PROCESS

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What preparing is

Once a process is approved, it is not yet a process that can run. It is a design with a signature on it. Preparing is the work of turning that approved design into something the organisation can actually do. It is where the idea becomes real.

Preparing begins the moment the sign-off is given. There is no pause. The approval through L4 is the gate, and the instant it is given, the work starts. The leader begins to plan and schedule. A development ticket goes to the system team. A staffing change, more people or fewer, is requested from the staffing team. The training is requested from the training team. The partners are engaged. The guides are begun. The customer communication is set in train. Each of these is a body of work in itself, carried by the team responsible for it, and preparing is all of them, brought to readiness together. This is why preparing is the biggest part of the change. Seeing, designing, and signing are the thinking and the agreeing. Preparing is the doing, and the doing is larger than all the thinking that preceded it.

It is worth feeling the weight of this before starting, because preparing is where many changes are won or lost. A process can be beautifully seen, well designed, and properly signed off, and still fail, because the preparing was underestimated, rushed, or left incomplete. The approved design is a promise. Preparing is the keeping of it, and the keeping is harder and longer than the making. So the leader who has just secured the sign-off does not relax. The hardest stretch is beginning.

The highest possible standard is to treat preparing as the substantial work of turning an approved design into a process the organisation can actually run, beginning the moment of sign-off and carrying every part of the readying to completion together.

Key Takeaway: Once a process is approved it is still only a design with a signature on it. Preparing turns it into something the organisation can actually do, and it begins the instant the sign-off is given: the planning, the development ticket to the system team, the staffing and training requests, the partners, the guides, the customer communication, each carried by its team, all brought to readiness together. Preparing is the doing, and the doing is the biggest part of the change.

The approved design is a promise. Preparing is the keeping of it, and the keeping is the larger work.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Principles · Discipline 5: Prepare · Section: What preparing is

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Map the work to a time frame

Preparing starts by mapping the work to a time frame. Everything that must be done before going live, laid out against the dates: what must happen, when, in what order, and the team responsible for each part of it.

This is a different map from the one you made when designing. The process map shows the work itself, the steps in their logic, the flow from first to last. This map shows something else, the work of getting ready, set against time. It answers what must be done before the process can go live, what comes first, what can wait, what depends on what, and the date everything is aiming at. The process map is ordered by the logic of the work. This one is ordered by time, because preparing is a race against a date, and the map is what holds the many parts to that date.

How the map is held varies. Some organisations use dedicated work management tools, where the work, its owners, its dependencies, and its dates are laid out and tracked together. Others use their own methods, often something as simple as a spreadsheet. The means is not the point; the principle is. Preparing begins by mapping the work to a time frame, so that every part has its place and its deadline, and the whole is visible against the date it must meet. Once the parts are many, this matters greatly, because no one can hold them all in their head or in meetings alone.

The map is also what lets you lead the work rather than chase it. With everything set against the time frame, you can see where things stand, what is due, and what is at risk, and you can drive accordingly. Without the map, you react to whatever surfaces, with no way to know whether you are on course. So mapping the work to a time frame is the first act of preparing, and it is what turns a large, daunting body of work into something you can hold and lead.

The highest possible standard is to begin preparing by mapping the work to a time frame, a different map from the process map, ordered by when each part must happen and aimed at the go-live date, so that the whole effort is visible and can be led against its deadline.

Key Takeaway: Preparing starts by mapping the work to a time frame, everything that must be done before going live, set against the dates, with the team responsible for each part. This is a different map from the process map, which shows the work's logic; this one shows the readying, ordered by time. How it is held varies, dedicated work management tools or simpler methods such as a spreadsheet, but the principle is the same: map the work to a time frame, so the whole is visible and can be led to the date.

The process map shows the work by its logic. Preparing maps it to a time frame, because preparing is a race against a date.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Principles · Discipline 5: Prepare · Section: Map the prepare work in time

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Everything at once

Here is the reality that defines preparing, and the one that makes it demanding: the work does not happen in sequence. It happens all at once.

You do not finish the guides, then build the systems, then engage the partners, then train the people, one after another, in a tidy line. There is not time, and the work does not allow it. The system team is building while the guides are being written while the partners are being engaged while the training is being prepared while the customer communication is being readied. Many parts, all live at the same time, each carried by its team, all moving toward the same date. Preparing is not a sequence of tasks. It is the carrying of many parts at once toward a single go-live. That is its true shape, and it is why the time frame matters so much, the map is what keeps the parts aligned to the date when they cannot be done one at a time.

This is what makes preparing demanding in a particular way. To prepare a real change, you must hold many things at once, each at a different stage, each with its own team and its own problems, all advancing together. You cannot give one part your full attention and let the others wait, because they are all moving, and a part left unattended falls behind and pulls the whole back. So preparing asks for a particular capability, the ability to carry many parts at the same time, to keep them all moving and aligned, without losing any. Someone who can only do one thing at a time, who needs each task finished before the next begins, would find this hard, because preparing does not offer that. It asks you to hold the whole, at once.

This is not a reason to fear preparing. It is a reason to respect what it asks, and to ready yourself for it, by mapping the work to a time frame so the parts are visible, and by driving each one so none is lost. The leader who understands that preparing happens all at once, and who has the map and the method to manage it, can carry a great deal together. The work is large and simultaneous, and that is exactly why the discipline of mapping and driving it matters.

The highest possible standard is to understand that preparing happens all at once, many parts moving toward one date at the same time, and to carry them all together, keeping each moving and aligned without letting any fall behind.

Key Takeaway: Preparing does not happen in sequence; it happens all at once. The systems, the guides, the partners, the training, the customer communication, all are live at the same time, each carried by its team, all moving toward the same date. Preparing is the carrying of many parts at once toward a single go-live, and it demands the capability to hold many things together, keeping each moving and aligned. This is why the time frame and the driving of each part matter so much.

Preparing is not a line of tasks. It is many parts moving at once toward one date, and you must hold them all.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Principles · Discipline 5: Prepare · Section: Everything at once

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Drive each team

With the work mapped to a time frame and many parts running at once, the question is how you actually move them all forward. The answer is that you drive each part with the team responsible for it, and you do so through its leader.

For each part of the work, there is a team that delivers it, the system team, the tool team, or IT for what must be built or changed, the staffing team for the people, the training team, the partners, the communication team. You send the request to the team. But you meet with the leader of that team, not with a team member, and there is a good reason for this. What you ask for may not be possible, for capacity, for timing, for some constraint you did not see. When it is not, you adjust, you ask instead for something else that would still work for you. Only the leader can do this with you: give an answer there and then, or understand your need well enough to find the alternative that works. A team member can only carry the request away and ask their manager, which costs a loop and the pace. So you align with the person who can decide and adapt in the room.

In each meeting you align three things: what you need from them, what they need from you, and what you do together. What is asked and what is agreed are confirmed in writing, often in an email thread that records the exchange, so that each agreement is tracked and there is a record to return to. Then what can be done independently is done independently, by each team in parallel, and brought back to be shared and corrected if needed. This is best done in individual meetings, each part with its leader, rather than in one large meeting with everyone at once. The individual meeting lets you align each part at the depth it needs, with the leader who has it on the line, and it lets you control the pace, driving each part as fast as it can go rather than at the speed of a crowded room. There is a place for the larger meeting, but a particular one, a short meeting, kept to its purpose, where the parts align on time, where everyone confirms where they stand against the schedule. Such a meeting need not run long; thirty minutes is often enough, because its job is only the time alignment, not the work.

The highest possible standard is to drive each part of the work with the team responsible for it, aligning through its leader, who can decide and adapt in the room, confirming what is agreed in writing, parcelling the independent work to advance in parallel, controlling the pace through individual meetings, and using short shared meetings only to keep the parts aligned in time.

Key Takeaway: You move the parts forward by driving each with the team responsible for it, through its leader. You send the request to the team but meet the leader, because what you ask may not be possible, and only the leader can answer at once or find the alternative that works. What is agreed is confirmed in writing, often in an email thread that records and tracks it. Align in individual meetings, which let you align at the right depth and control the pace, with short shared meetings, often no more than thirty minutes, only to keep the parts aligned in time.

Send the request to the team, but align with the leader, who can decide and, when your first ask is not possible, find what works instead.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Principles · Discipline 5: Prepare · Section: Drive each team

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Ready the people

A process does not run on systems and guides alone. It runs on people doing the work, and so a large part of preparing is readying the people who will do it. How you ready them depends on what you are asking them to do.

Where the work is complex, the people are readied with documentation, the how-to guides written from the approved process, the L5 (Process Level 5) operational documents the team will use. For complex work, the aim is not that the team memorises the process but that they follow the guide every time, the guide carries the complexity so the person does not have to hold it in their head. So readying the people for complex work means writing guides good enough to be followed, and training the people to use them. Where the work is simple, a guide is too much. A simple change is readied with a clear communication, told once, plainly, to everyone who needs it, so they know what changes and what to do. Matching the method to the work, documentation for the complex, communication for the simple, is the discipline, because over-documenting the simple wastes effort and under-supporting the complex leaves people stranded.

But readying people is not only giving them guides and communications. It is bringing them with you. A change asks people to work differently, and people do not adopt a new way simply because they have been told about it. Informing is not the same as bringing on board. The people who will live the change need to understand it, and ideally to feel some ownership of it, so that they carry it rather than resist it. This is true at every level, and it is especially true of the people who lead the teams doing the work, because they set the tone for their teams. So readying the people means more than delivering material to them. It means securing their genuine buy-in, through understanding, involvement, and the trust built in the work, so that when the process goes live, the people are ready not only in what they know but in their willingness to do it.

The highest possible standard is to ready the people by matching the method to the work, documentation for the complex and clear communication for the simple, and to go beyond informing them to securing their genuine buy-in, so that they are ready both in what they know and in their willingness to do it.

Key Takeaway: A process runs on people, so readying them is a large part of preparing. Match the method to the work: complex work is readied with documentation the team follows every time, simple changes with a clear communication told once. But readying people is more than delivering material; informing is not the same as bringing on board. Secure their genuine buy-in through understanding and involvement, so they are ready in their willingness as well as their knowledge.

Informing people is not the same as bringing them with you. Ready them in their willingness, not only in what they know.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Principles · Discipline 5: Prepare · Section: Ready the people

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Confirm ready and sign off the go-live date

Preparing has an end, and it is a definite one. It ends when the process is ready and the date it goes live is settled. Until both are true, preparing is not finished.

As the parts converge, you reach the point of confirming readiness. This is a deliberate act, not a drift into go-live. You check that the parts are ready, the guides written, the systems built, the partners engaged, the people trained, the customers informed, and that they are ready together, because a process is only as ready as its least-ready part. Confirming readiness is making sure the whole has come together, not just the easy parts. And alongside readiness comes the date. The go-live date must be settled and committed, so that everyone knows when the process becomes real. Where the leader sits at the right level, they may set the date and inform; where they do not, the date is signed off with those who must agree it. Either way, preparing ends with two things settled: the process is ready, and the go-live date is committed.

This ending echoes the sign-off that began preparing. Signing approved the process; now, at the close of preparing, you confirm it is ready and commit the date. It is a second, smaller gate, the readiness gate, and passing it is what authorises the move to running. Once the process is confirmed ready and the date is set, preparing is complete, and what remains is the go-live itself and the running of the change into adoption. That is the next discipline. Preparing has done its work when the approved process stands ready, with a date to go live.

The highest possible standard is to end preparing deliberately, by confirming that every part is ready together and committing the go-live date, so that the process passes the readiness gate and is authorised to move to running.

Key Takeaway: Preparing ends when the process is ready and the go-live date is settled, and not before. Confirming readiness is a deliberate act: checking that every part is ready together, since a process is only as ready as its least-ready part. The go-live date is committed, set and informed where the leader is at the right level, or signed off where it must be agreed. This readiness gate echoes the sign-off that began preparing and authorises the move to running.

Preparing ends at a definite gate: the process ready, and the date to go live committed. Then, and only then, it can run.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Principles · Discipline 5: Prepare · Section: Confirm ready and sign off the go-live date

MarvinPro | June 2026

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A real example

A process leader was preparing a significant change in which external partners, who already carried part of the work, would take on the complete flow, creating and handling each case from beginning to end. It was a large change, and preparing it involved a great deal at once.

Many parts had to be readied together. The partners' expanded role had to be secured, including a complete path for what happens when things do not go smoothly across the boundary between the organisation and the partners, in both directions, when the partners needed support, and when the work reaching them raised problems. The systems had to be aligned to the new flow. The how-to guides had to be written so the teams could follow the new way. The customers had to be informed of how things would now work. None of these could wait for the others; all of them advanced at once, each driven with the team responsible for it, all aimed at the same readiness.

The change was rolled out market by market rather than everywhere at once, and the phasing was a considered judgement. Going one market at a time reduced risk, letting problems be contained and learned from before the next market. It spread the training load, so the people could be trained in waves rather than all at once. And it allowed the timing to work around the season, so that no market went live at a time that would strain it. For each market, the parts converged, the guides ready, the systems aligned, the partners prepared, the people trained, the customers informed, and the market went live when it was confirmed ready and its date was set.

It was demanding work, holding many parts at once across several markets, each on its own schedule, all driven to convergence. But the method held: the work mapped to a time frame, each part driven with its team, the markets brought to readiness one after another. The implementation succeeded. Within a few months the new flow was simply how things worked, the change, once prepared and run, had become normal.

Preparing this change was holding many parts at once, across markets, all moving to their dates. The method was what carried them, and what was prepared well, ran well.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Principles · Discipline 5: Prepare · A real example

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Prepare

Preparing is the work of turning an approved design into a process the organisation can actually run. It begins the moment of sign-off, and it is the biggest part of the change, because it is the doing, larger than all the seeing, designing, and signing that came before. The approved design is a promise, and preparing is the keeping of it.

It begins by mapping the work to a time frame, a different map from the process map, ordered not by the logic of the work but by when each part must happen and the date it all aims at. How the map is held varies, dedicated work management tools or simpler methods such as a spreadsheet, but the principle is the same. The map matters because preparing happens all at once: the systems, the guides, the partners, the people, the customer communication, all readied together, many parts moving toward one go-live. That is what makes preparing demanding, it asks you to hold many things at once, and the map and the method are what make it possible. You drive each part with the team responsible for it, sending the request to the team but aligning through its leader, who can decide and, when the first ask is not possible, find what works instead. You parcel the independent work, control the pace through individual meetings, and use short shared meetings only to keep the parts aligned in time.

A large part of the readying is the people. Match the method to the work, documentation the team follows for the complex, a clear communication for the simple, and go beyond informing them to securing their genuine buy-in, so they are ready in their willingness as well as their knowledge. And preparing ends at a definite gate: when every part is ready together and the go-live date is committed, set and informed where you are at the right level, or signed off where it must be agreed. That readiness gate echoes the sign-off that began preparing, and passing it authorises the move to running.

You can now prepare an approved process to run. You understand preparing as the substantial work of making the approved design real, beginning at sign-off. You map the work to a time frame, you carry the many parts at once, driving each with its team through its leader and controlling the pace, you ready the people by matching the method to the work and securing their buy-in, and you end at the readiness gate, the process ready and the go-live date committed. The process is seen, designed, signed, and now ready. What remains is to run it: to go live on the committed date and carry the change into adoption.

What is prepared well, runs well. Hold the many parts to their date, ready the people in their willingness, and bring the approved process to the gate where it stands ready to run.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Principles · Discipline 5: Prepare · Chapter Outcome

MarvinPro | June 2026

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