TL;DR: The Business Trinity Compass
A full definition of the business trinity compass
Welcome to TL;DR. This is where we take a post or topics from The Technician’s MBA and summarise the key points in less than 1000 words. The main posts referenced will contain more information regarding the points we highlight, and perhaps more than we summarise here; however we want to give you a quick read that can help peak your interest for those times you where you only have a few minutes to spare.
TL;DR Details:
Words: 723
Approx. Reading Time: 3-5 minutes
Link to Posts:
We introduced the Business Trinity Compass across two posts; separated by another topic to aid in the introduction of a key point by providing context. In this TL;DR we will outline the main points of the Business Trinity Compass and provide a clear definition which can be augmented with the following posts.
The Business Trinity Compass
The Business Trinity Compass is a way of visualising the Business Trinity Theory, which enables us to break down every role, project, and objective in a business into the core components:
Operations: Tasks focused on delivery or the completion of work
Education: Tasks focused on personal learning or teaching others
Strategy: Tasks focused on planning or preparation
The Business Trinity Compass is a ternary plot; you can find a “how to read guide” for a ternary plot in the initial post or by visiting this link. Essentially follow the grid lines to the axis where the tick mark direction matches the direction of the line.
Potential Uses
Some ways in which we can use the Business Trinity Compass (and The Business Trinity Theory) are as a:
Career Management Tool: Looking where you are, where you want to go, and the tasks that you need experience with on the way
Time Management Tool: The breakdown of the core components gives you a good indication about the proportion of time that should be spent as an individual or across the team.
Project Planning Tool: When scoping you can use The Business Trinity theory to estimate the amount of time you need, and when compared to the resource available you can understand its feasibility and any required actions.
Levels
The three levels of the Business Trinity Compass are:
Areas: Classifications of Responsibilities (Leadership, Growth, Innovation, Discovery) and Objectives (i.e. Be a Leader, Drive Growth, Deliver Innovation, Enable Discovery.
Zones: Classifications of the types of activities that will lead to us delivering our business objectives.
Points: Representations of a role, project, or objective on the compass, where the location is the core component breakdown.
Areas
The areas of the compass provide a way into start thinking about the activities and the associated component breakdowns; which we can get more understanding about by looking at the zones in the area.
The areas only cover the central zones, as the focused zones are singular extensions of their neighbouring areas; or to look at it another way, the areas are how we deliver the additional value associated with the focused zone
Zones
The zones of the compass are classifications of activities that help us to realise goals. There are two types of zones: Focused and Central
Focused: Prioritising one component at the expense of the others; these three zones are single minded in the pursuit of one of the core components, and are at the peaks of the compass.
Central: A more balanced breakdown of the core components, these four zones highlight more nuanced business activities and are often where business leaders spend most of their time.
The zones on the Business Trinity Compass highlight the inherent flexibility in the core component breakdowns for these roles, projects, and objectives. The zones also help us to understand, by their neighbours, what other business actions we may need to consider in order to achieve our goals.
Points
The points on the compass illustrate the breakdown of a role, project, or objective; i.e. Junior Data Scientist, or Standard Operating Practice.
Two points might not have the same activities associated with them i.e. Operations for a CXO are different than Operations for a Junior Developer; however, these points help give an understanding about the proportion of activities associated with the core components that are necessary within the role, project, or objective.
Benefits
The Business Trinity Compass is a framework that can be used to help break down larger goals into more manageable pieces; getting us to think about roles, projects, and objectives that will help us realise our goals.
Like all business frameworks we have presented suggestions of use and are not limitations; they may be used in additional ways to help you identify a plan to deliver value for businesses, or grow your career.
GTFYT
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