Other Tools
Architecture determines performance — and architecture is built with processes, not opinions. These 22 working tools sit inside the Compass Operating System: build the foundation, focus on the vital few, align authority, scale what works, then analyze, refine and commit. Each one prints a board-quality document you can take into a leadership meeting. The 7 diagnostics and profiles live under Assessments.
Most improvement effort fails for a structural reason: the thinking never leaves the room. A working process forces the thinking onto one page — scored, dated, owned — where a board or a shop floor can act on it. Everything below is free to use. A few are protected because the results belong to one team; those still appear here, with the way in.
Build — Discipline 01
Who are we, and what business are we actually trying to build?
Instruments that establish an honest current state — the leadership, the lifecycle position, and the finite hours the work is spent from.
Read the discipline5 tools
Turns the lifecycle result into sequenced work: the stage supplies the architectural move, the lowest-scoring domain supplies what removes the constraint. Owners, dates and check-off included.
You leave with A checkable plan on screen and a board-quality PDF of the three horizons.
Holds the diagnostic result as the before, the stage and domain targets being architected as the after, the operating measures the change is judged against, and the reinvention actions carried from the ninety-day plan.
You leave with A one-page board-quality before-and-after PDF, plus an emailed copy.
Accounts for the hours already lived, worked and slept, and shows the waking, non-working time that genuinely remains.
You leave with Branded printout of your remaining hours.
A guided walkthrough of the two diamonds — scoring each life and enterprise area and naming the one measure that moves it.
You leave with Board-quality PDF, plus CSV export and import for coaching sessions.
Captures up to five aspirations written vividly enough to pull your hours toward them, with quality scoring as you write.
You leave with Printable aspirations sheet, emailed on request.
Focus — Discipline 02
What deserves our attention?
Instruments that name the vital few and remove complexity, starting at the place work is actually performed.
Read the discipline3 tools
Scores the current state of a work area and builds the plan, with before-and-after measures for search time, usable space and items removed.
You leave with Board-quality assessment and plan sheet, print or email.
The Red Tag event and 60-minute execution roadmap, translated to your setting — shop floor, office, classroom, home.
You leave with Setting-specific checklist sheet, print or email.
A Compass-branded PowerPoint that explains 5S and how to run it, ready to present to a team.
You leave with Downloadable 10-slide PowerPoint file.
Align — Discipline 03
How do we align the organization and manage the work daily?
Instruments that settle authority, decision rights, accountability and operating cadence — from the board table to the daily huddle.
Read the discipline6 tools
Designs the structure from the strategy instead of the current org chart — five to seven load-bearing roles, three accountabilities each, one decision owned, and the white space assigned.
You leave with Board-quality organization design PDF, emailed or downloaded.
Settles who decides, who is consulted and who is informed for the decisions that actually stall the enterprise.
You leave with Printable decision rights grid.
Assigns Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed by process step, with a load-by-role audit so accountability stays with one person.
You leave with Multi-page board-quality PDF.
Designs the board and management meeting rhythm — what is reviewed, by whom, how often.
You leave with Cadence charter PDF plus a calendar (.ics) export.
Shows the vertical authority stack from ownership to the daily management system, and where it breaks.
You leave with On-page architecture map to work from.
The consolidated read Compass issues after a diagnostic or engagement milestone.
You leave with Board-quality PDF export of the report.
Opened from the private link Compass sends after your diagnostic.
Scale — Discipline 04
How do we scale what works without re-importing complexity?
Instruments that concentrate the enterprise on the segments that create wealth, and that test whether the team can carry the growth.
Read the discipline3 tools
Models what concentrating the enterprise on its most profitable segments does to earnings and enterprise value.
You leave with On-screen model that feeds the Quad & Quartile Builder.
Sorts customers and products into quads and quartiles so the vital few — and the value-destroying tail — become visible.
You leave with Branded PDF, CSV template and import, emailed copy.
Defines the role, the mandate and the measures before a successor or key hire is sourced.
You leave with Printable role sheet.
Renew — Discipline 05
How do we analyze, refine and commit — continuously?
The working instruments of the renewal engine: charter the work, find the true cause, weigh the risk, and commit to the change.
Read the discipline5 tools
Charters the improvement before the work starts: problem, scope, sponsor, measures, boundaries.
You leave with Board-quality charter PDF, print or emailed.
Drives past the symptom to the cause in five disciplined steps, with the evidence recorded at each level.
You leave with Branded 5 Whys sheet, print or emailed.
Captures the full cause structure — people, process, equipment, materials, environment, measurement.
You leave with Branded root cause sheet, print or emailed.
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, written to be decided from rather than filed.
You leave with Branded SWOT sheet, print or emailed.
Scores failure modes by severity, occurrence and detection so the riskiest steps get the controls.
You leave with Branded FMEA worksheet with risk priority, print or emailed.
If you are not sure where to begin, the three-question start will place you on the curve and hand you the right tool first. Looking for a diagnostic or a profile instead? Those are gathered under Assessments.
Work it with the architect
Bring a completed sheet to a confidential conversation and we will read it together — what it says, what it hides, and what to architect next.
Not sure where to start?
Under a minute. From this page, most leaders begin with The organization.
