Shipshape: The Five Key Components of Roots' Operating Playbook

Have you ever wondered where the phrase "Shipshape" comes from? Perhaps you've heard the saying "Shipshape and Bristol fashion." Back in the 18th Century, ships often tilted to their sides due to the tidal patterns in Bristol Harbor, England. To prevent damage upon entering the harbor, ships needed to be in robust and excellent condition, or 'shipshape.' The concept of shipshape is not surface-level readiness, but meticulous preparation, detail, and readiness down to the boiler rooms deep in the ship's underbelly. It is also not a one-time accomplishment or box check – it requires constant progress, consistent execution, and continuous effort in small, ordinary ways. 

One of the ways the MH industry can change for the good is to create more reliable and robust operators that are shipshape in how they run. The industry is still in its infancy in terms of data integrity, reporting reliability, and overall consistency. 

At Roots Management Group, Shipshape serves as our operating playbook. It encompasses a series of guidelines, standards, and processes across 4 main functional areas: Accounting & Finance, Sales & Marketing, Operations, and Legal & HR. These standards are designed to enhance and automate our operations at Roots Management Company.

"Shipshape ensures transparency in progress and tracking of company goals. It creates structure and discipline, focusing on continuous improvement," says Olya Brase, Vice President of Shared Services and Process Optimization at Roots. Brase leads the Shipshape program by hosting weekly company-wide meetings.

Roots Management Group is tackling many issues and problems that come up with various properties and internal processes so shipshape is a great way to monitor, make sure steps are being taken to remedy issues, and learn from our mistakes along the way.

"My favorite part about Shipshape is documenting and creating company policies, processes, and process maps. It allows me to build strong relationships with our team members and comprehensively understand how Roots works inside and out."

Just as ships needed to be in excellent condition to navigate Bristol Harbor successfully, we, too, strive to be robust and well-prepared to overcome any challenges that come our way. "Ultimately, this disciplined approach leads to increased communication and success. Most importantly, it does wonders for team morale and collaboration," says Brase, who credits Shipshape for keeping the company up to date. "What worked for us six months ago may not work for us now, so we need to adjust accordingly." As a result, company processes and standards are revisited annually or as needed. "We want to ensure that creating positive change in one department does not inadvertently create a negative chain reaction for the rest of the company. It must make sense from A to Z."

By adhering to the principles outlined in the Shipshape roadmap, Roots strives to become a best-in-class manufactured housing company. To accomplish our objectives, we create annual Execution & Accountability Plans (EAPs), which function as our company's equivalent of New Year's resolutions. These EAPs outline our clearly defined strategies for the year.

At Roots, an Execution & Accountability Plan (EAP) comprises five key components that drive our efforts and make up specific compensation-related targets for every employee:

1. Wildly Important Goal (WIG): The WIG is a focal point for our collective efforts, ensuring we remain aligned and dedicated to achieving it.
2. Supporting Pillars: The pillars are the strategies and actions we implement to accomplish the WIG. They represent the building blocks that, when combined, propel us toward our goal.
3. Leading & Lagging Indicators: Leading and lagging indicators are essential for tracking progress and ensuring accountability. Leading indicators are proactive metrics that provide early insight into our performance, enabling us to make necessary adjustments. Lagging indicators, on the other hand, are outcome-based measurements that reflect the results of our efforts.
4. We firmly believe that embracing the principles of Shipshape is pivotal to building our business and achieving our desired outcomes. By integrating these goals into our EAP, we reinforce their importance and prioritize their implementation.
5. Through Shipshape we empower ourselves to optimize our operations, enhance productivity, and ensure accountability across our organization. 

Brase says that while they are tracking multiple Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and leading and lagging indicators are vital to the success of the program she looks at employee satisfaction.  "What I am looking for as an improvement indicator is our employees' well-being, job satisfaction, and work-life balance. By prioritizing our team members and developing relationships, we create a supportive environment for our employees that leads to the company's overall success". 

 We welcome the opportunity to show our ship shape and EAP operating playbook. We have built a lot of tools and technology to establish this system in a scalable manner. We believe that as more employees and participants in the Manufactured Housing industry join in the process of working on the building blocks of core operational excellence, the ability to expand our reach and success in transforming the industry will exponentially increase directly enhancing our collective ability to overcome the challenges in the housing market.