Timeliness and Deliverables

Completing a Magnet application involves the following steps (with links to services I provide):

1. Secure senior leadership support. The application process requires human and financial resources to complete. Senior leaders must understand the value of the process and its benefits to the organization to commit these resources.
2. Form a Magnet team. The Overview and Forces ask about too many areas for one person or a small team to address. A Magnet Team with two or three people responsible the Overview and for each Force, led by a Magnet coordinator, makes the task manageable.
3. Plan the application process. Magnet Planner, a tool I developed to facilitate this process, helps define steps, deliverables, and deadlines to produce a complete application on time.
4. Identify the 4 Ps: Processes, Programs, Policies, and People. The way Magnet is organized means it asks about some key areas of organization multiple times and in different ways. Identifying these 4 Ps early in the application through my Magnet Launcher saves significant time later.
5. Collect documentation. Magnet Tracker, another tool I developed, helps the Magnet Team identify what types of information to collect, who to interview, the status of each Source of Evidence, and next steps for each.
6. Interview internal experts. Most Sources of Evidence ask for a process, description, or example. The best way to zero in on this information is by interviewing the internal experts most knowledgeable about what is being requested
7. Organize information. A 2,500-page application is an unwieldy mess unless you follow a formal plan for collecting, organizing, and reviewing information.
8. Write responses. Responses to each part of the Overview and each Source of Evidence include a narrative summary of the supporting documentation. The responses alone in a Magnet application can approach 400 pages.
9. Finalize responses with documentation. The narrative summary for a Source of Evidence refers to supporting documents in that Source and elsewhere in the application. Finalizing these responses involves final drafts of the narrative summaries and final determination of which supporting documents to include.
10. Organize and submit application. The pages in the final application must be numbered sequentially. Each document must have the proper designation, and each narrative summary must refer to the proper documents. This final step can take up to two months to complete.