Forms: Did we just become best friends?

Batman has Robin.

The Fresh Prince has Carlton.

In the movie Stepbrothers, Brennan has Dale.

… and …

… drum roll, please.

A Team has…

Forms!

Wait, what? Forms? Seriously?

Yes, Forms.

As in, the things people dread having to fill out by hand at the doctor’s office?

Yes, that.

But way better.

If you need something in your business or life, it should start with a form.

You’re used to that already:

Want to get your car fixed? Fill out a form.

Want to book air travel? Fill out a form.

Want to renew your driver’s license? Fill out a form.

In your business:

Need a blog post written from marketing? Fill out a form.

Want to book time off? Fill out a form.

Need access to a piece of software? Fill out a form.

Forms are not new.

They are a more structured way to flesh out what I want.

People dread forms because they are usually too long.

And most people don't understand how what they fill out will be used.

But they’re necessary to get the right inputs into the system to fulfill the request.

And get you what you want.

Other than being too long, the other sucky part of forms is that they are usually disconnected from the work to actually execute on the form request.

For example, if I fill out a form to get my car worked on, where do I see the exact step-by-step process of how you will receive me and my car and do all of the work?

When will the appointment be?

How long will it take?

Do I wait or will you drop me off somewhere?

If I wait, where do I wait? What’s the WifI code? Is there coffee?

How much should it cost?

Is there anything I need to bring with me?

All of this stuff is a black hole.

But that’s changing.

With tech like Asana or Notion, we can connect forms to step-by-step instructions (really automated workflows) to produce a final product.

Almost like an automated marketing department in a box.

This step-by-step, automated, 1-2-3 workflow ultimately saves the team time and increases quality because it tells me exactly who is doing what by when.

For example, if you need a blog post written, in Asana you can:

• create a form to capture the exact details of the request and all of the inputs required
• the form submission creates a task
• depending on what you enter in the form, the task can be routed to the right person in a phased 1-2-3 process via rules
• the step-by-step, 1-2-3 process to complete the blog post with the exact combination of people and due dates is also added as subtasks to the original request task
• the task and subtasks are tracked to completion and delivery

Do you see it?

Want —> Request Form —> Step-by-Step Process with Who is Doing What by When (optimized and automated) —> Final Product

I can do the same thing in Notion

• a form submission in Notion creates a new Notion Database record
• the Database Record has a template embeded into it for the step-by-step process which tells me who will do what by when
• the product is delivered upon completion of the final step in the process

A form to request a blog post or time off is something we all are familiar with.

But, what if my requests are a little different?

Like…

• A form to request the marketing department generates 100 extra leads this month which triggers the ‘Generate an Extra 100 Leads This Month’ Process
• A form to request a large group meeting which triggers the ‘Is this meeting really necessary?’ Process before scheduling everyone
• A form for the CEO to fill out when they have their next big idea (one of hundreds she has each day) triggers the ‘Is it realistic to action this idea or Do We Have to Say No?’ Process

Some personal examples:

• a household chore request form triggers the ‘Who is doing this chore by when?’ Process
• The ‘I’m going to start exercising again’ form triggers the ‘Am I realistically actually going to actually start exercising again?’ Process

I hope you see it.

Want —> Request Form —> Step by Step Process with Who is Doing What by When —> End Product

Keys to think about:

• Everything you need or want is actually a request which could be a form (traditional request = write a blog post, untraditional request = ‘generate $1M in 30 days’ or ‘my cancer is in remission in 60 days’ )
• A form structures your request into the inputs required to execute the request - ie. what info inputs are required to make the 1-2-3 steps happen?
• A form submission connects to the step-by-step ‘who is doing what by when process’ to fulfill the request
• the step-by-step should clearly indicate when the process is completed and show all processes currently in the system

By the way, this also explains why Email is terrible for getting tasks done:

• there aren’t request forms
• there aren’t step-by-step processes with who is doing what by when
• there is no connection between the request form/ask and the step-by-step process to fulfill

It also explains why even projects in a good tool like Asana fail or slowly die:

• the original request is lacking detail because there was not a form to receive it - freeform tasks might miss details
• the original request is overlooked by members of the project because it’s unclear or missing a lot of detail
• there is no step-by-step process developed to fulfill the request
• also, because the task is unclear due to missing info, you can’t connect it to the step-by-step process (which doesn’t exist anyway so doesn’t really matter)

On a personal level, the lack of a request form or process can explain why I’m not getting results in my life or why my team is not performing.

For example:

If at home, I am upset that my kids don’t keep their rooms clean. Have I formulated my request into something my kids would understand plus helped them develop a 1-2-3 system for keeping their room clean?

If I can never stick to a diet: have I thought through what I am actually requesting (a form helps clarify this) and created a 1-2-3 process for my diet? Or, am I just hoping I will be good and beat myself up the moment I fail?

I hope you learn to love forms as much as I do. They are the key to clarify what we want and connect our want to a 1-2-3 process to take the request from vision to reality.

Think of where you, your team, and your family can use forms for all the things you want both big and small and connect those forms to a step-by-step process.

Last thing: if you’re saying, I don’t know what the process should be… good!

The first step is to acknowledge that there should be a process.

Now, make one up as a starting point (ie. if there was a process, it would probably look like this)…

OR…

Ask someone else for help in determining your process.

Because there is a process to achieving everything - even if you don't see it.