Why are hats important?
The reason why an organization runs well is because of hats. Without properly hatted employees, we end up in a state of disarray and end up creating unnecessary work for ourselves; we might end up blending responsibilities that weren't clearly communicated. Hats eliminate this possibility as it serves as a record of your post's base functions.
In laymen terms, a hat is an outline of your responsibilities in your post. It details the product you produce, and is represented by a stat. Not coincidentally, all the above are represented in a fast start hat. Below is a sample!
Now that we know what a fast hat looks like and why they exist, let's get into the meat and potatoes that make it. Note that you should be pretty specific about what goes in each section- it's tailor made by you, for you.
The purpose: This is is the reason why the post exists. It's why you are here at E&H- more specifically, it's what you're here for to make the company functional and growing; for example, the Director of IT's purpose is to develop and maintain our software.
Viewpoint: This is the view that you should have to be successful in your post. Think about what makes you good at your job. In the example above, our IT director states items that are assets to him- he likes solving problems, therefore he is the guy we need in this post because that's what IT is all about.
Computer Skills Required: Every single one of us uses a computer for our jobs- our whole company is based on it! The programs that you are proficient in (and use daily) go in this section.
Skills Required: These are a set of skills you have that you use everyday, which help you. In our example, the Director of IT often has to solve problems on the fly, therefore his skills are that he learns quickly and can solve problems with little to no assistance from others.
Responsibilities of the Position: These are a set of items that you have cause over; the things that you are in charge of. Our Director of IT has a junior that he is in charge of, as well as putting in more KB articles and maintaining our software.
Weekly Actions: Stable datum for what you do each week, like attend weekly meetings.
Daily Actions: Stable datum for what you do each day, like put in your BP
Statistics: What are your stats that you report? Put 'em there.
Action Stats: This is the type of stat that you have complete control over. The Director of IT's action stat is Number of Knowledge Base articles written- he can write some or have others write them for him, but the point is that it's all up to him to get them in.
Valuable Final Product: This is basically what results from your hard work, what you bring to the table.
Glossary of Terms: What are some phrases and words your department or div uses frequently that might also not be common knowledge? That vocabulary would fit perfectly here.
Need a template to write your hat? Visit the Template Gallery in Google Docs; you'll find a blank template there, just erase the lines, name the title and the document your post title Fast Start Hat, and send it to the right folder in the Hats, Forms, Handouts and Routing Forms folder in the Drive and you're good to go!
Alternatively, you may have a fast start hat written for your post. This is good news since it'll save you the time of having to use a blank slate. However, there are several things you should remember to do when editing your fast start hat.
First things first; make a copy of your old hat and put it into its own folder. This prevents the Drive from getting even more cluttered.
Second, you may have items in the old hat that are not part of your normal functions any more, or you may have other additional items that you are responsible for that make sense to be in your post- either way. It's okay to erase the old items and add new items at will, because you made a copy of your old hat that can be referenced if need be. Edit your copied document and once again save it to the Hats, Forms, Handouts and Routing Forms folder in the Drive.
To iterate, the new copy or new hat should be the one to go into the Hats, Forms, Handouts and Routing Forms folder in the Drive. Your old hat copy (and any other duplicates of your hat that you might find) should go into its own folder labeled OLD followed by your title and Fast Start Hat- this is a folder that you will create and name yourself. Once again, place your old hat in the folder that you create.
If you are editing a hat that was created for you, you might see a signature on the bottom along with the date that it was created- if that is the case, you may leave these items alone and underneath, add a place for "Edited By: YOUR NAME AND POST TITLE and DATE: 00/00/0000".
If you created your own hat, at the bottom of the document add in a place that says "Created by: YOUR NAME AND POST TITLE and DATE: 00/00/0000".