging simple, habits aligned, and expectations clear. Executives, managers, and frontline contributors all answer the same questions:

"What am I aware of?"
"What actions am I taking?"
"What am I amplifying?"

Same loop. Different depth.

Individual

Fewer personal bottlenecks, clearer priorities, and repeatable ways to get your best work done.

Awareness: "Where am I getting stuck repeatedly?"
Action: "What is 1 small change I can try today?"
Amplify: "If it works, how do I bake it into my own checklist or template?"

Team

Cleaner handoffs, less rework, and shared plays everyone can run the same way.

Awareness: "Where are our tickets, projects, or jobs getting delayed or reopened?"
Action: "What is 1 small change we can try for the group this week?"
Amplify: "If it works, how do we add it to our shared practices and onboarding?"

Organization

Lower key person risk, faster onboarding, and systems that survive tool changes and turnover.

Awareness: "Where do we keep solving the same cross-functional problems?"
Action: "What is 1 pilot team that can test a new way for 30 days?"
Amplify: "If it works, how do we roll it out, measure it, and assign owners?"

Powered By 3 Documents

AAAwesome runs on 3 simple inputs that create 3 high-value databases. If you keep just these current, you will build more operational memory than most organizations, no matter what software or tools you use.

Awareness Log

Capture friction before it disappears into complaints.

Action Tracker

Make sure ideas turn into real tests inside real work.

Amplified Practices

Store the current best way so people are not guessing.

How Behavior Grows A Backbone

AAAwesome strengthens systems. Backbone Behavior strengthens habits and culture.

AAAwesome moves a behavior from Emerging to Locked In through Amplify.
Backbone Behavior shapes cues, rewards, and rituals so the new practice sticks even when nobody is watching.

Think of behavioral development in 3 bands:

Not Ready

People do not see the problem or do not believe change will help.

Emerging

A few people are trying a new way. It works sometimes, but it is fragile.

Locked In

The new way becomes "how we do it here." New hires learn it as the standard on day 1.

AAAwesome Avoids 3 Common Failures

"Improvement" efforts tend to fail in 1 of 3 ways. Layering A.I. on top of these failures does not fix them. It magnifies them. Real impact shows up when organizations redesign workflows, not when they duct tape A.I. onto fragile processes.

AAAwesome gives you a simple way to avoid these traps.

Application Failure

Ideas never get tested in real work. They stay in decks, meetings, or chat threads.

Replication Failure

Wins depend on individuals, not systems. Kelly may know how to do it, but the process does not.

Measurement Failure

Nobody tracks the performance of the "new way" over time. It feels better, but nobody can prove it.

"The way we see the problem is the problem."

— Stephen Covey

4 Patterns To Interrupt Early

As Awareness builds, you will see patterns in how your organization behaves. Not always flattering, but always fixable.

Some studies estimate that less than a fifth of formal training content shows up in daily behavior without deliberate process support and reinforcement (Institute for Corporate Productivity). AAAwesome tackles that gap with a simple rule: if it matters, it enters the loop.

Seek out and address these patterns often to keep the system healthy.

Information Over Action

Training and decks pile up, but behavior stays the same.

Key Questions

"What did we actually test from this meeting?"
"Where is that test written down in the Action Tracker?"
"What will we decide to keep, adjust, or drop next week?"

Command Over Curiosity

Leaders tell people what to do instead of asking what they see.

Key Questions

"What are you seeing that I might be missing?"
"If you could try 1 small change this week, what would it be?"
"How can we make that test safe to run and informative?"

Performance Without Process

A few heroes save the day, but nobody else can repeat it.

Key Questions

"Who can walk me through how we actually got this result?"
"Is that way of working written down anywhere?"
"What would it take to turn this into an Amplified Practice?"

Values Without Verification

The platitudes on the walls do not match what happens in real work.

Key Questions

"Where do our stated values show up in real behavior this week?"
"Which metric would prove we are living this value, not just saying it?"
"What small test could move us 1 step closer to that?"

AAAwesome Maturity Progression

AAAwesome meets you where you are and makes the next step obvious. You do not need to "fix everything." You just need to know roughly where you are in the process and what to try next.

Heroics Only

Problems are solved by individuals. Very little is written down. Results depend on who shows up that day, and key person risk is high.

Ad Hoc Loops

Some teams run their own loops, but results do not spread. Wins live in pockets, and other teams quietly rebuild what already works somewhere else.

Consistent Team Loops

Most teams keep basic Awareness Logs and Action Trackers. Amplified Practices exist but are scattered. Improvement is real, but people still hunt for "the latest version."

Org-Wide Operating Rhythm

Awareness, Action, and Amplify show up in team rhythms and leadership reviews. The 3 documents form a shared ethos, so improvements survive turnover, tool changes, and new priorities.

"Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets."

— W. Edwards Deming

The 6 Essentials Of AAAwesome

Studies show knowledge workers lose large chunks of the week to rework, duplicate effort, and hunting for information that already exists (APQC).

At the same time, many organizations are trying to scale A.I. without clear, stable processes on the ground. The teams that excel are those who redesign workflows, not the ones who just add more tools (McKinsey & Company).

The AAAwesome loop addresses those realities directly.

Same Loop, Every Level

The CEO and a Frontline Contributor use the same pattern. Only the organizational depth changes.

Reality Over Opinion

Friction is not about who is loudest. It is about what slows down customers and results.

Small Tests Compound

Most progress comes from small, low-risk tests that layer over time, not all at once with giant programs.

Progress Over Perfection

A rough practice that runs every week beats a perfect framework that nobody uses.

Systems Over Heroics

If your best people keep "saving the day," the system is failing. Capture what they do and spread it.

Amplify With Care

Not every idea deserves to become a standard. AAAwesome rewards what works, not whoever spoke last.

"Be water, my friend."

— Bruce Lee

The 3 Stages In Real Work

Frameworks are easy to like in theory and hard to run inside real work. AAAwesome shows up in real conversations, tickets, and handoffs. In each, you will see strong and weak versions of Awareness, Action, and Amplify. Use this to coach your teams and sanity check how your loops are actually running.

Awareness

Awareness is about getting honest. You are not hunting for blame or micromanaging. You are trying to see how the work really happens, where it drags, and where reality does not match what "good" is supposed to look like.

Clarity comes from engagement, not thought (Marie Forleo); taking action pulls problems out of abstraction and into real work where you can actually learn from them.

A clear Awareness Log turns scattered effort into focused, actionable insight.

Key Questions

Pull real friction into the open:

"Where are we losing time, money, or trust?"
"Which problems keep coming back?"
"Where do people improvise instead of follow the process?"

Acceptable Examples

Good Awareness sounds specific and observable:

"We keep asking finance the same 3 questions every month-end."
"Tickets with this tag almost always get reopened."
"New hires all ask the same question in week 2."

Disappointing Examples

Weak Awareness stays vague or personal:

Vague complaints with no context.
Blame statements like "people just do not care."
Issues logged once, then ignored for months.

A.I. Support

A.I. can help you see patterns faster, as long as humans decide what is real:

Summarize long chat threads into a clear friction statement.
Pull patterns from tags, reasons, or error codes.
Spot where language like "again" or "still" appears in tickets.

Action

Action is where the hypothesis proves itself or not. You pick 1 item from the Awareness Log and turn it into a small, safe test inside real work. The only real failure here is to run no test at all.

Organizations that embed continuous improvement and small experiments into daily work have achieved performance gains of up to 40–60% in service levels, quality, and efficiency (McKinsey & Company).

Action is how AAAwesome brings that mindset into your normal week instead of waiting for a special program.

Key Questions

Design a test that actually runs:

"What is 1 small change we can try this week?"
"Who will own it?"
"How will we tell if it helped?"

Acceptable Examples

Good Actions are clear, small, and time-boxed:

Changing the order of questions in a form.
Adding a short checklist to a frequent handoff.
Testing a new macro for 1 segment of customers.

Disappointing Examples

Weak Actions look important but never hit the ground:

Endless planning with no start date.
Giant projects dressed up as "small experiments."
Actions nobody actually owns.

A.I. Support

A.I. can speed up design and framing, but it cannot choose the risk for you:

Draft a sample macro or script.
Suggest a lighter version of a proposed change.
Estimate the minimum sample size or time window to see a signal.

Amplify

Amplify turns "we got lucky once" into "we can do this on purpose." This is where you decide what becomes "how we do it here" and make the new way easier than the old way.

Standardized ways of working reduce variation, support more predictable quality, and make it easier to train new employees quickly (Tulip Interfaces).

Amplify is the step that captures those standards before they fade.

Key Questions

Separate nice ideas from real practices:

"Did the test help enough to keep?"
"If yes, where should this live?"
"Who owns it when the pilot team hands it off?"

Acceptable Examples

Good Amplify work leaves a clear trail others can follow:

Updating the SOP and training deck.
Saving and naming the new macro.
Adding the new step to the onboarding checklist.

Disappointing Examples

Weak Amplify work leaves the win trapped in someone's head:

"We just tell people when they join."
"It is written somewhere in that old deck."
"Kelly knows how to do it. Ask her."

A.I. Support

A.I. is very good at turning rough wins into clean, shareable systems:

Turn test notes into a 1-page SOP.
Generate version history or change logs.
Create quick training materials or job aids based on recent findings.

"Learning is not the result of teaching. It is the result of practice."

— Peter Senge

3 Perspectives On AAAwesome

AAAwesome helps people solve problems at their level of control while staying aligned with the bigger system. The loop stays the same, but the decisions and stakes change. The shared language and mindset hold everything together.

Individual

At the individual level, AAAwesome is about reducing personal friction and building repeatable habits. It gives people a safe way to improve how they plan, communicate, and deliver without waiting for permission or a boilerplate project charter.

Awareness Questions

"Where do I keep fixing the same thing?"
"Which tasks repeatedly drain my energy?"

Actions To Test

Create a small personal checklist.
Save a macro for a common response.
Block 15 minutes to prep before a recurring task.

How To Amplify

Share your checklist in the team channel.
Offer it as a starting point for onboarding.

Team

At the team level, AAAwesome creates shared clarity. It reduces rework, smooths handoffs, and helps everyone run the same plays the best way. Teams use the loop to turn scattered improvements into predictable, teachable practices.

Awareness Questions

"Which tickets or projects often bounce back?"
"Where do handoffs between us and other teams go wrong?"

Actions To Test

Try a new structure for your weekly standup.
Add a pre-handoff checklist to 1 workflow.
Run a 1-week pilot of a new macro.

How To Amplify

Turn the winning version into a team standard.
Add it to your team's wiki or playbook.

Organization

At the organization level, AAAwesome connects strategy to daily behavior. Leaders use the loop to align teams, retire outdated systems, and scale the practices that deserve to define "how we work here." It replaces heroic effort with operational memory.

Awareness Questions

"What complaints keep reaching leadership from multiple teams?"
"Where do we keep running special projects for the same pain?"

Actions To Test

Select 1 cross-functional friction and run a 30-day AAAwesome pilot.
Align 1 executive sponsor, 1 integrator, and 1 frontline team.

How To Amplify

Turn the pilot into a standard pattern with clear owners.
Roll it to similar teams in stages with simple metrics.

"Scale happens when the right way is the easy way."

— Nathan Rafter

Ambassadors Of AAAwesome

AAAwesome spreads because specific people choose to run the loop in the spaces they control. When each role takes a simple, clear slice of responsibility, improvement stops being a side project and turns into "our approach to success."

Executives

Set the expectation that each team runs AAAwesome cycles.
Protect time for small tests.
Ask in reviews, "What did you test and what did you keep?"

Key Questions

"Where did we turn friction into a system this quarter?"
"What small wins did we Amplify and spread?"

Managers & Team Leads

Keep the Awareness Log and Action Tracker alive.
Choose 1 test per week or per sprint.
Celebrate small wins and honest failures.

Key Questions

"What did we learn from last week's test?"
"What will we try next week?"

Frontline Contributors

Log real friction without fear of blame.
Suggest small, safe experiments.
Share what they are learning.

Key Questions

"What is slowing you down that feels fixable?"
"What are you already doing differently that seems to help?"

System Owners & Integrators

Make sure Amplified Practices are documented and findable.
Watch for conflicts between new practices and existing systems.
Help scale wins across tools and teams.

Key Questions

"Which new practices are ready for wider rollout?"
"What needs updating in tools, fields, or permissions?"

"None of us is as smart as all of us."

— Ken Blanchard

Deep Dive Into The 3 Documents

These 3 documents are the rails AAAwesome runs on. They turn vague intentions into a visible trail of problems, tests, and practices you can actually manage.

Awareness Log

The Awareness Log is your coal mine canary. It catches early, often invisible danger so you can act before it spreads. As you dig into the work, raw friction, repeat issues, and "this again" moments land here before they turn into burned out teams or angry customers.

If it is not in the Awareness Log, it is not officially in play.

Minimum Fields

Date logged.
Person logging it.
Area or process.
Short description.
Impact (time lost, errors, frustration, risk).
Priority guess (low, medium, high).

Example Entries

Support Queue: Same question about billing terms 12 times this week.
Onboarding: New reps confused about which macro to use first.
Handoff From Sales: Missing data on contract terms causes rework.

A.I. Support

A.I. can turn a noisy list of entries into clearer priorities:

Group Awareness items into themes.
Highlight the top 3 by potential impact.
Draft simple problem statements or user stories.

Prompt Example

"Cluster these 20 Awareness Log items into 3 themes. Suggest which to address first and why."

Action Tracker

The Action Tracker is your history of experimentation. It shows what you actually tried, not what you meant to do. Over time it becomes a record of what this organization has learned so new teams are not doomed to rerun the same tests.

Minimum Fields

Problem (from Awareness Log).
Hypothesis (what you think will help).
Action owner.
Start date / end date.
What changed.
Simple before / after metric.
What to keep, adjust, or drop.

Example Entries

A support team tried:

Problem: Reopened tickets on password resets.
Hypothesis: Add a 1 line confirmation step in the macro.
Result: Reopens dropped from 18% to 9% in 2 weeks. Keep.

A sales team experiment:

Problem: Confusion at sales to ops handoff.
Hypothesis: Add 3 required fields in CRM before handoff.
Result: Missing data errors cut in half. Adjust and retest with more fields.

A.I. Support

A.I. can help you sharpen and share what each experiment is teaching you:

Turn rough notes into clear hypotheses.
Suggest simple metrics for a test.
Summarize test results for leadership.

Prompt Example

"Turn these notes about our test into a 1 paragraph summary in plain language for executives."

Amplified Practices

Amplified Practices are your greatest hits library. This is where the ways of working that proved themselves in the field get a name, a home, and an owner.

If something is not in Amplified Practices, it is still just a nice idea that might disappear when someone leaves.

Minimum Fields

Name of practice.
When to use it.
Simple steps or checklist.
Owner.
Last updated date.
Linked metrics (if any).

Example Entries

A support team tried:

A standard macro for billing confusion tickets.
A checklist for clean sales to customer success handoff.
5-minute daily startup check for production line A.

A.I. Support

A.I. can package proven practices so people can use them quickly and consistently:

Turn a passing win into a clean checklist.
Adjust wording for new roles or regions.
Create short versions for wall posters or in-app hints.

Prompt Example

"Turn this process description into a 7-step checklist a new hire could follow on their first day."

"The palest ink beats the strongest memory."

— Chinese Proverb

Aim AAAwesome At What Matters

AAAwesome works best when it is not just fixing random friction, but improving the few outcomes that matter most right now. This section gives you a simple way to choose those outcomes, measure progress, and connect them to weekly AAAwesome loops without adding heavy strategy tools on top.

Pick A Clear Outcome Statement

Before you run loops, decide what "better" means in plain language.

Think of this as the headline for the next 90 days: short, important, and easy to repeat.

Best Practices

Good outcome statements often:

Start with a verb, such as "Delight," "Shorten," "Stabilize," "Grow," or "Protect."
Name a customer group, team, or system.
Hint at what "good" feels like in real life.

Example Entries

If you cannot attach numbers, keep working the problem until you can. AAAwesome loops need something real to move.

"Make onboarding feel simple for new customers."
"Shorten time from signed deal to first delivery."
"Reduce noisy escalations from avoidable mistakes."

Target Success Metrics

Once you have the outcome statement, decide how you will tell if it is actually happening. You do not need a dashboard army. You just need a small set of clear signals.

Result Metric: Show the end result you care about. Includes revenue, cycle time, error rate, churn, NPS, CSAT, and first response time.
Health Metric: Show whether the system is stable while you push on it. Includes reopen rates, defect counts, rework hours, and backlog size.

Best Practices

For each outcome statement, pick:

1 primary result metric.
1 or 2 health metrics.
A simple starting and target value for each.

Example Entries

Example for "Make onboarding feel simple":

Result Metric: "Average days to first meaningful use" from 14 to 4.
Health Metric: Tickets tagged "confused about setup" are down from 40 per month to 15.

Connect Outcomes To Weekly Loops

With outcomes and metrics in place, you can effectively aim AAAwesome where it counts. You are not guessing which loops to run. You are selecting loops that have a visible link to results.

Awareness

During Awareness, ask questions that aim the loop at your chosen outcome, not just random friction:

"Where are we losing time, money, or trust related to this outcome?"
"What friction shows up in the Awareness Log that connects to these metrics?"

Action

During Action, ask questions that link each test to the outcome and metrics you care about:

"What is 1 small change we can test this week that might move at least 1 metric?"
"Who will own this test, and how will we track it in the Action Tracker?"

Amplify

During Amplify, ask questions that decide whether a change deserves to become "how we do it here" for that outcome:

"Did this change help enough to keep?"
"If yes, how do we write it into an Amplified Practice so it supports this outcome every week, not just this week?"

Review Signals & Adjust Accordingly

AAAwesome is not about being right on the first try.

It is about learning in public and adjusting. If the numbers are not moving, that is not failure. It is feedback. Change the test, not the habit of testing.

Build a simple rhythm:

Weekly

Update the numbers for each metric.
Mark each Action in the Action Tracker as "in progress," "completed," or "stuck."
Ask, "What did we try that moved something, even a little?"

Monthly

Review the story behind the metrics.
Retire Actions and practices that did not help.
Choose the next friction to target that still connects to the same outcome.

Quarterly

Ask, "Is this still the right outcome to focus on?"
If yes, refine the metrics and keep going.
If no, close the loop by writing what you learned, then choose the next outcome to aim at.

Keep Goals Ambitious & Honest

When you pick targets, you want them to stretch people without breaking trust. The point is to create a clear direction, measure what happens, and use AAAwesome loops to move closer in real work.

Helpful guardrails:

Aim for targets that feel challenging but not absurd.
Treat misses as data, not personal failure.
Avoid tying every single metric directly to individual pay, or people will start gaming numbers instead of improving systems.
Celebrate clear learning even when you fall short, especially if it reveals a better next step.

Use AAAwesome As Your Execution Engine

You do not need a giant planning process to start. Pick 1 outcome, choose a few metrics, and run a single AAAwesome loop against it. Then repeat until "we fix what matters and it stays fixed" becomes normal.

Outcome statements give you direction.
Metrics give you proof.
AAAwesome turns friction into experiments.
Amplified Practices lock in what works.

AAAwesome Success Stories

Theory is great. It is another thing entirely to watch this simple loop make a stubborn problem finally go away. These snapshots stay small on purpose: 1 problem, 1 loop, and results you can actually measure.

TeleSpeak Made Support AAAwesome

TeleSpeak used AAAwesome to fix a specific pain: billing tickets that kept coming back and dragging CSAT down.

Awareness

TeleSpeak's support leaders noticed billing tickets cycling back into the queue.

Reopened billing tickets hovered around 18%.
Customers tripped over the phrase "prorated adjustment" even after long replies.

Action

They treated it as a process issue, not a talent issue.

Wrote a plain language explanation with 1 concrete example.
Turned it into a macro and used it on tagged billing tickets for 2 weeks.

Amplify

When the numbers moved, they locked the new way in.

Reopens fell from 18% to 7% and CSAT rose from 4.1 to 4.6.
The macro entered the billing SOP, onboarding, and got a named owner.

Next Horizon Made Digital AAAwesome

Next Horizon did not treat AAAwesome as a side project. They used the loop to solve a real constraint: demand was growing faster than their ability to deliver. Instead of hiring first, they fixed how work flowed.

Awareness

Next Horizon's digital team hit a ceiling on delivery capacity.

Workloads grew faster than the team could ship projects.
Handoffs across design, copy, and development caused avoidable delays.

Action

Instead of adding headcount, they redesigned the operating rhythm.

Introduced Scrum, supported by AAAwesome, and standard project templates.
Clarified who owned which part of the work and put everyone on shared tools.

Amplify

After the new rhythm proved itself, they treated it as the default.

Productivity improved 41% in 6 months.
The team delivered more projects in 1 year than in the prior 2 combined.

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

— Robert Collier

First 30 Days Of AAAwesome

Over the next 30 days, you run 1 AAAwesome loop with a single team. By the end, you have a working rhythm, a few Amplified Practices, and proof that improvement can be light and real.

Week 1: Collect Awareness

Create a shared Awareness Log.
Ask everyone to log friction for 1 week.
End the week by grouping items and picking the top 3 by impact.

Week 2: Run 1 Action

Choose 1 of the 3 priority items.
Define a small, low-risk test.
Add it to the Action Tracker with an owner and clear start and end dates.
Run the test in real work.

Week 3: Decide Whether To Amplify

Review the test results.
Ask, "Did this help enough to keep?"
If yes, write a short practice and add it to Amplified Practices.
If no, record what you learned and adjust.

Week 4: Share The Story & Choose The Next Target

Tell a simple story in your team meeting: problem, test, result.
Capture the lesson in a short note for leadership.
Choose the next Awareness item to run through the loop.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

— Lao Tzu

How To Stay AAAwesome

Consistency beats intensity. AAAwesome works best when it becomes "how we operate," not a side project.

Weekly

Individuals log friction in the Awareness Log and try at least 1 small change.
Teams review the log, update the Action Tracker, and run at least 1 test per week or per sprint.

Monthly

Teams review what they Amplified.
System owners update key SOPs and templates.
Managers share 1 success story and 1 honest miss.

Quarterly

Executives review cross-functional patterns in the Awareness Logs.
Pick 1 or 2 high-impact frictions for focused AAAwesome pilots.
Update role expectations to reflect AAAwesome habits.

Yearly

Review Amplified Practices that define how your company really works.
Retire practices that no longer fit.
Celebrate the people and teams who turned friction into systems.

"Action is the foundational key to all success."

— Pablo Picasso

Apply New Insights Now

Effortless AAAwesome

You do not need a full program to start. Just take 10 minutes to perform a loop. This activity turns what you just read into a simple move you can run with your team right now.

Step 1: Awareness (3 Minutes)

Ask each person to write down 3 points of friction from the last week.
Have them circle the 1 that drains them the most.

You can use A.I. to cluster the responses:

"Organize these 15 frictions into 3 categories, and identify which to tackle first and why."

Step 2: Action (4 Minutes)

As a group, pick 1 friction to tackle first.
Answer 3 questions:
- "What is 1 small change we can test this week?"
- "Who owns it?"
- "How will we know if it helped?"

A.I. can support by helping you draft the test:

"Turn this small change into a short experiment plan with a clear hypothesis and simple metric."

Step 3: Amplify (3 Minutes, Scheduled)

Put a 15-minute meeting on the calendar for 1 week from now.
In that meeting you will only answer: Keep, adjust, or drop?
If "keep," use A.I. to turn the notes into a checklist or SOP.

Prompt Example

"Turn this successful experiment into a 1-page SOP and a 7-step checklist in plain language for new hires."

You just ran a AAAwesome loop. Now the question is not "Can this work here?" It is "Where do we run it next?"

Being AAAwesome Is A Choice

AAAwesome is the choice to see friction honestly, try 1 small change in real work, and keep what actually helps. Run that loop on a sticky note, a shared board, or inside a giant platform and the effect is the same.

You get fewer mystery fires, more reusable wins, and practices that survive tool changes and turnover. Start with 1 loop, then keep repeating it until "this is how we do it here" is not a wish. It is just your normal Tuesday.

If you want to skip the learning curve and install this operating rhythm without all the trial and error, book a complimentary discovery session. Together, we will find your first win within 45 minutes.

Next-Level Considerations

Where are you fixing the same problem twice in your organization?
Which team is most ready to run 1 AAAwesome loop in the next 7 days?
What simple metric would tell you that loop worked?
Who will own the Awareness Log, Action Tracker, and Amplified Practices for that team?
What is 1 friction you will personally log before the day ends?

"Small changes, proven in real work, are the only changes that last."

— Nathan Rafter

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